Professor Preston Green III was formally appointed yesterday as the John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education at UConn’s Neag School of Education. A renowned expert in education law who joined the Neag School’s Department of Educational Leadership in 2013, Green also holdsa joint appointment in UConn’s School of Law.

In addition to disseminating his work via many high-caliber scholarly journals and five published books, Green has his research cited regularly in national publications that include The Washington Post, Business Insider, The Atlantic, and American Prospect. He also is consistently interviewed by and quoted in a broad range of prominent media outlets, among them The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chalkbeat, and the Boston Globe, while also writing and co-writing original pieces for such outlets as The Conversation and The Century Foundation. Green, whose expertise centers on the areas in which education and law intersect, publishes and presents on the topics of charter schools, educational policy, and school choice. A 2017 paper he co-authored titled “Are Charter Schools the Second Coming of Enron?” has led Green to become one of the go-to experts in the nation on the oversight of charter schools.

At UConn, Green helped develop the UConn Administrator Preparation Program in Law, which enables participants to obtain a law degree and school administrator certification at the same time. He also developed UConn’s School Law Online Graduate Certificate, an online program that helps educators, administrators, and policymakers understand the legal dimension of K-12 education. 

“Dr. Green serves as a leading, highly sought-after expert and speaker, a prolific and pioneering researcher, and an innovative faculty scholar.”

— Neag School Dean Gladis Kersaint

“Thanks to the support of our benefactors, the Neag School is very pleased to bestow this honor to Dr. Green for his exceptional ongoing work,” says Dean Gladis Kersaint. “Dr. Green serves as a leading, highly sought-after expert and speaker, a prolific and pioneering researcher, and an innovative faculty scholar.”

Prior to his arrival at UConn, Green was the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair Professor of Educational Administration at Penn State, where he was also a professor of education and law as well as the program coordinator of Penn State’s educational leadership program. There, similar to his endeavors at UConn, he created Penn State’s joint degree in law and education. He also ran a professional development program on educational law known as the Law and Education Institute at Penn State. From 1995 to 2003, he served in various roles at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Green earned his J.D. and Ed.D. from Columbia University and completed his BA in government at the University of Virginia.

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