Cecilia Marie Orphan

Associate Professor

Faculty
Morgridge College of Education

Katherine A. Ruffatto Hall, 1999 East Evans Avenue Denver, CO 80208-1700

What I do

I am interested in understanding how higher education contributes to a healthy, functioning democracy and advances racial and social equity.

Specialization(s)

Public Policy and Finance, Organizational Governance and Academic Administration, Regional Public Universities, Rural Serving Postsecondary Institutions, Civic Engagement, Neoliberal Theory and the Privatization of Higher Education

Professional Biography

Cecilia Orphan, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Higher Education at the University of Denver and Director of Partnerships for the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. Dr. Orphan’s research has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the Ascendium Education Group, and the Joyce Foundation. She has been quoted by CBS, The Chronicle for Higher Education, InsideHigherEd, Open Campus, and Newsy, among other media outlets. From 2006-2011, she directed the American Democracy Project, a national civic engagement initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Dr. Orphan's research agenda is informed by her experiences as a working class, first-generation college student who received maximum Pell grants to attend college. She is personally familiar with the transformative nature of access institutions having attended Linn Benton Community College and Portland State University, a regional public university in Oregon. Simply put, attending these institutions changed the trajectory of her life and she believes in the power of access institutions to promote racial and economic justice and democracy. Dr. Orphan holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Portland State University.

Degree(s)

Certificate, Hybrid 3D Workshop, University of Denver, 2016
Ph.D., Higher Education , University of Pennsylvania, 2015
BA, Political Science, Portland State University, 2006

Professional Affiliations

American Educational Research Association
Association for the Study of Higher Education

Media Sources

Research

Dr. Orphan's research agenda broadly interrogates the following question: What are higher education's purposes in a democratic society? Dr. Orphan’s research is comprised of two strands that examine this question: 1) the societal purposes, equity contributions, institutional functioning, governance, and administrative strategies of regional public (comprehensive) universities and rural serving postsecondary institutions; and 2) how policy discourses and agendas for higher education shape the system's equity and public purposes.

Areas of Research

Public Policy and Finance

Organizational Governance and Academic Administration

Regional Public Universities

Rural Serving Postsecondary Institutions

Civic Engagement

Neoliberal Theory and the Privatization of Higher Education

Key Projects

Ending Data Invisibility: Identifying and Defining Regional Public Universities
Federal Support for Broadly Accessible Rural-Serving Institutions in Response to COVID-19
What It Means To Be A Rural-Serving Postsecondary Institution

Featured Publications

Orphan, C. M., Laderman, S., & Gildersleeve, R. E. (2021). Advocates or honest information brokers? Examining the higher education public policy agenda setting processes of intermediary organizations. The Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 325-355. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/785239

Orphan, C. M., & McClure, K. R. (2022). An expanded vision of the value of postsecondary education: Regional public universities as broadly accessible anchor institutions. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 54(6), 26-32. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2128013

Supplee, L., & Orphan, C. M. (2023). The "people's universities" over time: Tracing the histories and evolutions of regional comprehensive universities as anchor institutions between 1970 - 2000. The Review of Higher Education, 46(4), 517-546.

Orphan, C. M., Gildersleeve, R. E., & Mills, A. P. (2020). State of rhetoric: Neoliberal discourses for education in state of the state addresses and gubernatorial press releases. Journal of Education Policy, 35(3), 394-420. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2018.1509376

Orphan, C. M., & Broom, S. (2021). Life at the "people's universities": Organizational identification and commitment among regional comprehensive university faculty members in the USA. Higher Education, 82, 181-201. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00629-9

Crisp, G., McClure, K. R., & Orphan, C. M. (Eds.). (2021). Unlocking opportunity through broadly accessible institutions. New York: Routledge.

Gasman, M., Spencer, D., & Orphan, C. M. (2015). "Building bridges, not fences": A history of civic engagement at private Black colleges and universities. Higher Education Quarterly.

Orphan, C. M. (2020). Not all regional public universities strive for prestige: Examining and strengthening mission-centeredness within a vital sector. New Directions for Higher Education, 2020(190), 9-24. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20364

Orphan, C. M., & Miller, G. N. S. (2020). The company regional comprehensive universities desire to keep: Choosing institutional membership associations. Journal of Higher Education, 91(2), 300-325. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2019.1631073

Orphan, C. M., Wetherbee, M., & Duncan, B. C. (2022). Identifying, defining, and supporting regional public universities and colleges. Boone, NC: Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges . Retrieved from https://assets.website-files.com/5fd3cd8b31d72c5133b17425/639f1833beb26a26ffafbc8a_IADRPUs%20Full%20Report.pdf

Presentations

Orphan, C. M. (2022). Digital Equity Assets in Postsecondary Education. Action Lab on Leveling the Academic Playing Field: The Role of Postsecondary Education in Digital Equity Planning for States. Washington, DC: AAC&U, National Governors Association, Education Strategy Group.

Kiyama, J. M., & Orphan, C. M. (2020). Advancing an Equity Agenda with Coalition Building. Provost Conference: Summit on Shared Governance. Denver, CO: University of Denver.

Orphan, C. M., McClure, K., Fryar, A. H., & Koricich, A. (2021). Association for the Study of Higher Education. Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Meeting. San Juan Puerto Rico: Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Orphan, C. M. (2019). Rural Students and College Choice. ASHE Annual Conference. Portland, Oregon: Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Awards

Helen C. Bailey Alumni Award, University of Pennsylvania
Graduate Career Faculty Champion, Career & Professional Development