Robert D. Reason

Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, School of Education, Iowa State University

PhD, Iowa State University
Associate Director of Research and Administration

Contact

rreason@iastate.edu

Robert D. Reason is a professor of higher education and student affairs in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Prior to Iowa State, he was an associate professor and a senior scientist at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State University. He earned a BA from Grinnell College, a master’s degree from Minnesota State University Mankato, and a PhD from Iowa State University. Reason is currently an associate editor of the Journal of College Student Development and an ACPA Senior Scholar. His publications include Developing Social Justice Allies (2005, with Ellen Broido, Nancy Evans, and Tracy Davis) and College Students in the United States: Characteristics, Experiences, and Outcomes (2012, with Kristen Renn).

Reason studies how college and university policies, the campus climate, and students’ experiences in college interact to influence student outcomes. Much of his research has focused on student learning outcomes during the first year of college, during two multi-institutional studies while at Penn State. Recently, Reason has been working with the Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE) at Iowa State to administer the Personal and Social Responsibility Inventory and the Global Perspective Inventory.

Reason serves as a co-principal investigator on the Pullias Center for Higher Education’s Promoting At-Promise Student Success (PASS) Project, formerly known as the Thompson Scholars Learning Communities (TSLC) Study.