Dr. Manuel S. González Canché is a member of IHEP’s Higher Education in Prison (HEP) Advisory Council, a select group of HEP practitioners, researchers, and advocates committed to developing a common set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess the quality and impact of postsecondary education in prison, promote robust standards of practice, and improve student outcomes.

Manuel currently holds an associate professor appointment in the Higher Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where he also serves as an affiliated faculty with the Quantitative Methods Division and the International Education Development Program. Additionally, Manuel is a senior researcher in the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy.

Growing up as a low-income student and being first-generation in college, Manuel is particularly interested in and committed to understanding structural factors that influence minority and at-risk students’ likelihood of educational and occupational success. He aspires to identify plans of action capable of closing social and economic gaps resulting from students’ reduced access to financial, academic, and social resources. The types of questions he asks seek to find more nuanced understanding of the effect of students’ choices with respect to their location and their college sector of initial attendance on access, persistence, and success in higher education.

Manuel is thankful for having secured funding for research from agencies and foundations such as the Spencer Foundation, the National Academy of Education, the American Education Research Association/National Science Foundation, and the Institute of Education Sciences. Moreover, his research has been featured in journals such as the American Education Research Journal, Economics of Education Review, The Journal of Higher Education, The review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Language Policy.