Dr. Gabriel R. Serna joined the Higher Education program at Virginia Tech in 2015. Dr. Serna has nearly 15 years of experience in higher education including as director of programming at New Mexico State University, assistant director of admissions at the University of Kentucky, associate instructor at Indiana University Bloomington, and most recently as assistant professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership program at the University of Northern Colorado. Dr. Serna’s research interests lie in the areas of higher education economics, finance, and policy.  He is particularly interested in the economic relationships between the states and their public institutions, student price-response, college and university fiscal administration, undocumented student populations, and enrollment management. Some of his published work can be seen in the Journal of Education Finance, the Journal of Higher Education Management, the Planning for Higher Education Journal, The Handbook of Strategic Enrollment Management, and The Encyclopedia of Education Economics & Finance. Additionally, Dr. Serna’s research was nationally recognized by the Journal of Education Finance and the National Education Finance Academy with the “Outstanding Article of the Year” award in 2014. His work and teaching also include preparing students in the use of quasi-experimental research design, assessment and evaluation, and applied econometrics. Dr. Serna currently serves or has served on the Board of Advisors of the National Education Finance Academy, and the Association for Institutional Research’s Forum Advisory Board. In addition, he serves on the Editorial Boards of the ASHE Report Series, Research in Higher Education, and the Journal of College & Character.

 Dr. Serna holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy from Indiana University Bloomington (2012); a Master of Public Policy from the Martin School of Public Policy & Administration at the University of Kentucky (2008); and a BBA in Economics as well as a BA in German from New Mexico State University (2006)