Research Team

Leadership

Susan Moore Johnson

Director & Principal Investigator
Dr. Johnson is the Jerome T. Murphy Research Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She studies and teaches about teacher policy, organizational change, and administrative practice. A former high school teacher and...
Susan Moore-Johnson

Research Affiliates

Jill Harrison Berg

Research Affiliate
Jill Harrison Berg is principal consultant at Jill Harrison Berg Consulting, LLC. She is a leadership coach, school improvement consultant and researcher committed to maximizing the leadership potential of teachers. Dr. Berg is the author of Leading in...
Dr. Jill Harrison Berg

Sarah Birkeland

Research Affiliate
Dr. Sarah Birkeland founded Helix Learning Partners ( helixlearningpartners.com ) to support high-quality implementation of education initiatives through developmental program evaluation and strategy consulting. She is a certified professional coach with...
Dr. Sarah Birkeland

Megin Charner-Laird

Research Affiliate
Megin Charner-Laird is a professor in the McKeown School of Education at Salem State University. She co-directs the programs in educational leadership and the Center for Educational Leadership at the school. After graduating from Swarthmore College, she...
Megin Charner-Laird

Morgaen L Donaldson

Research Affiliate
Morgaen L Donaldson is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut . A former high school teacher, and founding faculty member of the Boston Arts Academy, Donaldson earned an AB at Princeton University and an EdM and EdD from the Harvard...
Morgaen L Donaldson

Sarah E Fiarman

Research Affiliate
Sarah E. Fiarman consults with schools, districts, and non-profits to build powerful learning communities where all students excel. A former principal and National Board Certified Teacher, Sarah has written and consulted about school leadership...
Sara E Fiarman

Susan M Kardos

Research Affiliate
Susan Kardos is the inaugural CEO of the Institute for Curriculum Services , which focuses on improving the accuracy of K-12 education on Judaism and Jewish history in US schools. She began her career as a middle school teacher in independent schools and...
Susan M. Kardos

David Kauffman

Research Affiliate
David Kauffman has worked as a public school teacher and administrator, school leadership consultant, and educational policy researcher. He opened and is currently the principal of Lance Corporal Nicholas S. Perez Elementary School in Austin, Texas, where...
David Kauffman

Cheryl L. Kirkpatrick

Cheryl is a district-level public school administrator. She is currently the Director of Personnel and Professional Learning for the Chelmsford Public Schools in Chelmsford, MA. Prior to this she served as the Coordinator of Leadership Development in the...

Matthew Kraft

Research Affiliate
Matthew Kraft is a Professor of Education and Economics at Brown University and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research and teaching interests include the economics of education, education policy analysis, and...
Matthew Kraft

Edward Liu

Research Affiliate
Ed Liu is the Chief Improvement Officer of Boston Plan for Excellence, which runs the Boston Teacher Residency, one of the pioneers of the teacher residency model in the early 2000s, and operates two Boston public schools. Prior to BPE, Dr. Liu was...
Edward Liu

William H Marinell

Research Afiiliate
Will Marinell is a high school English teacher at Newton North High School in Newton, MA. In addition to his experience as a teacher, he has held senior positions in applied education research at Harvard University (Director of Analytics, Center for...
Will Marinell

Mindy S Munger

Research Affiliate
Mindy received her doctorate in Education Policy Leadership and Instructional Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former middle school math teacher, she also served as Education Policy Advisor to Governor Jim Edgar of Illinois from...
Mindy S Munger

Monica Ng

Research Affiliate
Monica Ng is Senior Director at Instruction Partners and an expert for the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Children’s Justice. She researches and designs interventions in middle school math that support the identity and belonging of Black and...
Monica Ng

John P Papay

Research Affiliate
John P. Papay is an Associate Professor of Education and Economics at Brown University. His research focuses on teacher policy, the economics of education, and teacher labor markets. He has published on teacher professional learning, teacher improvement...
John P Papay

Heather Peske

Research Affiliate
In 2022, Dr. Heather Peske became President of the National Council on Teacher Quality. She is driven by the goal that all children in our nation have access to an effective and diverse teacher workforce. Prior to joining NCTQ she was Senior Associate...
Heather Pesks

Emily Kalejs Qazilbash

Research Affiliate
Emily Kalejs Qazilbash, EdD, is a Professor of Practice of Education at Brown University and an affiliate faculty member at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown. Emily conducts research on teacher retention, teacher career trajectories...
EMQ Photo

Stefanie Reinhorn

Research Affiliate
Stefanie Reinhorn is the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough in Massachusetts. She completed her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Education Policy, Leadership...
Stefanie Reinhorn

Nicole S Simon

Research Affiliate
Nicole completed her doctorate in Culture, Communities and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before HGSE, she served as the Director of Early College Awareness Programs and Hiring Committee Chair at a new, small, public high school in...
Nicole Simon

Jennifer L Steele

Research Affiliate
Jennifer L. Steele is an Associate Professor of Education at American University, where she studies education policy and the economics of education. Her recent work, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, has examined the causal effects of dual...
Jennifer L Steele

Stacy Agee Szczesiul

Research Affiliate
Stacy Szczesiul is the Associate Dean of Online Education, Accreditation & Licensing for the College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Much of her work is dedicated to building a strong, diverse...
Stacy Szczesiul