Melissa Wooten received her doctorate in Management and Organizations from the University of Michigan in 2006. Her research lies at the theoretical intersections of organizations, social movements, and education. In her dissertation she utilized institutional theory to investigate the processes leading to homogenization among historically black colleges, private Northeastern liberal art colleges, and public universities located in the American south and social movement theory to investigate the emergence of the United Negro College Fund. She is currently studying compensatory programs as a means to investigate the contexts in which black students acquire cognitive and cultural skills.