Betty Merchant, PhD

Henrietta Frances Zezula Lowak Endowed Distinguished Professorship in COEHD

Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Betty Merchant served as the first chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at UT San Antonio, and was dean of the College of Education and Human Development for 12 years. She is currently a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.  

Merchant is the first recipient of the Henrietta Zezula Lowak Endowed Distinguished Professorship.

"This endowment has allowed me to further my research, nationally and internationally, regarding: 1) the responses of teachers and administrators to the needs of refugee students, and the resources they need to be successful, and 2) the ways in which administrators and teachers maintain instruction in times of crisis — most recently, the Coronavirus pandemic," she shared.

Prior to joining UT San Antonio, she was an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Merchant has taught at all grade levels, K-12 in a broad range of cultural and linguistic contexts, including tribally controlled Native American schools. 

Merchant received her PhD in Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University.