About
Since 1949, all editorial decisions and responsibilities for the Harvard Educational Review have been shared by an Editorial Board composed entirely of doctoral students at Harvard University. Now in its 94th year of editorial production, HER continues this distinctive tradition of student-led scholarly publishing.
Selection and Composition
Editorial Board members are selected through a competitive application process based on rigorous criteria including knowledge of educational literature and methodology, critical thinking and analytical abilities, collaborative skills, and commitment to scholarly publishing and educational justice. The Board seeks comprehensive expertise across a wide range of education areas while maintaining diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.
Two-Year Leadership Development
Editors serve terms of two years with a structured learning progression. During their first year, board members develop editorial expertise through blind peer review, manuscript evaluation, author communication, book review selection, copyediting, and issue development. Their second year focuses on journal administration, resource allocation, annual publishing planning, and representing HER at conferences and events within Harvard University and the broader education research community.
Collaborative Decision-Making
The Editorial Board operates through collaborative decision-making processes, with groups of 10-14 doctoral students working together on matters of policy and manuscript evaluation. This collaborative approach ensures thorough, multi-perspective review while fostering the next generation of education scholars.
Faculty Guidance and Professional Support
The Editorial Board is advised by Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty members who provide guidance and mentorship throughout the editorial process. Board members are also assisted by professional staff who are part of Harvard Education Publishing Group, providing the infrastructure support necessary for high-quality academic publishing.
The 2025-2026 Harvard Educational Review Editorial Board
Hannah Castner
Content Editor, 2025-2026
Editor, 2024-2026
Email: [email protected]
Hannah Castner is a third year PhD student in the Sociology Department at Harvard University. She studies how politics and culture shape and reproduce inequality, particularly within education systems. She is interested in how parents, teachers, politicians, and administrators lay claim to education curricula and systems and the consequences of these assertions. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Hannah taught English to middle and high school students in France. Hannah holds a BA in sociology and data science from Mount Holyoke College.
Alexandra Chang
Editor 2025-2027
Alex Chang is a PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests sit at the intersection of philosophy and teacher education. She has previously written on the concept of teacher autonomy and moral agency, and is currently exploring questions related to the ethics of teacher mentorship. Alex also works extensively with efforts to bring philosophy to K-12 settings, most recently through organizing the New England Middle School Ethics Bowl. Before coming to Harvard, Alex taught middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies for six years, first in the Boston Public Schools and then in a range of educational settings in Michigan. She holds an M.Ed. from the Boston Teacher Residency and a BA in philosophy from Carleton College.
Moisés Gabriel Contreras
Co-Chair, 2025-2026
Editor, 2024-2026
Email: [email protected]
Moisés Gabriel Contreras is a fourth-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is broadly interested in the promise and potential of liberatory and humanizing education occurring within community-based educational spaces. He is currently focusing on the spatial knowledges and practices of Latinx younger people, namely the ways they make sense of their neighborhoods and cities. Moisés’s work is informed by diverse youth work experiences both locally and transnationally, having been an English teaching assistant with the Fulbright Program in Italy and a tutor and mentor in a predominantly-Latine Chicago public high school with the AmeriCorps program, City Year. Moisés holds an MA in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in Psychology and Italian, with a minor in Latina/Latino Studies, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Luci Duffy
Editor, 2025-2027
Luci Duffy is a second year Education PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at Harvard University. Her research explores special education organizing and legal efforts in the 20th century United States. She also holds an MPP and BA from Brandeis University.
Justin Hauver
Editor, 2025-2027
Justin Hauver is an educator and a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Justin spent a decade teaching history in Louisiana and California while serving in a variety of leadership roles, including instructional coach and curriculum developer. Currently, he studies the ways that teaching and learning shape who we are and how we become free. He has conducted qualitative research alongside students and educators in Colombia, middle schoolers in Boston, and preservice teachers in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Justin earned a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Fellowship and holds a BA in philosophy and German from UC Berkeley as well as an M.Ed. from HGSE.
Melina Melgoza
Co-Chair, 2025-2026
Editor, 2024-2026
Email: [email protected]
Melina Melgoza is an educator and fourth-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a scholar-practitioner whose research focuses on the place-based dimensions of youth and educator resistance and organizing in Los Ángeles, California. Melina’s work is shaped by her background as a Social Studies and Ethnic Studies educator in central Los Ángeles, as well as her participation in collective resistance efforts with teachers, youth, and community members, including the 2019 Los Angeles teachers’ strike. She holds a B.A. in History and Chicana/o Studies and an M.Ed. from UCLA, as well as an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Brein Y. Mosely
Content Editor, 2025-2026
Editor, 2024-2026
Email: [email protected]
Brein Y. Mosely is a fourth-year PhD student in the Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is interested in the intersection of race, power, and wellness. The main question that drives her research agenda is how can Black people flourish despite racial capitalistic constraints? From her own lived experience, she believes wellness to be a crucial key. Brein holds a BS and MS in Statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Natasha L. Patterson
Editor, 2025-2026
Natasha L. Patterson is a second year doctoral student in the Ed.L.D. program at Harvard University, where her research focuses on black girlhood studies and the intersection of race, gender, and leadership. She is a scholar-practitioner and brings extensive experience as a former school district leader, principal, and teacher. Natasha holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication from Florida State University, a Master of Arts in mass communication with a graduate certificate in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida, and an Ed.M. in School Leadership from Harvard University.
Jacob Wolf
Editor, 2025-2027
Jacob Wolf is a third-year PhD student in the Human Development, Learning, and Teaching concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jacob uses ethnographic methods to examine how computing education, across both formal and informal learning environments, influences how people make sense of themselves and the world around them. In addition to critical theoretical traditions in anthropology and the social study of science, Jacob’s work is informed by his experiences as a high school computer science teacher and curriculum developer. Jacob holds an AM from Harvard University and a BS in Symbolic Systems with Honors in Education from Stanford University.
Hwa Pyung Yoo
Editor, 2025-2027
Hwa Pyung Yoo is a third year PhD student in the CIS program with a secondary field in Anthropology. Their research explores the aesthetic pedagogies cultivated in underground spaces in South Korea, including tattoo artists and the queer ballroom community. Hwa holds an MA in International Development from Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs and a BS in Neuroscience from Villanova University.