Mark Chin, the 2022 Outstanding Predoctoral winner, is from the Harvard University’s Partnering in Education Research training program. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Inequality at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Chin studies how public education in the U.S. can help combat racial and socioeconomic inequality. In his research, Dr. Chin draws on the economics of education, psychology, and sociology literatures and uses rigorous quantitative methodology to identify the causal impacts of different policies, programs, and interventions in schools on students' outcomes. His current projects focus on school integration, school choice, racial bias in education, and how schools support the development of antiracist youth.

Christopher Cleveland, joint recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Predoctoral Award, is from Harvard University’s Partnering in Education Research training program. Dr. Cleveland is currently an Assistant Professor of Education and Education Policy at Brown University, where he holds a joint appointment in the Education Department and Annenberg Institute. His research and teaching focus on quantitative policy analysis in school finance, gifted and special education, and human capital. In addition to his research, Dr. Cleveland has experience partnering with school systems, state agencies, and foundations on strategy issues related to his research expertise.

KC Deane, joint recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Predoctoral Award, is from the University of Michigan’s Causal Inference in Education Policy Research (CIEPR) Predoctoral training program. Drawing on techniques and theories employed in the field of urban planning, her dissertation documented the presence and severity of unequal geographic access to broad-access public colleges for low-income and racially minoritized communities in urban areas. In her current role, Dr. Deane is the Associate Director of Research and Program Evaluation at the Washington Student Achievement Council, Washington State's higher education agency. She leads the design and implementation of the learning and evaluation framework for the agency’s investment in regional cross-sector partnerships through the state-funded Regional Challenge Grant program. Additionally, she serves as the agency’s subject matter expert on program evaluation, providing individualized and comprehensive research support to agency divisions that seek to learn from and improve upon existing processes for the purpose of better serving learners. Previously, KC worked as a program manager at the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program where she managed, among other projects, the program’s cross-organizational investigation of institutional policies and practices that foster improvements in transfer student outcomes.