For the second year in a row, Associate Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies, Dr. Jamal Watson has been named among the Top 200 Most Influential Scholars in Educational Policy and Practice in the 2026 Edu-Scholar Public Influence rankings.

The rankings are released annually by Dr. Rick Hess, a noted scholar, director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of Education Week’s Rick Hess Straight Up.

Scholars are ranked based on calculations across eight categories: Google Scholar score, book points, most recent Amazon book ranking, education press mentions, web mentions, newspaper mentions, syllabus points, and congressional record mentions.

“I am delighted to be in the company of so many scholars whose work I deeply respect and admire,” said Watson, who recently published The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency. “My scholarly work centers on making higher education accessible to marginalized communities. At a time when we are witnessing vicious attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and assaults on immigration, we have to remain focus on the goal of ensuring that higher education remains accessible to all.”

Read more of our coverage of Dr. Watson’s book and his leadership on the student debt crisis, here.

Dr. Watson is a Professor of Strategic Communication and Public Relations, and a journalist. In August, Dr. Watson contributed an enlightening op-ed to the student news publication, Trinity Times, arguing that the student debt crisis is a civil rights issue requiring comprehensive reform to ensure accessible education without crushing debt.

Trinity’s undergraduate degree program in Journalism & Media Studies, and the graduate degree program in Strategic Communications and Public Relations both benefit from Dr. Watson’s stellar leadership. Dr. Watson was instrumental in the resurrection of the Trinity Times, as well as in Trinity’s acquiring the two Davis Foundation grants totaling over $1 million dollars that enabled the establishment and expansion of the new Trinity Newsroom, and media studio.