Biography
Dr. McGee is an educationist in pursuit of opportunities to produce good education outcomes for marginalized people. His work is at the intersection of research, policy, and practice guided by a framework built on indigenous consciousness and local knowledge systems, sustainability (U.N. SDGs), and learner-centered education. His focus envisions an education ecosystem that produces competent civic citizens who are prepared for both the workforce and post-secondary education. It embodies a comprehensive and inclusive view of “post-secondary education” that encompasses two-year, four-year, and trade-school institutions. His goal is to help learners be the best version of themselves.
Dr. McGee served as co-principal investigator for the 2025 Indigenous Consciousness Education Research (ICER) Convening at Anant National University, Ahmedabad, India. He investigates how communities understand their local knowledge systems through an indigenous consciousness lens. The project integrated community-engaged ethnographic and anthropological methodologies that respect local educational traditions and contribute to sustainable educational practices globally. During his three months in India, Dr. McGee developed relationships with institutions and organizations, planting the seeds for global partnerships that create community-agentic education research, culturally responsive education policy, and education practices that honor the indigenous ecosystem of communities.
At Penn GSE, Dr. McGee served as the inaugural senior associate director of the Office of Student Success, one of six multi-school co-directors of the Penn Experience—an asynchronous course designed to provide context for Penn’s relationship to West Philadelphia—and the founder of the Writing Commons (WC), a collaboration of writing resource services across Penn’s campus to support the culture and practice of academic writing for graduate students through programming and supportive hybrid spaces for nurturing students as writers. His commitment to student success is fueled by his ability to leverage resources for student growth opportunities.
In the Philadelphia community, Dr. McGee serves on the Board of Directors of Rebel Ventures, Inc. (“Rebel”), a youth-driven enterprise that operates a project-based learning model. It was established within Penn’s Netter Center and its Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative. Rebel’s mission is to work to create healthy deliciousness with kids, schools, and communities. They impact the supply of nutritionally balanced food by developing healthy snack products that are sold to schools.
In addition to serving as an adjunct assistant professor at Penn GSE, Dr. McGee is a faculty affiliate of Penn’s Perry World House, an associated faculty member of the South Asia Center, a 2025 visiting School of Creative Practice & Entrepreneurship (SCoPE) scholar at Anant National University, Ahmedabad, India, and a 2025 faculty affiliate of Penn GSE's Ethnography in Education Research Forum. Dr. McGee’s academic credentials include a B.S. in Psychology from Brown University, a J.D. from Rutgers Law School–Newark, and an M.S.Ed. and Ed.D. in Higher Education from Penn GSE. He returned to school in 2017 after an extensive legal career, serving in a variety of government roles, including New Jersey deputy attorney general, New Jersey deputy ratepayer advocate, City of East Orange assistant corporation counsel, and retiring as a New Jersey administrative law judge. Prior to returning to school, Dr. McGee spent eight years teaching ethics and administrative law to graduate students at Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration and at Kean University School of Public Administration.