Corey Bunje Bower

Assistant Professor of Leadership and Policy

Email:

cbower@niagara.edu

Phone:

716.286.8555

Office Location:

Academic Complex, Room 325A

Office Hours:

Contact for Appointment

Bio

Corey Bunje Bower is assistant professor of leadership & policy at Niagara University. He came to Niagara in the fall of 2012. His research and teaching interests center around urban poverty and education, with a particular interest in the ability of social policy to effect change in these areas.

He came to Niagara largely due to the school’s commitment to serving the poor and the oppressed. He was raised in a house with a similar ethos; his father is a pastor and teacher and his mother is a social worker. He’s excited to work with the school on various projects confronting problems with poverty and urban redevelopment in the region.

He grew up in Detroit and Pittsburgh and then attended Drew University in New Jersey, where he majored in political science and economics and spent countless hours with the swim team and student government.  He still swims semi-regularly and competes in triathlons. After college, he joined the NYC Teaching Fellows and taught sixth Grade and coached debate at a middle school in the Bronx. After his second year, he had the pleasure of teaching sixth grade math in the Summer on the Hill program designed to catch-up low-income students through both academic classes and various enrichment opportunities throughout the summer and on weekends during the school year. He then left teaching to pursue a Ph.D. in leadership & policy studies at Vanderbilt University.

His dissertation evaluates and synthesizes the existing evidence linking social factors and environmental conditions disproportionately experienced by those living in poverty with academic performance, with the goal of tying together disparate strands of research and beginning to answer whether and how social policy can significantly narrow the achievement gap. Other research examines education policy (including teacher attrition, school discipline, and school climate), housing policy (particularly public housing redeveloped under the HOPE VI program), and Promise Neighborhoods (coordinated services designed to improve the health and well-being of children, improve schools, and reduce poverty). He writes about current events and research on his blog, Thoughts on Education Policy.