Adai A. Tefera

Adai A. Tefera (she/her) is an associate professor of special education at the University of Arizona. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines how educational policies aimed at improving equity among students at the intersections of race, disability, language, and other social categories are enacted, interrupted, and resisted by students, families, educators, and leaders. Her recent work explores how historical, sociocultural, and spatial contexts mediate how educators and leaders respond to and understand citations for racial disproportionality in the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities.

Adai received her master’s degree in public policy and doctorate in urban schooling from UCLA. Before becoming a faculty member she worked on Capitol Hill as an education fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus.