With a commitment to education and research, Ph.D. candidate Lindsay Lanteri ’27 (Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology) has been selected by the National Academy of Education as a 2025 Spencer Dissertation Fellow.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected as a 2025 NAEd Spencer Fellow and am grateful for the support the fellowship will provide towards my research, which examines how public housing redevelopment affects local school composition and quality,” Lanteri said.
The fellowship offers financial support and opportunities for professional growth to scholars working on projects that focus on issues in the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education. From a pool of over 400 applicants, Lanteri was one of the 35 awardees chosen and awarded $27,500 to further her research.
Her advisor, Professor and Gabelli Family Faculty Fellow, Rebekah Levine Coley, shared that “Lindsay’s dissertation seeks to be the first to rigorously evaluate–using a nationally representative sample–the effects of federal public housing and community redevelopment policies on educational opportunity and success in local public schools.”
Coley noted that Lanteri's research question holds significant equity implications, specifically for children living in public housing, who are among the most disadvantaged in the nation. Her work will evaluate two major policies: HOPE VI and CNI, both of which aim to increase opportunities for public housing residents through significant investment of federal dollars into public housing communities. There has been no prior U.S. research to evaluate the influence of these policies and funding on local schools.
Professor and Gabelli Family Faculty Fellow, Rebekah Levine Coley
“Using innovative quasi-experimental methods, Lindsay’s dissertation will provide unique new knowledge that will help to inform future housing and community redevelopment initiatives and efforts to improve local educational services in such communities,” Coley explained.
With a passion for urban education policy, Lanteri entered Boston College with nearly a decade of work experience as an educator, educational leader, and educational policy researcher within an urban school district. “She has a rich and practitioner-informed understanding of the challenges in providing educational opportunities in underserved communities, which form the basis for her research agenda,” Coley said.
Coley wasn’t the only Boston College advisor who worked with Lanteri. Lanteri also credits the school’s larger community of mentors, both at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development and the School of Social Work, for their support throughout the development of her grant proposal.
“The connections that I have built with faculty across these two schools have truly made my doctoral experience all the more meaningful,” Lanteri said.
One member of the faculty, School of Social Work Associate Professor Samantha Teixeira, MSW, played a pivotal role as committee member and mentor for Lanteri. Teixeira spoke to Lanteri’s success, “This prestigious award is a testament to the excellent work that Lindsay is doing. Lindsay is a talented mixed-methods scholar with a deep commitment to education. She is committed to conducting rigorous research that has the ability to not only build knowledge but also to inform policy and practice. Her dissertation truly reflects that commitment.”
Not only does Lanteri’s achievement signify a personal success, it symbolizes hope for public housing communities, illustrating the transformative impact that every Boston College scholar can achieve through their research.