L. Trenton S. Marsh (PhD ’17) Named 2025 Steinhardt Ascending Champion

A graduate of NYU Steinhardt’s Teaching and Learning doctoral program, Marsh is now an associate professor at the University of Central Florida working to amplify youth voices.

L. Trenton S. Marsh (PhD ’17, Teaching and Learning) has been named 2025’s Ascending Champion as part of this year’s cohort of Spirit of Steinhardt Alumni Award winners.

Now an associate professor in the Department of Learning Sciences and Educational Research at the University of Central Florida, Marsh was a managing business consultant at IBM Corporation for nearly a decade before beginning his doctoral studies in the Teaching and Learning program at NYU Steinhardt.

In 2008, Marsh authored the book From 1.0 to 4.0, which highlights the strategies he used to transition from an underperforming high school student to a strong student leader and academician. “That was the first time I wrote something down that reflected my passion for education, but I didn’t yet have the courage to step away from corporate America to pursue this passion,” says Marsh.

Around this time, Marsh learned about Dr. Pedro Noguera, then-leader of the NYU Steinhardt Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and a leading scholar of urban public education, equity, and school reform.

Marsh speaks in front of balloon towers at an event — Dr. Marsh speaks at the Annual Day of H.O.P.E. event focused on youth mental health.

“Pedro invited me to NYU Steinhardt to learn about the Metro Center, and I told him I was interested in applying to the doctoral program,” says Marsh, who began the program in 2012. “At NYU, I learned to think critically and understand the value of community engagement.”

While completing his degree, he served as a research assistant at the Metro Center, where he helped evaluate longitudinal special education and disciplinary data for various New York districts. Marsh also served as a facilitator of Coro New York’s Youth Leadership Academy, where he created and delivered leadership-capacity training for elected high school students across Manhattan’s five boroughs. After graduating, he moved on to complete a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, where he worked on Wolverine Pathways, a new equity and inclusion initiative.

At UCF, Marsh’s interdisciplinary work focuses on improving historically marginalized youth resilience within formal and informal learning settings, aiming to amplify youth voices to inform practices and macro-level policies that may influence marginalized individuals’ lives. He pairs this agenda with an emphasis on experiential designs and developing evidence-based interventions to co-construct the object of knowledge with participants. His interests include youth participatory action research, critical youth allyship, teacher-student interaction, and school choice.

A group of people in HOPE Circle t-shirts poses for the photo — Dr. Marsh (seated in the chair) with H.O.P.E. youth participants and staff.

“I was hired to work under the premise that education shouldn’t be siloed,” says Marsh, who also teaches an advanced doctoral-level qualitative methods course in the School of Public Administration. “One of the things I love most about my research is working with young people, and part of that passion came from my time at NYU Steinhardt.”

Marsh is also the founder of the Healing Oasis for Peace and Empowerment® (H.O.P.E.) Circle. In partnership with the Levy-Hughes Boys & Girls Club in the historic Parramore community in Orlando, H.O.P.E. supports positive youth development through guided conversation and resources and fosters a space to work alongside young people to discover transformative solutions.

“I am humbled by the opportunity to receive this award,” says Marsh. “My narrative reflects that an individual may have a passion for something, but not until they are aware of a new way of life can they then choose another pathway that is more purpose-driven and fulfilling. I benefitted from people creating opportunities for me to excel, and I’m blessed to be able to do that within the context of research in tandem with community members.”