Education Policy · Education Leadership · LGBTQ+ Well-being

Benjamin A. Lebovitz (they/he)

Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin–Madison
National Academy of Education / Spencer Dissertation Fellow

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About

Benjamin Lebovitz, M.Ed., NBCT, is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and an Institute of Education Sciences predoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Ben's scholarship examines how educational leadership, politics, and organizational practices shape opportunities, belonging, and well-being for LGBTQ+ and other marginalized youth. Their dissertation, Contesting Erasure, uses erasure as an analytical framework to investigate how youth, caregivers, and adults disrupt trans and LGBTQ+ student exclusion in Wisconsin.

Their work appears in Educational Administration Quarterly, JAMA Pediatrics, Educational Policy, the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Ben has co-authored statewide reports on school board policies, trans student well-being, and inclusive physical activity policies, along with an interactive resource of Wisconsin school district policy protections.

Ben's research has been recognized with a 2026 National Academy of Education / Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, the Kaplan Dissertation Fellowship in LGBTQ+ Studies (Gender and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2025), selection as a David L. Clark National Graduate Research Seminar Scholar (UCEA and AERA, 2025), and an Emerging Scholar at the William L. Boyd National Educational Politics Workshop (AERA, 2024).

Before graduate school, Ben taught choir and drama in southern Arizona, where they advised a Gender and Sexuality Alliance, earned National Board Certification, and were named a semifinalist for Arizona's 2019 Teacher of the Year.

Ben and four colleagues smiling on the front steps of the UW–Madison School of Education building — Ben Lebovitz (right), with their advisor, Dr. Mollie McQuillan (center) and peers, Dr. Erin K. Gill (postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, center-right), Courtney Parker West (Ph.D. student, center-left) and Will M. H. French (Ph.D. student, left) on the front steps of the UW–Madison School of Education building.

Ben (center-left), holding a sign that says promote empathy, alongside 2019 Arizona Teacher of the Year finalists on the field at the 2019 Arizona Fiesta Bowl — Ben (center-left), holding a sign that says "promote empathy"", alongside 2019 Arizona Teacher of the Year finalists on the field at the 2019 Arizona Fiesta Bowl.

Highlights

Dissertation

Contesting Erasure

How youth, caregivers, and adults disrupt trans and LGBTQ+ student exclusion in Wisconsin. Supported by a 2026 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship.

Read Ben's NAEd profile →

Recent Publication

Educational Administration Quarterly

Policy ambiguity, procedural erasure, and discretionary discrimination: Why courageous, gender-inclusive educational leadership is imperative during authoritarian drift. (McQuillan, Lebovitz, Mayo, & Adelman, 2026).

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Public Scholarship

QueerED

A biweekly newsletter connecting research to practice for LGBTQ+-inclusive schools and communities.

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Research Interests

K–12 education policies, programs, and practices · LGBTQ+ student well-being · educational leadership · sensemaking · politics of education · quantitative and mixed methods · research-to-practice partnerships