Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon, JD, PhD is an associate professor of education policy and politics at the University of San Francisco’s School of Education. She serves as the Faculty Director of the Center for Humanizing Education and Research (C-HER) and the Co-Director of the Transformative School Leadership program. Her research focuses on educational law and policy as a site of political, economic, and cultural contestation and explores the ways that education law and policy further or impede efforts to create a more just society. Her passion and commitment to public education stem from her work as an educator, organizer, lawyer, and mother. Her research engages critical policy methodologies including social network analysis, qualitative comparative case studies, and policy discourse analysis. Funders of her research include the Spencer Foundation, the California Endowment, the San Francisco Foundation, and the State of California. Her research has been published in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, the American Journal of Education, and the International Journal of Educational Research. Her new book is a collective volume titled Crafting Homeplace in the Academic Borderlands: Humanizing Education, Research, and Relationships (Teachers College Press). She holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law, and an EdM from Harvard University.
