Mollie McQuillan

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis

Email: mmcquillan@wisc.edu

Address:
270C Education Building
1000 Bascom Mall
Madison, Wisconsin 53706

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Curriculum Vitae

Mollie McQuillan is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Dr. McQuillan is also a faculty affiliate of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Educational Sciences, Center for Demography and Ecology, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research’s Collaborative Center for Health Equity, and Institute for Diversity Science. Their research examines the intersection of educational policy, leadership, school climates, and health of LGBTQ+ and other gender-expansive people in PK-12 schools. Prior to Dr. McQuillan’s graduate studies at Northwestern, Mollie spent 12 years working with adolescents, including seven as a public school teacher. During that time, they witnessed how schools operate from the inside as a high school teacher, varsity athletic coach, teacher leader, and mentor. These experiences profoundly shaped their research outlook and its emphasis on the multiple ways health, educational environments, and policy overlap, particularly for marginalized populations.

CDE Research Area Affiliations:

Health & Biodemography; Inequality, Poverty, Wealth, & Mobility; Gender & Reproductive Health

Selected Publications:

McQuillan, Mollie T., Benjamin A. Lebovitz, and LaShanda Harbin. “The disruptive power of policy erasure: How state legislators and school boards fail to take up trans-affirming policies while leaning into anti-lgbtq+ policies.Educational Policy 38, no. 3 (2024): 642-699

McQuillan, Mollie T., Lee Iskander, Mario I. Suárez, and Harper B. Keenan. ““Establishing Policy Is Just Step One of Twenty”: How Educational Policy Protections, District Practices, and Leadership Matter to Trans PK–12 School Workers.” Teachers College Record (2024): 01614681241271574.

McQuillan, Mollie, and Cris Mayo. “School Leaders and Transphobia: Direct, Facilitative, Accommodative, and Resistant Forms of Gender-Based Bias and Bullying.” Educational Administration Quarterly 60, no. 1 (2024): 37-73.