Molly Ott

Molly Ott is an associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.  Her research, teaching, and service focus on higher and postsecondary education. She is a faculty affiliate with  the Center for Organization Research and Design, located in ASU's School of Public Affairs, and ASU's Global Sports Institute. From Fall 2012 to Spring 2019, she coordinated ASU's higher and postsecondary education master's degree.  Under her leadership, ASU's program went from being unranked to recognized among the top 20 in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.

Dr. Ott earned her doctorate in higher education from the University of Michigan and also holds a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University as well as a bachelor’s of business administration degree from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining ASU, Dr. Ott was a lecturer in the higher education program at the University of Miami, and earlier in her career, she worked in residential life at Alverno College and DePauw University. 

At ASU, she primarily teaches applied social science research methods courses. Her own research considers organizational issues in higher education, especially how colleges and universities can create conditions that support faculty/staff experiences in the workplace and their career success.  For the past several years, Dr. Ott has collaborated with colleagues in Ethiopia to identify and study ways that higher education can transform local communities and society post-conflict. She also led ASU's role in a large USAID Ethiopia-funded project, partnering with Ethiopia's public universities and TVETs on a variety of system, organization, and individual level initiatives aimed at improving graduates' employability.  As recognition for her work, Dr. Ott was named honorary professor at Wollo University's Institute of Teachers Education and Behavioral Sciences in 2023.

Among other outlets, her scholarship has been published in Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and the Journal of Higher Education. She is an associate editor for Educational Policy Analysis and Archives and on the editorial board of the Journal of Education Human Resources.