Amaury Nora received his bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin, his Master of Science in Biology from Texas A&I University, Kingsville (now Texas A&M, Kingsville), and his Doctorate of Education in Higher Education from the University of Houston.
He is Professor of Higher Education, Co-Director of the Center for Research and Policy in Education, and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is also Editor of The Review of Higher Education, the journal for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).
His research has focused on theoretical perspectives related to student persistence, the role of college on diverse student populations across different types of institutions, and the development of retention models that integrate economic theories and psychosocial perspectives within college persistence frameworks. The extent of his inquiries has contributed to traditional as well as nontraditional lines of research on college student persistence. Nora has served on the editorial boards of Research in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, and The Journal of College Student Retention: Research and Theory.
Nora was inducted into the Class of 2009 as an AERA Fellow for his scholarship in the field of higher education. He is currently a member of a Technical Review Panel for the U.S. Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) focused on the national Educational Longitudinal Study, 2000 – 20112. He has also served as consultant to the American Council of Education, National Advisory Board member for the evaluation of GEAR UP, reviewer for the National Research Council in Washington, DC. and evaluator for two major projects, the National Center for Urban Partnerships (NCUP) and the Houston Annenberg Challenge project. He has served as Content Expert on Higher Education, ERIC Steering Committee, Department of Education, 2004-2006; as a panel member on the National Research Council of the National Academies, Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships Program, 2005, 2006; a consultant on outcomes assessment for the Title V Project, Houston Community College System, 2004-2009; as consultant for the NPEC Project on Student Success funded by the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 2003; advisor to the Task Force on Student Enrollment at California State University-Long Beach, June 2002; advisor on standardized testing and minority college admissions and data analysis, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New York, February-April, 2000; and has provided testimonial on factors affecting the retention of minority students before a panel for the Southern Education Foundation, State Capital, Austin, Texas, February, 1994.