Work with thought leaders and academic experts from Louisiana Department of Education

Education Research Manager / February, 2022 — December, 2023

• Grant management. Led 18-month grant initiative with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, and others to implement social capital-building strategies in 26 schools and 8 programs across the U.S. • Technical assistance. Collaborated with site and intermediary stakeholders to collectively define challenges and goals, develop implementation plans, evaluate progress, and iterate on strategies. • Research and evaluation. Designed surveys and interview protocols, collected data, and collaboratively analyzed results to illuminate both promising approaches and challenges to implementation at scale. Field-building. Published white papers and articles for national education media outlets; delivered presentations and webinars aimed at increasing awareness and adoption of social capital building strategies in education settings.

Program Manager, LS-PAC MODELS Center / January, 2020 — February, 2022

• Developed, implemented, and evaluated nationwide mentoring network for historically underrepresented STEM students. • Cultivated partnerships with institutions of higher education to promote diversity in STEM, including the 14 SEC institutions. • Recruited STEM scholars and professionals to grow mentoring network by over 500%. • Oversaw development, beta testing, and dissemination of an innovative mobile app and website designed to match historically underrepresented STEM students with mentors. • Planned and designed professional development for over 300 STEM students and 100 mentors. • Served as lead planner and organizer for annual LS-PAC MODELS Diversity in STEM conference to promote diversity in STEM.

Director of Program Approval, Office of Talent / November, 2015 — September, 2019

• Developed, implemented, and evaluated the Louisiana Teacher Preparation Quality Rating System to ensure that Louisiana’s educator workforce is equipped to successfully navigate the teaching profession. • Maintained strong relationships with deans and directors of Louisiana’s teacher preparation programs to obtain key insights into how teacher preparation can be improved in the state of Louisiana. • Oversaw the development and roll-out of performance profiles for Louisiana’s 28 teacher preparation institutions. • Ensured the review and approval of new teacher preparation programs. • Managed contracts with external vendors to optimize the effectiveness of Louisiana’s educator workforce.

Program Evaluator/Co-Investigator / September, 2015 — October, 2017

• Wrote grant proposal to assess impact of partnership between 29 nonprofits, 16 public, private, and charter schools, the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) and SMU designed to prevent poverty-related negative outcomes in West Dallas children. • Evaluated quality of teacher professional development related to social-emotional learning. • Designed and utilized surveys and observation rubrics to assess implementation readiness of The School Zone’s professional learning community partners including over 45 organizations and 500 people. • Designed comprehensive formative and summative evaluation plans, including logic models and implementation/evaluation tools. • Conducted extensive data collection through surveys, focus groups, interviews and archival data. • Analyzed data and developed formative and summative evaluation reports to inform capacity building efforts.

Evaluator, PREP and IMSD Programs / August, 2013 — May, 2015

• Prepared 16 historically underrepresented students for graduate study in the biomedical sciences by providing mentorship, guidance, and teaching skills in goal setting, time management, and taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). • Increased the percentage of students in the program who were admitted to graduate school from 46% to 82%. • Designed peer-mentoring program to foster collaboration and success among first-year students in the program. • Developed faculty-student mentor toolkit to help scholars identify, plan, and monitor program goals. • Disseminated reports to program administrators to track students’ progress and ensure quality implementation.

Evaluator/Co-Investigator, 1TWO1 Initiative / January, 2012 — May, 2015

• Facilitated the successful adoption and implementation of a novel “1 to 1” technology initiative in a 38-school district. • Led team investigating the elements of optimal professional development for technology-related instruction. • Designed, implemented, and evaluated strategic plans for improving professional development in 38 schools. • Developed and administered school readiness assessments in 38 schools to evaluate implementation capacity and quality of innovation implementation. • Evaluated the way in which quality professional development affects teacher motivation and use of innovations in schools (dissertation topic).