Wendy Erisman, Ph.D., owner of Strix Research LLC, focuses her consulting work on expanding postsecondary access and succcess for underserved students. Dr. Erisman works with foundations, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and postsecondary institutions to help them better understand student needs and to develop and evaluate programs aimed at increasing educational attainment.

In more than two decades spent working in the postecondary access and success arena, Dr. Erisman has held positions both as a university faculty member and as a higher education policy researcher and evaluator. She has training and experience in research and evaluation design, strong skills in qualitative research methods, and a solid grounding in the literature on postsecondary access and success for low-income, first-generation, BIPOC, and adult students. Her clients have included the U.S. Dept. of Education, Southern Regional Education Board, Woodward Hines Education Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Communities in Schools of Central Texas, and the HOPE Chicago promise scholarship program.

Dr. Erisman formerly worked as senior research specialist with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board where she conducted research on the assessment of student learning in the context of state higher education accountability systems. Prior to taking that position, she served as director of research and evaluation at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in Washington, DC. At IHEP, she managed several national evaluation projects, including evaluating the College Goal Sunday financial aid assistance program, and led a number of research studies on topics such as college access and success for specific populations of underserved students, state higher education policy, and corporate investment in college access and success.

Dr. Erisman received her doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, her master's degree in sociology from Yale University, and her bachelor's degree in sociology from Rice University.