Search People Result | Academic Influence

Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines

Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.

Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.

We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.

To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).

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List of the most influential female people in Education,

#1

Nel Noddings

#656

Overall Influence

1929 - 2022 (93 years)

Nel Noddings was an American feminist, educator, and philosopher best known for her work in philosophy of education, educational theory, and ethics of care. Biography Noddings received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physical science from Montclair State University in New Jersey, a master's degree in mathematics from Rutgers University, and a PhD in education from the Stanford University Graduate School of Education.

#2

Lilian Katz

#11838

Overall Influence

1932 - Present (92 years)

Lilian Gonshaw Katz is a professor emerita of early childhood education at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where she is also principal investigator for the Illinois Early Learning Project, and a contributor to the Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative. She founded two journals: Early Childhood Research Quarterly for which she served as editor-in-chief during its first six years, and Early Childhood Research & Practice the first on-line peer-reviewed early-childhood journal for which she remains editor-in-chief. Her scholarly work focused on the developmental stages of a...

#3

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai

#778

Overall Influence

1997 - Present (27 years)

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, the second Pakistani and the first Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize. Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."

#4

Deborah Meier

#7460

Overall Influence

1931 - Present (93 years)

Deborah Meier is an American educator often considered the founder of the modern small schools movement. After spending several years as a kindergarten teacher in Chicago, Philadelphia and then New York City, in 1974, Meier became the founder and director of the alternative Central Park East school, which embraced progressive ideals in the tradition of John Dewey in an effort to provide better education for children in East Harlem, within the New York City public school system.

#5

Diane Ravitch

#5449

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Diane Silvers Ravitch is a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, she was a U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. In 2010, she became "an activist on behalf of public schools". Her blog at DianeRavitch.net has received more than 36 million page views since she began blogging in 2012. Ravitch writes for the New York Review of Books.

#6

Gloria Ladson-Billings

#8198

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Gloria Jean Ladson-Billings is an American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator known for her work in the fields of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory, and the pernicious effects of systemic racism and economic inequality on educational opportunities. Her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children is a significant text in the field of education. Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita and formerly the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison...

#7

Robin DiAngelo

#7113

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Robin Jeanne DiAngelo is an American author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University and is currently an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington. She is known for her work pertaining to "white fragility", an expression she coined in 2011 and explored further in a 2018 book entitled White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.

#8

Marlene Scardamalia

#15032

Overall Influence

1944 - Present (80 years)

Marlene Scardamalia is an education researcher, professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Contributions She is considered one of the pioneers in computer-supported collaborative learning. Other areas of research where Scardamalia made contributions are:Cognitive developmentEducational uses of computersIntentional learningThe nature of expertisePsychology of writingResearch-based innovation in learning and knowledge workKnowledge innovation.Since the 1980s she supervised the design, development and research of Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments .

#9

Sylvia Schmelkes

Sylvia Schmelkes

#18683

Overall Influence

1948 - Present (76 years)

Sylvia Schmelkes is a Mexican sociologist and education researcher, and current director of the Mexican National Institute of Educational Evaluation. She is best known for her work in intercultural education, and her book 'Toward better quality of our schools'. Schmelkes has also written over 100 academic texts and essays. She is a former General Coordinator of Intercultural and Bilingual Education at the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico, and is currently heading the Research Institute for the Development of Education at the Iberoamerican University.

#10

Regina Peruggi

#9563

Overall Influence

1947 - Present (77 years)

Regina Peruggi was born in 1947, and is a renowned educator, fundraiser, and activist. Peruggi is originally from The Bronx and earned a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the College of New Rochelle. She then obtained a Master of Business Administration from New York University and a Doctor of Education from Columbia University. Peruggi has been responsible for growth and expansion at several universities including (where she was able to double enrollment in 11 years) and Kingsborough Community College (which was named one of the top four community colleges in the US during her tenure). Per...

#11

Linda Darling-Hammond

#13706

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Linda Darling-Hammond is an American academic who is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She was also the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute. She is author or editor of more than 25 books and more than 500 articles on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for United States Secretary of Education in the Obama administration.

#12

Lisa Delpit

#15975

Overall Influence

Lisa D. Delpit is an American educationalist, researcher, and author. She is the former executive director and Eminent Scholar at the Center for Urban Educational Excellence at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State University, and the first Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for her research on school-community relations and cross-cultural communication.

