Frierson, Henry T.

(b. 1944, Weir, Kansas). Ph.D. Educational Psychology, Michigan State University; M.Ed. Educational Psychology, B.S. Psychology, Wayne State University.

Frierson is Director of the Research Education Support Program and Professor of Educational Psychology, Measurement and Evaluation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been at the University of North Carolina since 1974 and has served as the Associate Dean of the Graduate School and a Professor in the School of Medicine, where he founded and directed the Learning and Assessment Laboratory. Since 1996, he has directed the Research Education Support Program, which is largely supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

His recognition of the mentoring needs of minority graduate students has focused his attention on increasing the number of individuals of color in doctoral programs and research and evaluation careers. His work has supported the development of culturally responsive approaches in evaluation. David Fetterman and Ernest House, writers he admires for their deep understanding of the value of evaluation for program improvement, especially when participants are involved, have influenced Frierson.

Frierson has been a member of the American Evaluation Association's Task Force on Diversity in Evaluation and American Educational Research Association's Commission on Research in Black Education. He has been recognized for his contributions to higher education and received the 1993 Award for Excellence in Research and Education from the Research Focus on Black Education Special Interest Group of the American Education Research Association and the Fifteenth Anniversary National Association for Minority Educators Tribute Award in 1990.