Lori Chajet
College Access: Research & Action (CARA)
Co-Director
Lori Chajet, PhD, Co-Director co-founded CARA in 2011 with the goal of creating an organization that addressed the challenges first-generation college students, low-income students, and students of color faced in college access and persistence. As Co-Director, in addition to managing CARA’s organizational development, Lori oversees CARA’s College Allies, Right to College, and College Inquiry programs. Lori began her education career at Brown University and got a Masters in Teaching at Columbia’s Teachers College. She spent 6 years teaching at East Side Community High School, after which she completed a doctorate in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing her research on the college experiences of small school graduates. Lori continued to work with new small schools as a staff developer and began to combine her understanding of school change and college access to create programs to better meet the needs of first-generation college students. Prior to co-founding CARA, Lori was Acting Director of The Institute of Urban Education at Eugene Lang College/The New School and Co-Director for the Institute for Student Achievement’s College Inquiry and College Knowledge projects. Lori has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College and Eugene Lang College.
