Ricky Blissett is the Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Both within and outside of their role at UMBC, their research primarily focuses on attitudes and ideologies in the politics of educational equity and justice, as well as the spaces in which public ideologies translate into policy action. Their expertise includes educational politics and governance, ideological politics of race- and gender-conscious policy, and program evaluation and research methodology. Further, they are a dialogue facilitator with training in conflict mediation and multiple models of dialogue. They are the principal investigator of the Democracy and Equity in Education Politics research group, an affiliated faculty member for the Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab, program co-chair for the Policy and Politics division (L) of the American Educational Research Association, and principal coordinator for the Just Education Policy institute. In their role at UMBC, they are responsible for the development, facilitation, and evaluation of programs and initiatives aimed at fostering civic agency and skills that are essential to the advancement of a thriving democracy.

Ricky holds a Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies (with a minor in Quantitative Methods) from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (with a minor in Computer Science) from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.