#13

Michelle Rhee

#8696

Overall Influence

1969 - Present (55 years)

Michelle Ann Rhee is an American educator and advocate for education reform. She was Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools from 2007 to 2010. In late 2010, she founded StudentsFirst, a non-profit organization that works on education reform.

#14

Linda Harasim

#16750

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Linda Marie Harasim, is a "leading teacher, scholar and speaker on the theories and practices of online education, contributing knowledge, technologies, and practices to the field of technology-enabled learning," is a pioneer leading theorist of online education. She is a professor emerita in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her six books and hundreds of articles about Computer-supported collaborative learning have been acknowledged as seminal works in the field.

#15

Cecilia Braslavsky

#26713

Overall Influence

1952 - 2005 (53 years)

Cecilia Braslavsky was an Argentine educator, pedagogue, and author. She served as Director-General of Educational Research in the Argentine Ministry of Education and Director of UNESCO's International Bureau of Education.

#16

Jane Fernandes

#11094

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Jane Fernandes is a Deaf American educator and social justice advocate. As of August 2021, Fernandes is the President of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She previously served as president of Guilford College from 2014 to 2021.

#17

Patty Hearst

#928

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Patricia Campbell Hearst is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.

#18

K. Patricia Cross

#15008

Overall Influence

1926 - Present (98 years)

Kathryn Patricia Cross was an American scholar of educational research. Throughout her career, she explored adult education and higher learning, discussing methodology and pedagogy in terms of remediation and advancement in the university system.

#19

Gita Steiner-Khamsi

#26709

Overall Influence

1956 - Present (68 years)

Gita Steiner-Khamsi is a Professor of Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Harriman Institute, Columbia University in New York.

#20

Mildred García

#15015

Overall Influence

Mildred García is the Chancellor of the California State University system. She is also current president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. Early life García was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is a first-generation college student.

#21

Ruth Simmons

#4059

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Ruth Simmons is an American professor and academic administrator. Simmons served as the eighth president of Prairie View A&M University, a HBCU, from 2017 until 2023. From 2001 to 2012, she served as the 18th president of Brown University, where she was the first African American president of an Ivy League institution. Before Brown University, she headed Smith College, one of the Seven Sisters and the largest women's college in the United States, beginning in 1995.

#22

Arfa Sayeda Zehra

#4436

Overall Influence

Arfa Sayeda Zehra is a Pakistani expert. She is current serving as the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for Education and National Harmony Affairs. She studied first at Lahore College for Women University, then Government College University, with further degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Zehra is a professor emeritus of history at Forman Christian College and is a former principal of the Lahore College for Women University. She was a chairperson on the National Commission on the Status of Women. Zehra is a former caretaker provincial minister of Punjab. She is recognized fo...

#23

Beverly Daniel Tatum

#9969

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Beverly Christine Daniel Tatum is an American psychologist, administrator, and educator who has conducted research and written books on the topic of racism. Focusing specifically on race in education, racial identity development in teenagers, and assimilation of black families and youth in white neighborhoods. Tatum uses works from her students, personal experience, and psychology learning. Tatum served from 2002 to 2015 as the ninth president of Spelman College, the oldest historically black women's college in the United States.

#24

Rheta DeVries

#38800

Overall Influence

1936 - 2012 (76 years)

Rheta Goolsby DeVries was a professor at University of Northern Iowa's Regent's Center For Early Developmental Education, where she also served as director. She co-wrote many books along with Constance Kamii, concerning early childhood education curriculum that both influenced the field of early childhood mathematical instruction and accelerated the proliferation of constructivist-based teaching in the classroom.

#25

Sharan Merriam

#42490

Overall Influence

1943 - Present (81 years)

Sharan B. Merriam is professor of adult education at the University of Georgia. Her focus has been researching and writing about adult learning and the foundations of adult education. She has won the Cyril O. Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education for three of her books. In 1998 she was a senior Fulbright scholar to Malaysia.

#26

Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck

#42081

Overall Influence

1972 - Present (52 years)

Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck is an American educational professional. Vandyck earned her Ph.D. from Cardinal Stritch University in 2019 with a dissertation on uncommon black names in the classroom. Early life and name Marijuana Pepsi Jackson was born in 1972 to Aaron and Maggie Jackson, who chose her name. She lived in Chicago, Illinois until she was nine years old; then she moved to Beloit, Wisconsin to live with her mother after her parents separated. She has two sisters, Kimberly and Robin. She first realized her name was unusual at age nine.

