Dr. Earl J. Edwards is a scholar, educator, and community-engaged researcher whose research examines how structural racism shapes the educational and housing experiences of youth and families experiencing homelessness. His scholarship advances equity-driven policy reforms and strengthens institutional responses to better support historically marginalized populations.

Dr. Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, where he directs the Housing, Education and Equity Lab. His research is published in Urban Education, Children and Youth Services Review, Journal of Children and Poverty, and Leadership and Policy in Schools. He is also a co-author of All Students Must Thrive, a widely used practitioner text focused on educational equity and trauma-informed practice.

A signature contribution of his scholarship is the article “Young, Black, Successful, and Homeless: Examining the Unique Academic Challenges of Black Students Who Experienced Homelessness” (Journal of Children and Poverty, 2020). Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews, the article analyzes how Black high school students who graduated while experiencing homelessness navigated racially hostile school environments that impeded access to federal supports guaranteed under the McKinney–Vento Act. The study demonstrates that racialized school climates—manifested through inequitable discipline, low expectations, strained student–teacher relationships, and fears of child protective services—function as hidden barriers to identification and support. The findings call for race-conscious policy interventions to address the structural inequities embedded in homelessness legislation and educational systems.

Dr. Edwards has led large-scale qualitative research and the development of racial equity strategies for public agencies across the country. In Los Angeles County, he conducted more than 200 interviews, focus groups, and community town halls to help inform a major reallocation of homelessness funding to better support Black residents. His work was cited by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness as a model for equity-centered, community-based research and has shaped similar efforts in Ohio, San Diego, and San Francisco.

He serves on several national research and policy bodies, including the Homeless Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern California, the National Racial Equity Working Group on Homelessness and Housing, the Anti-Racist Research and Data Team to End Homelessness, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness Research Advisory Board. He has also contributed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress and has helped shape emerging federal research priorities related to racial equity in homelessness.

Dr. Edwards is a board member of Higher Ground Boston, a Roxbury-based nonprofit founded by Hubie Jones to address health and education inequities in Boston’s Black neighborhoods, and he serves on the board of Brilliant Corners, an innovative supportive housing nonprofit serving California’s most vulnerable populations.

He holds a Ph.D. in Urban Schooling from UCLA, an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Boston College.