Rong Chen is an Assistant Professor of Education Leadership, Management and Policy at the Seton Hall University, and teaches courses in quantitative methods, research design, and policy analysis. She received her Ph. D. in higher education from the University of Michigan in 2007. Her research focuses on student financial aid, college student dropout behavior, and socioeconomic and racial equity in higher education opportunities. Her recent work on these issues has been published in Research in Higher Education. Chen is the recipient of an American Educational Research Association Dissertation Grant and an Association for Institutional Research Dissertation fellowship in 2005.

Corinna A. Ethington is Professor of Educational Research and program coordinator for Educational Research at the University of Memphis, where she teaches statistics and research methods. Her research interests include college students and the broad domain of gender differences at all educational levels, with a decided focus on performance, persistence, and achievement in mathematics and scientific fields. She serves the University of Memphis as chair of the Committee for the Protection of Research Subjects.