Meet Caroline Thouin
It’s an honor to be TACC’s inaugural Policy Fellow, and I’m beyond excited to learn and work alongside this team. I believe my education and professional experiences have set a foundation from which I can learn and contribute to this position.
As a child of immigrants and a first-generation college student, I comprehend the importance of education first-hand. My parents taught me that education is a human right that no one should take away. After receiving my B.A. in Psychology from the University of Houston, I taught AP Human Geography and World Geography to 9th-grade students at a Title 1 school. During that time, I received my M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M University with a focus on teaching English as a second language. Throughout the four years I spent as a high school teacher, I was continuously reminded of the inequities that students face not only in K-12, but also as they transition to postsecondary education.
My interest in solving large-scale issues for students led me to pursue a doctorate in Higher Education Leadership in Policy Studies at the University of Houston. As a Ph.D. candidate, my research focuses on educational opportunities for incarcerated students and those with incarceration histories. Specifically, I have written and conducted research projects on federal and state policies that impact access to education for incarcerated students, assessment and evaluations of correctional education programs, and the pivotal role that community colleges play in offering correctional education.
In my "free" time, I work on my dissertation, aiming to graduate May 2021. Most importantly, I'm the mother of my three-month-old daughter, Lina. If time, weather, and energy permit, I remember my youth by playing soccer and other outdoor activities.