Mauriell H. Amechi, Ph.D.

Social Scientist, Policy Expert, and Assistant Dean in Durham, NC

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Dr. Mauriell Amechi is a higher education strategist, policy analyst, professor, and advocate committed to advancing educational equity for students navigating systemic barriers. With over a decade of progressive leadership across academic affairs, policy research, and student success initiatives, he brings a collaborative, data-informed approach to solving complex organizational challenges.

Dr. Amechi's scholarship on educational equity, college access, retention, and Community Cultural Wealth informs his leadership practice. His research asks a foundational question: How do institutions move beyond access to ensure students truly thrive? This inquiry has guided his work across multiple contexts—from redesigning advising systems and living-learning communities to shaping federal education policy and producing cutting-edge research.

In 2025, Dr. Amechi joined Duke University as Assistant Dean for Inclusive Excellence, where he provides strategic leadership for initiatives that strengthen student engagement, advance equity, and foster inclusive organizational cultures. His work demonstrates a consistent pattern: identifying systemic gaps, building coalitions across stakeholder groups, and deploying evidence-based interventions that produce measurable outcomes. As Assistant Dean at Duke, he increased student engagement by 80%, redesigning broken systems. Similarly, at the University of Minnesota, he led a living-learning community serving college men of color that achieved 100% first-year retention and the highest GPA in program history.

Beyond campus leadership, Dr. Amechi has influenced education policy at scale. His national policy report on COVID-19's impact on foster youth informed federal legislation extending critical supports to nearly 900,000 young adults. As a Senior Policy Analyst at New America, he led applied research projects that shaped state and federal education policy and a collective impact initiative across six community colleges. His work has appeared in outlets including Inside Higher Education, Higher Ed Dive, Imprint News, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, with one piece recognized as one of the top op-eds of 2023.

In 2020, Dr. Amechi founded Foster Youth Empowered, an organization that aims to close persistent inequities in high school and college completion for underserved adolescents impacted by foster care systems by providing leadership development and independent living skills workshops.

A first-generation college graduate from Chicago's west side and proud alumnus of Chicago Public Schools, Dr. Amechi brings both personal insight and professional rigor to challenges facing underserved students. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. with high honors from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, sports, cycling, nature walks, and the performing arts.

  • Work
    • Duke University
  • Education
    • University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
    • Ohio State University
    • University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Testimonials
It was a sincere pleasure working with Dr. Amechi as a contributor to Third Way’s ACADEMIX Upshot policy brief series in June 2020. Dr. Amechi’s report on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on postsecondary students aging out of the foster care system offers tremendous insight for state and federal legislators, and his research and advocacy on behalf of this critical yet often overlooked student population have far-reaching implications for meaningful policy reform.
Michelle Domino, Education Senior Policy Advisor, Third Way
I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Amechi who was the keynote of the California State University Monterey Bay Guardian Scholars - Foster Care Awareness event in May 2019. This was the first time the Guardian Scholars Program hosted a scholar to bring awareness about the obstacles and resilience of foster youth navigating higher education. His research and passion advocating for foster youth in higher education left an imprint on the Guardian Scholars Program and the greater CSUMB community.
Keyiona Ritchey, Guardian Scholars Advisor, Cal State Univ, Monterey Bay
Thank you for planning and hosting this workshop. It was evident that you incorporated our previously discussed goals into your thoughtful planning. I feel that the content was appropriate and relevant to the primary goal of the workshop, which was to prepare our mentors to work with a cohort of interns from diverse backgrounds – most notably, students coming to Duke from an HBCU. I appreciated the use of a variety of media to convey.
Jessica Straehle, Program Coordinator, Duke University
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