Yingyi Ma, professor and director of graduate studies in the Sociology Department, has been named an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for the academic year 2023-24.

Ma is one of 36 fellows selected this year.

The ACE Fellows Program is a customized mentorship and learning experience that enables participants to immerse themselves in the study and practice of leadership. The program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations, and placement at another higher education institution to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year.  

Fellows observe and work with the president and other senior officers at their host institutions, attend decision-making meetings and focus on issues of interest. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institutions and seek to implement their findings upon completion of the fellowship placement.  

Ma is director of Asian/Asian American Studies, and is a senior research associate for the Center for Policy Research and an advisory board member for the East Asia Program. Her research addresses education and migration in the U.S. and China. She has published an award-winning monograph “Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education” (Columbia University Press, 2020) and numerous journal articles, book chapters and essays. She was selected as Public Intellectual Fellow by the National Committee of U.S.-China Relations in 2019.

Ma received a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 2007.