#27

Annemarie von Gabain

#25233

Overall Influence

1901 - 1993 (92 years)

Annemarie von Gabain was a German scholar who dealt with Turkic studies, both as a linguist and as an art historian. Early life and education Gabain was born in Morhange on 7 April 1901. Her father, Arthur von Gabain, was a general and from Protestant family, Hugenotte. However, her mother raised her as a Catholic. Gabain received primary and secondary education in Mainz and Brandenburg. She went to Berlin for university education. She took courses on mathematics, sciences, Sinology and Turcology. She completed a dissertation in Sinology. Von Gabain then studied Turcology with Johann Wilhelm Bang Kaup who was the founder of the Berlin school of Turkic studies.

#28

Lily Eskelsen García

Lily Eskelsen García

#32321

Overall Influence

1955 - Present (69 years)

Lily Eskelsen García is an American teacher and labor union leader. She served as president of the National Education Association from 2014 to 2020. Early life and education Lily Eskelsen García was born Lilia Laura Pace on May 1, 1955, in Fort Hood, Texas. Her father was in the United States Army. Her mother is from Panama.

#29

Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Linda Tuhiwai Smith

#17362

Overall Influence

1950 - Present (74 years)

Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith , previously a professor of indigenous education at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, is now Distinguished Professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Smith's academic contribution is about decolonising knowledge and systems. The Royal Society Te Apārangi describes Smith’s influence on education as creating "intellectual spaces for students and researchers to embrace their identities and transcend dominant narratives".

#30

Linda Nochlin

#3360

Overall Influence

1931 - 2017 (86 years)

Linda Nochlin was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art historian, she became well known for her pioneering 1971 article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" published by ARTnews.

#31

Mara Sapon-Shevin

#38250

Overall Influence

1951 - Present (73 years)

Mara Sapon-Shevin is a professor of inclusive education at Syracuse University. She is a critic of gifted education and turned down an offer of a place for her daughter in a gifted education program on the grounds that "I would never have wanted to raise a child who thought that she was better or smarter than other people". She is also an advocate against bullying, especially bullying against perceived or actual members of the LGBT community.

#32

Eva Moskowitz

#21656

Overall Influence

1964 - Present (60 years)

Eva Sarah Moskowitz is an American politician and education reform leader, who is the founder and CEO of the Success Academy Charter Schools. A member of the Democratic Party, Moskowitz served on the New York City Council, representing the 4th district on the Upper East Side, from 1999 to 2005. Moskowitz interviewed to be Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, but decided not to pursue the position.

#33

Deborah Britzman

#16314

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Deborah P. Britzman is a professor and a practicing psychoanalyst at York University. Britzman's research connects psychoanalysis with contemporary pedagogy, teacher education, social inequality, problems of intolerance and historical crisis.

#34

Katherine Rowe

#22006

Overall Influence

1963 - Present (61 years)

Katherine Anandi Rowe is an American scholar of Renaissance literature and media history. She was named the twenty-eighth president of the College of William & Mary on February 20, 2018. She began her service on July 2, 2018 succeeding W. Taylor Reveley III, who had served as president since 2008. After seven months in office, Rowe was formally inaugurated February 8, 2019 as part of the university's annual Charter Day ceremony.

#35

Madeleine Atkins

#31177

Overall Influence

1952 - Present (72 years)

Dame Madeleine Julia Atkins, is a British academic administrator, scholar of education, and former teacher. Since 2018, she has served as the 9th President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She was formerly vice-chancellor of Coventry University, and the Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England .

#36

Shearer West

#17208

Overall Influence

1960 - Present (64 years)

Shearer Carroll West is a British-American art-historian, academic and university administrator. West is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham since October 2017 and formerly deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield.

#37

Jean Anyon

#32516

Overall Influence

1941 - 2013 (72 years)

Jean Anyon , was an American critical thinker and researcher in education, a professor in the Doctoral Program in Urban Education at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and a civil rights and social activist.

#38

Deborah Loewenberg Ball

#19878

Overall Influence

1954 - Present (70 years)

Deborah Loewenberg Ball is an educational researcher noted for her work in mathematics instruction and the mathematical preparation of teachers. From 2017 to 2018 she served as president of the American Educational Research Association. She served as dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2016, and she currently works as William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of education. Ball directs TeachingWorks, a major project at the University of Michigan to redesign the way that teachers are prepared for practice, and to build materials and tools that will serve the field of teacher education broadly.

