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Department
Special Education
Office Location
415A MRL
Mailing Address
Peabody #228
230 Appleton Place
Nashville, TN 37203-5721
Direct Phone
615-322-4460
Fax Number
615-343-1570
Email Address
Donna Ford
Professor of Special Education
Ph.D., Cleveland State University, 1991
Research Area
Gifted with emphasis on minority children and youth; recruitment and retention of diverse students in gifted education; underachievement among diverse students; equity issues in testing and assessment; multicultural education; issues in urban education.
Short Biography
Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D., is Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt in the Special Education department. Donna has been a Professor of Special Education at the Ohio State University, an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Virginia, and a researcher with the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She also taught at the University of Kentucky.
Donna earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Urban Education (educational psychology) (1991), Masters of Education degree (counseling) (1988), and Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and Spanish (1984) from Cleveland State University.
Professor Ford conducts research primarily in gifted education and multicultural/urban education. Specifically, her work focuses on: (1) recruiting and retaining culturally diverse students in gifted education; (2) multicultural and urban education; (3) minority student achievement and underachievement; and (4) family involvement. She consults with school districts and educational organizations in the areas of gifted education and multicultural/urban education.
Dr. Ford's work has been recognized by various professional organizations: Research Award from the Shannon Center for Advanced Studies; the Early Career Award and the Career Award from The American Educational Research Association; both the Early Scholar Award (1994) and the Distinguished Scholar Award (2008) from The National Association for Gifted Children; and the Esteemed Scholarship Award from The National Association of Black Psychologists. She is the author of Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students (1996) and co-author of Multicultural Gifted Education (1999), In search of the dream: Designing schools and classrooms that work for high potential students from diverse cultural backgrounds (2004), and Teaching culturally diverse gifted students. Several other books are in progress. Donna has written over 100 articles and book chapters; she has made more than 500 presentations at professional conferences and school districts.
Dr. Ford, is co-founder of the Scholar Identity Institute for Black Males with Dr. Gilman Whiting. Donna has served two terms as board member of the National Association for Gifted Children, and has served on numerous editorial boards, such as Gifted Child Quarterly, Exceptional Children, Journal of Negro Education, and Roeper Review. She also reviews for several journals in such disciplines as urban education, child development, and counseling and development. Professional development includes membership in professional organizations, including the National Association for Gifted Children, Council for Exceptional Children, American Educational Research Association, Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students, Association of Teacher Educators, American Counseling Association, and others.
Learn More about Donna Ford:
Courses Taught | Selected Publications
Awards | CV | Media Mentions
Media Mentions
'Acting Black' hinders gifted black student achievement
Gifted black students often underachieve in school because of efforts to “act black."
Donna Ford on Closing the Achievement Gap - Video
Interview with Donna Ford, Ph.D., recipient of the National Association of Gifted Children 2008 Distinguished Scholar award
Respect is key to school safety
Donna Ford featured on the subject of reducing violence in urban schools.
Facing the challenges of growing up gifted
Donna Ford, professor of special education and Betts Chair of Education and Human Development, is interviewed about her research on gifted African American children.
No Child Left Behind: Who's accountable?
A look at No Child Left Behind through the Peabody lens
The Vanderbilt Achievement Gap Project
Initiative aims to expand efforts to close the academic achievement disparities between black and white students
Institute strives to keep promising black students on track
The two-week Summer Scholar Identity Institute, developed by Donna Ford, Betts Chair of Education and Human Development and a professor of special education, and Gilman Whiting, assistant professor of African American and diaspora studies and human and organizational development, strives to close the achievement gap between young black males and other students.
Black male teens attend Scholar Institute
Drs. Donna Ford and Gilman Whiting featured
Spanning the Achievement Gap
Two Vanderbilt faculty members have created the Vanderbilt University Achievement Gap Project to ameliorate the academic problems of minority students in the nation's K-12 schools.