Diane Hirshberg is Professor of Education Policy at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). She also serves as Advisor to the UAA Chancellor on Arctic Research and Education. Her research interests include education policy analysis, indigenous education, circumpolar education issues, and school change. She has studied the boarding school experiences of Alaska Native students, teacher supply, demand and turnover, including the cost of teacher turnover in Alaska, as well as school finance issues. She has served or is currently evaluator for a number of federally funded education reform initiatives in Alaska and beyond, and currently is the North America lead for the Arctic Youth-Sustainable Futures project, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Dr. Hirshberg sits on both the International Arctic Social Sciences Association Council and the steering committee for the NSF-Funded Arctic FROST RCN. She also is a member of the “visionary group” for the Advancing Native Dialogues on Racial Equity project with the First Alaskans Institute. She teaches in the UAA Honors College and the College of Education. She has a PhD in Education from UCLA, a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley.