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For more than 50 years, the RELs have collaborated with school districts, state departments of education, and other education stakeholders to help them generate and use evidence and improve student outcomes. Read more
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Home REL Pacific About REL Pacific Our Team
Our Team
Christina Tydeman
Christina Tydeman serves as the director of REL Pacific. To this role, Dr. Tydeman brings more than 30 years of experience improving outcomes for K–12 and postsecondary students as a teacher, administrator, and program leader in California and Hawai‘i. As director, Dr. Tydeman works closely with education system leaders across the Pacific region partnering with the REL team on research-based systemic improvement projects. In addition to her expertise in formative learning and large-scale assessments, educational data systems, program evaluations, and professional development, she has served on the development teams for several practitioner guides with the National Forum for Educational Statistics. Dr. Tydeman can be contacted at ctydeman@mcrel.org.
Dale Lewis
Dale Lewis is the interim deputy director of REL Pacific, assisting and managing staff who are providing research, training, coaching, and technical support across the region in collaboration with partnership members and stakeholders. Dr. Lewis has decades of experience managing large, multi-year grants and programs in K–12 education. He also currently serves as director of the Region 12 Comprehensive Center, a U.S. Department of Education-funded program serving the state education agencies in Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. Dr. Lewis can be contacted at dlewis@mcrel.org.
Marisa Crowder
Marisa Crowder is REL Pacific’s overall partnership lead, coordinating partnership projects and major activities across the region’s seven jurisdictions. In the 2017–2022 REL cycle, she worked in close collaboration with education leaders in Hawai‘i and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to strengthen systemwide capacity to implement social and emotional learning. Dr. Crowder also led two REL Pacific partnerships that aimed to develop math transition course initiatives in the CNMI and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. She currently facilitates the Cross-REL Leadership group on Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. Dr. Crowder can be contacted at mcrowder@mcrel.org.
Meagan Taylor
Meagan Taylor is REL Pacific’s lead for training, coaching, and technical support for evidence use, working with educators and school system leaders across the region. Based in Hawai‘i, Ms. Taylor has supported educator effectiveness and early learning for REL Pacific since 2019. Ms. Taylor gained knowledge of the research-based skills and strategies that have the highest impact on student learning during her 14 years teaching at the elementary level. Following her years in the classroom, she was a consultant and professional learning facilitator, working with teachers and instructional coaches on how to most effectively help all students learn. Ms. Taylor can be reached at mtaylor@mcrel.org.
Erin Chaparro
Erin Chaparro is the lead for REL Pacific’s applied research and peer-reviewed research-based development projects. Her background and work in special education have developed her expertise in multi-tiered systems of support implementation. Dr. Chaparro has led research teams in various IES/ED projects, including a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an English language development curriculum, a development study to improve the efficiency and impact of school teams’ data-based decision making, and the development of online modules designed to provide rural teachers with the skills necessary to integrate visual arts and argument writing instruction into their practice. Dr. Chaparro can be reached at echaparro@mcrel.org.
Katie Gao
Katie Gao is REL Pacific’s dissemination lead. Based in Hawai‘i, she has more than a decade of experience helping to bring complex research findings into practice by developing, editing, and designing publications and materials in numerous fields, including education, linguistics, and information systems. Since 2017, Dr. Gao has worked with REL Pacific, supporting and leading projects across all tasks, with a particular focus on multilingual education and culturally responsive teaching and learning. Dr. Gao can be contacted at kgao@mcrel.org.
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