Elizabeth Albro is committed to building bridges between the basic sciences of learning and education practice. Trained in the behavioral and social sciences, cognition, and communication, she received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Since joining IES in 2002, she has served as a program officer for multiple research portfolios and as Associate Commissioner of Teaching and Learning. She has participated on multiple interagency committees focused on open science and the federal research investment in language and communication. She has edited several books in the area of reading comprehension and has published articles in Discourse Processes, Scientific Studies of Reading, and Educational Psychology Review. Prior to joining IES, Dr. Albro was a faculty member, first at Whittier College, and subsequently at Wheaton College (Norton, MA). All of her research is grounded in her own experience as a preschool teacher in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Nathan Jones currently serves as Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research, He is on leave as an associate professor of Special Education and Education Policy at Boston University, and he served as a founding member of the BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences. Throughout his career, Dr. Jones’s research has focused on the intersection of education policy and classroom teaching, particularly in special education. Much of this work has examined on the measurement of teachers’ work, including how to conceptualize and measure teaching effectiveness. He is a former IES post-doctoral scholar and a past grantee of the Institute of Education Sciences. Jones holds a PhD in special education and education policy from Michigan State University. Prior to his research career, he was a middle school special education teacher in the Mississippi Delta.

Christina Cipriano, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of the Education Collaboratory at Yale University. Committed to translational science, Dr. Cipriano’s research systematically advances equitable and inclusive social and emotional learning science and practice for researchers and schools worldwide. An award-winning expert in the science of learning, development, and open science practices, Dr. Cipriano is the PI of numerous major grants and has published 100+ papers, commentaries, and reports, spanning top tier journals and media outlets including Child Development, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Education Week. Learn more at drchriscip.com.

Jason A. Grissom is Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College and faculty director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance. His research uses large-scale administrative and survey data, often coupled with data from interviews and observations to study school and district leadership, educator mobility, and issues of educational equity. Dr. Grissom is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and past president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy. He holds a M.A. in Education Policy and a Ph.D. in Political Economics from Stanford University.

Nicole Patton Terry, PhD., is the Olive & Manuel Bordas Professor of Education in the School of Teacher Education, Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), and Director of the Regional Education Lab—Southeast at Florida State University. She is the founding director The Urban Child Study Center at Georgia State University and The Village at FCRR, where researchers work collaboratively with diverse school and community stakeholders to promote student success. Her research, innovation, and engagement activities concern young learners who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulty with language and literacy achievement in school. She earned a master’s and Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She was as a special education teacher in Evanston Public Schools in Evanston, IL.

Carey M. Wright, Ed.D., was appointed State Superintendent of Schools by the Maryland State Board of Education in April 2024. Dr. Wright previously served as Mississippi State Superintendent of Education where she elevated the state to national acclaim for literacy instruction and outcomes. A native Marylander, she is past president of the board of directors for the Council of Chief State School Officers, a former Chiefs for Change executive board member, and former member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card. She holds a doctorate in education from the University of Maryland.

Pat Yongpradit is the Chief Academic Officer for Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to promoting computer science education, and lead of TeachAI, a global initiative to guide education leaders in rethinking education in an age of AI. Pat has influenced each stage of the education system, from policy to practice, in the legislature and the classroom. He was featured in the book, “American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom,” and has been recognized as a Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Educator. Although Pat now spends most of his time in policy conversations, he still finds ways to sneak into the classroom :)

Stephen Sawchuk is an assistant managing editor for Education Week, leading coverage of teaching, learning, and curriculum. He won an award for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association in 2020 and was a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. His work has also appeared in smithsonian.com, The Hechinger Report, and the Huffington Post. He holds degrees from Georgetown and Columbia universities.