Joyce L. Epstein, Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University, is Co-Director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships and Professor of Education in the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. In 1995, she established the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), which conducts research and provides professional development for school, district, organization, organization and state leaders to develop research-based programs of family and community engagement. She has over one hundred fifty publications including School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, 4th Edition (2019) and a textbook for college courses, School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools, 3rd Edition (2023).
In 1991, Dr. Epstein and the late Don Davies founded the International Network (INET) of Scholars on School, Family, and Community Partnerships. Every other year, INET meets at the time of AERA for researchers from many countries to share their studies of all aspects of family and community engagement.

Epstein was elected a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2009 and received the Elizabeth Cohen Distinguished Career in Applied Sociology of Education Award (2009) from AERA’s Sociology of Education Special Interest Group.

In all of her work she is interested in the connections of research, policy, and practice.

Keywords: Family; education policy; homework; K-12 education; inequality; child development; academic performance; absenteeism; school, family, and community Partnerships; family and community engagement; district leadership on partnerships; school-based partnership programs; teacher education on family and community engagement.