#39

Jean Houston

#3955

Overall Influence

1937 - Present (87 years)

Jean Houston is an American author involved in the human potential movement. Along with her husband, Robert Masters, she co-founded the Foundation for Mind Research. Biography Early life and education Houston was born in New York City to Mary Todaro Houston who was of Sicilian descent, and Jack Houston who was related to Sam Houston of Texas. Her father was a comedy writer who developed material for stage, television and the movies, including for comedians Bob Hope and George Burns. His work required him, and the family, to move frequently. After the breakup of her parents' marriage, she spe...

#40

Madeleine Grumet

#52870

Overall Influence

1940 - Present (84 years)

Madeleine R. Grumet is an American academic in curriculum theory and feminist theory. Her 1988 work Bitter Milk: Women and Teaching explored women and teaching. She edits a book series on feminist theory and education for the State University of New York Press, and a series on the Politics of Identity and Education for Teachers College Press.

#41

Deborah Bial

#32679

Overall Influence

1965 - Present (59 years)

Deborah Bial is an education strategist, the founder and president of the Posse Foundation and a trustee of Brandeis University. Bial is known for the concept of her foundation, which is to send groups of around ten students to collaborating colleges so that they can support each other and achieve a greater success rate. She is also known for the Bial–Dale College Adaptability Index, an activity-based test of college readiness that incorporates Lego play.

#42

Antonia Pantoja

Antonia Pantoja

#20806

Overall Influence

1922 - 2002 (80 years)

Antonia Pantoja , was a Puerto Rican educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and the founder of ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College and Producir. In 1996, she was the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the American Presidential Medal of Freedom.

#43

Griselda Pollock

Griselda Pollock

#776

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

#44

Barbara Sizemore

#54682

Overall Influence

1927 - 2004 (77 years)

Barbara Sizemore was an American teacher and researcher in the field of education. In 1973, she became the first African American woman to head the public school system in a major city, when she was elected superintendent of District of Columbia Public Schools.

#45

Tara J. Yosso

#36672

Overall Influence

Tara J. Yosso is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Yosso's research and teaching apply the frameworks of critical race theory and critical media literacy to examine educational access and opportunity. Yosso is specifically interested in understanding the ways Communities of Color have historically utilized an array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities, and networks to breakthrough the structures racial discrimination built in pursuit of educational equality. She has authored numerous collaborative and interdisciplinary chapters and...

#46

Allyson Jule

#39081

Overall Influence

Allyson Mary Julé is a Canadian academic and Professor of Education at the University of the Fraser Valley, in British Columbia, Canada. She has lectured worldwide in her field, and written and edited many academic publications on feminist linguistics and pedagogy.

#47

Meena Alexander

Meena Alexander

#12303

Overall Influence

1951 - 2018 (67 years)

Meena Alexander was an Indian American poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander later lived and worked in New York City, where she was a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

#48

Nancy Armstrong

#15092

Overall Influence

1938 - Present (86 years)

Nancy Armstrong is a scholar, critic and professor of English at Duke University. Overview Before moving to Duke, Armstrong was the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Comparative Literature, English, Modern Culture & Media, and Gender Studies at Brown University. She is currently the Gilbert, Louis & Edward Lehrman Professor of English at Duke. She is interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and American fiction, empire and sexuality, narrative and critical theory, visual culture, and scientific discourses at work in literary forms. She is best known for her groundbreaking book o...

#49

Sally Clausen

#41517

Overall Influence

1945 - Present (79 years)

Sally Clausen is executive director of the Ingram Center for Public Trusteeship and Governance, an affiliate of the American Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. She earlier, in 2010, retired as Louisiana's commissioner of public higher education, a post she had held for one year relinquishing the presidency of the University of Louisiana System. Previously she served as the first female president of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.

#50

Gilly Salmon

#45283

Overall Influence

1949 - Present (75 years)

Gilly Salmon has been a digital learning innovator for more than 30 years. She is the founder and C.E.O of Education Alchemists Ltd - a company formed around her life's work including Carpe Diem learning design methodology, pedagogical transformation, online teaching, technology enhanced learning, the 5 stage model and e-tivities.

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