Lydia F. Bell received her PhD in 2009 in Language, Reading & Culture from the University of Arizona.  She is currently the director of Project SOAR, a service-learning experience that routinely places over 100 UA undergraduate mentors in under-resourced, public middle schools in the Tucson area. These students are enrolled in either HED 350 or HED 397B, both of which examine issues of college access and equity in higher education. As a scholar, her research initiatives explore the Division I student-athlete experience; the interplay of athletic and academic identity development of student-athletes from high school to college; and the influence of the NCAA Academic Reform Package on college student-athletes, faculty and athletic department staff. She is also chair of the AERA SIG Research Focus on Education and Sport, a faculty affiliate with the College Sport Research Institute, and on the editorial board for both the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education.