Bio

DeLeon Gray is a Washington, DC native who has been at NC State since 2012. He previously served as a Scholar-in-Residence in Michigan State University’s College of Education, and has worked at the Association for Psychological Science, the American Institutes for Research, and the National Institutes of Health. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) (B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies) and The Ohio State University (M.A., Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement; Ph.D., Educational Psychology). He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (initiated Fall 2003), and enjoys bowling, karaoke, being a master of Connect 4, and having a winning fantasy football team.

Selected Scholarly Publications

Gray, D. L., Harris-Thomas, B., Ali, J., Cummings, T. N., McElveen, T. L., & Jones, T. R. (2024). Urban middle schoolers’ opportunities to belong predict their patterns of engagement across the school day. Urban Education, 59 (9) 2583-2618. https://doi.org/10.1177/004208592211176
López, F., Gray, D., Boveda, M., Oviedo, D., Ram, N., & López, L. (2024). Centering student voice to inform teacher practice and research: Validation of an asset-based identities measure. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/07342829231216778
Gray, D. L., Lee, A. A., Harris-Thomas, B., Ali, J. N., & Allah, K. J. (2023). Communally engaged educational psychology: A philosophy of engagement. Educational Psychologist, 58(4), 261-277. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00461520.2023.2250860
Gray, D. L., Ali, J., McElveen, T., & Sealy, M. (2022). The cultural significance of “we-ness”: Motivationally influential practices rooted in a scholarly agenda on Black education. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1985-2013, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09708-y
Allen, K. A., Gray, D. L., Baumeister, R., Leary, M. (2022). The need to belong: A deep dive into the origins, implications, and future of a foundational construct. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1133–1156. https://doi.org/115610.1007/s10648-021-09633-6

Courses Taught

School Belonging
Community-Engaged Approaches to Educational Research
Applied Quantitative Methods in Education (Part I)
Applied Quantitative Methods in Education (Part II)

Area(s) of Expertise

DeLeon Gray aims to support educators, parents, leaders, and mentors in unpacking the concept of motivation, and works jointly with youth to address aspects of schooling environments that leave students vulnerable to anxieties about belonging. His program of research has been recognized by receipt of prestigious honors including a 2018 Best Article Award for his collaborative publication in Educational Psychologist entitled, “Black and Belonging at School: A Case for Interpersonal, Instructional, and Institutional Opportunity Structures.” In 2015, he was featured in Black Enterprise Magazine as one of 100 men of color who are “living up to a standard of excellence and using their talents and influence in their respective industries to shift the perception of men of color to create and encourage a positive narrative.” Most recently, he received the Change Agent Award of Appreciation from St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, NC.