Erin McHenry-Sorber, PhD
Associate Professor
Professional Highlights
- 2023 Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Applied Human Sciences, West Virginia University
- 2022 National Rural Education Achievement Award. Award presented for meritorious service to the National Rural Education Association.
- 2022 National Rural Education Association Best Research Paper Award. Best research paper submission to the annual National Rural Education Association research symposium. “National Rural Education Association Research Agenda – 2022-2027: A Closer Look at the Research Priorities.”
- 2019 Howard A. Dawson Best Research Paper Award, National Rural Education Association Best research paper submission to the annual National Rural Education Association research symposium. “Protecting ourselves from ‘people from away?’ Taking stock of a decade of rural education research since Coladarci’s Swan Song
- 2019 Mary Catharine Buswell Award, Council for Women’s Concerns, West Virginia University
- 2019 Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Education and Human Services, West Virginia University
- Editor, The Rural Educator
Degrees
- Ph.D., Educational Leadership, The Pennsylvania State University
- M.Ed., Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, Harvard University
- B.S.Ed., Secondary Education, English, Bucknell University
Awards
- Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Applied Human Sciences, 2023, 2019
- Finalist, WVU Distinction in Graduate Research Mentoring Award, Behavioral and Social Sciences Category, 2022
- National Rural Education Achievement Award, 2022
- National Rural Education Association Best Research Paper Award, 2022, 2019
- Mary Catharine Buswell Award, Council for Women’s Concerns, 2019
Areas of Expertise
- Rural education
- Education policy and politics
- Educational leadership
Research Interests
- Rural schools and communities
- Rural educational leadership
- Equity issues
Committees and Memberships
- Editor, The Rural Educator
- Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Research in Rural Education
- Member, National Rural Education Association Higher Education/Research Committee
Biographical Sketch
Erin McHenry-Sorber, PhD, PI, is an associate professor of higher education administration in the School of Education at West Virginia University. Her research centers on rural school-community relations and rural educational leadership, with particular attention to place. Dr. McHenry-Sorber has been a member of the National Rural Education Association (NREA) Research/Higher Education Committee since 2008, co-authored the 2022-2027 NREA Research Agenda, and serves as co-editor of The Rural Educator, which is the official journal of NREA. Her research has been published in Review of Research in Higher Education, Rural Sociology, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Education Policy Analysis Archives, among other journals.