Associate Professor · Indiana University Indianapolis
Building the infrastructure that makes community-engaged research visible, rigorous, and equitable.
I design systems that help universities and communities work, learn, and make meaning together — building interoperable tools, frameworks, and processes that move community-engaged research beyond individual projects toward sustained, networked capacity.
My work asks a central question: whose knowledge is being counted, and whose is being left out? That question runs through everything I build — from metrics frameworks that make community labor visible, to AI systems designed from community wisdom outward.
I am Associate Professor of Technology, Innovation, and Pedagogy in Urban Education at IU Indianapolis, Inaugural Faculty Fellow in Community Engaged Research through the Office of Research, and founder of CEnTRInnovations, LLC.
My research spans three interconnected moves: making structural problems visible, grounding work in community knowledge, and building infrastructure that scales.
School Corporation Opportunity Score
Standard accountability metrics identify failure. SCOscore identifies unrealized potential — foregrounding structural conditions, treating underrepresentation and economic disadvantage as assets warranting investment rather than deficits to remediate.
Community Studies of Antisemitism in Schools
Maps patterns of antisemitism across 577 U.S. communities and 1,369 incidents using ADL H.E.A.T. Map data and census sources. Constructs ten community typologies drawing on place-based statistics, political lean scores, and a sundown town legacy scale.
A Humanized and Humanizing Research Approach
Analysis of LLM-generated learning narratives reveals systematic racial and socioeconomic unmarking built into AI systems. Maps how lived community experience gets commodified into training data — and what disappears in that translation.
Infrastructure to Engage Pre-Admission Teacher Candidates
Working with the Indianapolis Near Eastside Neighborhood Caucus and Down Syndrome Indiana, this initiative positions family members as faculty — fundamentally reorienting who counts as an expert in educator preparation.
Exploring Community-Grounded AI Design
Used listening sessions and Insight Stones as the epistemological foundation for designing a generative AI system. Shows what it looks like to build AI from community wisdom outward, rather than scraping data and hoping communities appear in it.
Inclusive Measurement of Projects and Community Transformation
An equity-centered measurement framework that makes community-engaged work visible, evaluable, and valued within institutional systems. Redefines what counts as impact in community-engaged scholarship, complementing qualitative narrative while supporting more equitable P&T evaluation.
Community Assets and Research Discovery Ecosystem
A coordinated platform for mapping community assets through culturally responsive data entry (CEnTR*MAP) and identifying community-engaged research efforts in institutional text at scale (CEnTR*SEEK). Helps institutions and communities see and build on CEnR without losing context, relationships, or meaning.
I build tools that operationalize equity-centered frameworks — open, interoperable, and designed to be adopted and adapted.
My teaching integrates critical inquiry with hands-on practice — preparing educators to think carefully about technology, equity, and their roles as designers of learning environments.
Graduate · Online
Demystifies generative AI by peeling back the "black box." Students explore the historical genealogy of computing, the mechanics of language models, and the ethics of thinking machines — while building their own Educator Thought Partner using Python. No prior programming experience assumed.
Graduate · Online
Investigates innovations, emerging technologies, and technology's role in education reform. Students evaluate research, grapple with disinformation, analyze AI bias, and apply computational thinking to design interactive learning experiences.
Undergraduate · Online · Required of all Teacher Education students
Foundational course integrating reflective practice, computational thinking, and AI collaboration. Students build a professional identity, create a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure app, and design a full learning experience unit using backward design principles.
Price, J. F. (In Revision). A Fox Among Hedgehogs: Navigating Community-Engaged Integrative Scholarship in Promotion and Tenure Review. Journal of Community Engaged Scholarship.
Price, J. F. (2024). Rituals of an Unconference: The Emergence of Anti-Structure through the Liminality and Communitas of Community Engaged Scholars. ENGAGE! Co-Created Knowledge Serving the City.
Nguyen, H. K., Price, J. F., Alwan, D. (2021). The Influence of Christian Nationalism on U.S. Public Educators' Speech. Laws, 10(4), 91.
Price, J. F. & McNeill, K. L. (2013). Searching for a lived science curriculum in intersecting figured worlds. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(5), 501–529.
Price, J. F. (2026, March). Metrics That Matter: Quantitative Storytelling for Community Engagement. Campus Compact 26 Conference, Chicago IL.
Price, J. F. & Chakraborty, S. (2025, January). A Community-Inclusive AI Chatbot to Support Teachers in Developing Culturally Focused and Universally Designed STEM Activities. NSF ITEST Conference.
Price, J. F. (2024, September). Quality, Not Quantity: Metrics Made for Community Engaged Research. CUMU Webinar. [Most-attended webinar to date]
Price, J. F. & Grover, S. (2025). Generative AI in STEM Teaching: The Current State and Emerging Trajectories. AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Price, J. F. (2025). Threading the Needle: Promoting Cultural Sustainability in "Learning to Teach with Technology" Amid Turbulent Times. In K. Terrell & D. Silva Pimentel (Eds.), STEM Education and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies. IGI Global.
Santamaría Graff, C., Price, J. F., & Coomer, N. (2023). Technology as a Bridge to Co-Create Inclusive and Equitable Learning Environments for Students with Intersectional Identities. In Bakken & Obiakor (Eds.), Using Technology to Enhance Special Education. Emerald.
Price, J. F., Johnson, M., & Barnett, M. (2012). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the Science Classroom. In Hall, Rose, & Meyer (Eds.), Universal Design for Learning. Guilford.
Full curriculum vitae available upon request.
Request CVI welcome conversations about community-engaged research infrastructure, AI design ethics, educational equity, and potential collaborations.