Catherine Horn is an associate professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Executive Director of the Institute for Educational Policy Research and Evaluation within the College of Education at the University of Houston. She is also the Director for the Center for Research and Advancement of Teacher Education and focuses on the systemic influences of secondary and postsecondary assessment and related policies on the learning trajectories of students especially for students traditionally underserved by the education and social sectors.

Prior to joining the University of Houston, Horn worked as Research Associate for The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University; Senior Research Associate for the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy’s National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy at Boston College; and a teacher at Jefferson Davis High School in the Houston Independent School District. She has been honored with numerous awards including, most recently, a Fulbright Fellowship to Chile, a University Teaching Excellence Award, and appointment as an inaugural University of Houston Energy Fellow.

-- University of Houston

Jennifer Jennings is a Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, and a Faculty Associate of the Office of Population Research. She is also the Director of Education Research Section (ERS) which supports research, publication, and teaching on matters relating to education policy and practice. Her research interests are racial, socioeconomic, and gender disparities in educational and health outcomes. A Princeton alumna, earned a B.A. cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School, and a certificate in Program in Teacher Preparation-NJ Social Studies Certification, a Masters of Philosophy in Education from the University of Cambridge, UK and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University with distinction.

-- Princeton University

Jonathan Bearak is a sociologist and demographer who studies inequality in social, health, and economic outcomes. A senior research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, Dr. Bearak divides his time between global comparative research and analyses specific to the United States. He leads the Institute's keystone study of unintended pregnancy and abortion worlwide. As part of this work, he led the publication of the first-ever set of country-specific estimates, released in partnership with the World Health Organization. Presently, his foci also include the development of a new approach to comparing the effectiveness of contraceptive methods. Highlights of his other work at Guttmacher include research on the complex relationship between fertility intentions and women's earnings and estimates of spatial inequality in abortion access.

Dr. Bearak received his Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University after majoring in Political Science at Queens College of the City University of New York with minors in computer science and sociology. While in graduate school, he conducted research in several areas including the relationship between motherhood and earnings, on the sexual double standard, on contraception, and on measurement issues in education. His publications can be found in various scholarly journals, e.g., Demography, The Lancet, BMJ Global Health, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Public Health, BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health, Demographic Research, Women’s Health Issues, Social Forces, and American Sociological Review.

-- Guttmacher Institute

Dr. Tefera (she/her) is an assistant professor of special education. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines how educational policies aimed at improving equity among students at the intersections of race, disability, language, and other social categories are enacted, interrupted, and resisted by students, families, educators, and leaders. Her recent work explores how historical, sociocultural, and spatial contexts mediate how educators and leaders respond to and understand citations for racial disproportionality in the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities. Her work has been included in journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Review of Research in Education, Sociology of Education, and Teachers College Record. She is also the recipient of the American Educational Research Association, Division G (Social Context of Education) Early Career Award.

-- University of Arizona