Ben Lebovitz (they/he)  is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis and an Institute of Education Sciences Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Their scholarship investigates how educational leadership, politics, and organizational practices shape opportunities, belonging, and well-being for LGBTQ+ and other marginalized youth.

Ben’s dissertation develops erasure as an analytic lens to examine how policy omissions and exclusions marginalize trans and LGBTQ+ students, and how protective factors in educational settings can counter erasure.

Their published work appears in JAMA Pediatrics, Educational Policy, the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Ben also co-authored statewide reports on Wisconsin school board policies, trans student well-being, and inclusive physical activity policies, as well as an interactive map of school district policy protections in partnership with GSAFE and FAIR Wisconsin. 

Forthcoming and under-review manuscripts include work in AERA Open, Educational Administration Quarterly, the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, and the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership.

Ben received a dissertation fellowship the Department of Gender & Women's Studies (Kaplan Dissertation Fellowship in LGBTQ+ Studies; University of Wisconsin–Madison), a predoctoral fellowship with the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences (Institute for Education Sciences; Wisconsin Center for Education Research), and research support from Queer and Trans People in Education (QTPiE; University of Vermont), the Institute for Diversity Science (University of Wisconsin–Madison), and the Graduate School (University of Wisconsin–Madison). They were named a 2025 David L. Clark National Graduate Research Seminar Scholar, an Emerging Scholar at the 2024 William L. Boyd National Educational Politics Workshop, and a semifinalist for the 2025 National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship.

Before graduate study, Ben taught choir and drama in southern Arizona, advised a Gender and Sexuality Alliance, and earned National Board Certification. A former Arizona Teacher of the Year finalist, Ben continues to partner with schools, professional organizations, and community groups to translate research into practice through workshops, leadership institutes, and research–practice partnerships.