Dr. Ransom was a Postdoctoral Fellow for the University of Michigan School of Education’s Center for Community-based Research on Equity, Activism, and Transformative Education (CREATE) Center during the 2020-21 academic year. She is currently an Illinois Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education. Dr. Ransom is an interdisciplinary historian who studies the History of African American Education and the History of Childhood. Her research examines the oral histories and material objects of Black children who once attended segregated schools in the Deep South during the Jim Crow Era (1940-1969). As a public scholar and artist, Dr. Ransom also uses her historical research to create public exhibits related to African American childhood in and around schools. 

Kimberly has received a number of fellowships and awards for her research and leadership including the 2019 NAEd Spencer Fellowship, the 2018 Rackham Public Scholarship Fellowship, the 2015 Jackson Scholar Award, the 2011 Chicago Community Trust Fellowship, the 2013 University of Chicago President’s Diversity Leadership Award, and the 2010 New York University Women of Color Policy Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan, M.A. from DePaul University, and a B.S. from Bradley University.