Research Team
Current Team Members
Kathleen Arada is a doctoral student in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington. Her research explores everyday joy and educational justice and dignity in STEM + Art. She is particularly concerned with how the design of tools and environments impact teaching and learning. Her career in education centers creativity and play. She has learned with and from students ranging from toddlers to adults as a classroom teacher, school technology integrator, robotics coach, after-school and summer camp counselor, teacher educator, and curriculum developer. Prior to coming to UW, she worked as an elementary makerspace teacher. She earned her BAs in Sociology and English and her MAT from UC Irvine.
Dr. Philip Bell (Principal Investigator)
Philip Bell (Executive Director) pursues a cognitive and cultural program of research across diverse environments focused on how people learn in ways that are personally consequential to them. He is a professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Washington Seattle and holds the Shauna C. Larson Chair in Learning Sciences. Bell recently served on the Board on Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on everyday expertise in science and health, culturally responsive science instruction, the use of emerging learning technologies in science classrooms, children’s argumentation and conceptual change in science, and new approaches to inquiry instruction in science. Bell directs the Institute, co-directs the LIFE research center, directs the Learning Sciences Graduate program at UW, and directs the Everyday Science & Technology Research Group. Bell has a background in human cognition and development, science education, computer science, and electrical engineering.
Melissa Campanella is a 3rd year PhD student in the Learning Sciences at CU Boulder and previously taught high school science in the Montbello neighborhood of Denver for 7 years. She studies how we talk about science education and equity — what we say, how and why, to whom, and when — and supports efforts to frame science education in ways that can promote justice in the complex political environments of states and districts. She draws on on theories of social movement organizing and a vision of science education that emphasizes connections between science and students’ interests and identity. She is interested in designing processes that support science education leaders to make strategic framing decisions that are also accountable to stakeholders in their contexts, and which challenge dominant narratives about the purposes for science education that reinforce racism and prioritize military and economic security of the United States over the interests of students and communities.
Maya Garcia (Principal Investigator)
Under development
Sarah Leonhart
Sarah Leonhart is a master's student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development program at CU Boulder. She has previously worked at the University of Utah and the Department of Veterans Affairs studying the long term health outcomes of Post-9/11 Veterans who have experienced a traumatic brain injury. Sarah's research interests include equitable K-12 education, community outreach, and the opportunity gap.
Deb is a learning scientist deeply engaged in research-practice partnership efforts around equity and justice in STEM learning contexts, particularly with respect to furthering climate justice. This work is done through a cultural lens centered on differential participation within and across varied communities of practice and seeks to disrupt oppressive structures limiting participation. Deb has taught middle school science and is particularly interested in content intersecting with environmental literacy, justice, and sustainability. She is passionate about working with educators in practice and has undertaken such efforts in a wide variety of contexts and content domains. Deb earned a B.S. in Geography at the University of Victoria, a M.S. in Plant Sciences and Environmental Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction – Science Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Tiffany Neill (Principal Investigator)
Tiffany Neill is the Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Past-President for the Council of State Science Supervisors, serving as president from 2017-2019. In her role at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, she works to support districts and educators in aligning their curriculum and instruction to standards and supports thirteen curriculum directors in similar efforts with various disciplines. She oversees both Title II and Title IV state activity funds, implements various state and federal policies and serves as the project manager for several USDE grants. In her eight years of service at the Oklahoma State Department of Education she served as the Director of Science and Engineering Education for six years and oversaw two science standards review and revision processes. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine consensus committee that authored the report, Changing Expectations for the K-12 Teacher Workforce: Policies, Preservice Education, Professional Development, and the Workplace (2020) and currently serves on a consensus committee report focused on enhancing science in prekindergarten through fifth grade. Ms.Neill taught middle school and high school science in public schools in Oklahoma, served as a graduate research assistant at the University of Oklahoma’s K20 Center for Education and Community Renewal and taught elementary science methods courses for the university. She has completed the graduate courses required for a doctoral degree in science curriculum and instruction at the University of Oklahoma and is currently completing a dissertation focused on STEM integration.
Dr. William Penuel (Principal Investigator)
I design and study curriculum materials, assessments, and professional learning experiences for teachers in science. I work in partnership with school districts and state departments of education, and the research I conduct is in support of educational equity in three dimensions: (1) equitable implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards; (2) creating inclusive classroom cultures that attend to students’ affective experiences and where all students have authority for constructing knowledge together; and (3) connecting teaching to the interests, experiences, and identities of learners. I use a wide range of research methods, including one my colleagues and I developed called design-based implementation research, to test what we design.
One line of my research focuses on how research-practice partnerships can support the production and use of evidence in educational decision making. As the Principal Investigator of the National Center for Research in Policy and Practice (NCRPP), a knowledge utilization center funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, I study how school and district leaders use research. I have authored two books on research practice partnerships, Creating Research-Practice Partnerships in Education (Harvard Education Press, 2017), and Connecting Research and Practice for Educational Improvement (Routledge, 2018). I give workshops regularly on how to build and sustain research-practice partnerships centered on promoting equity through inclusive, collaborative design processes and monitoring of equity of educational opportunity.
Nancy Price
Nancy Price is the Center Manager for the Institute for Science and Math Education, where she manages the Institute’s many grant-funded projects, keeping initiatives on schedule and tracking their progress. In this role, Nancy also supervises the administrative functioning of the center, overseeing fiscal management, human resources and administrative staff. Nancy has also worked as the executive assistant to the vice chair in the UW Medical Center Department of Radiology and as the assistant to the Dean for Student Learning at Cascadia Community College.
Ali Raza is a fifth-year graduate student in Computer and Cognitive Science at University of Colorado Boulder. His research areas are Human-Computer Interaction, Equitable STEM Education, Visualization, and Learning Sciences. He co-designed and developed Student Electronic Exit Ticket (SEET) system, it is a visual learning analytics tool to support equity in the science classrooms by supporting teachers' to reflect on student experience. His research interest looks at how using SEET teachers can support equity in their classrooms in a disciplined cycle of inquiry. Before joining CU Boulder, he was a middle and high school computer science teacher for three years and worked in industry as a part-time software developer. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science with a focus on designing information management and learning technologies for school settings.
Abby Rhinehart (Research Scientist) manages both communications and research projects for the Institute for Science and Math Education. She has worked as an out-of-school educator at the Washington State History Museum and at several National Park Service sites, including Sequoia and Kings Canyon and Mt. Rainier. In 2018, she received a M.A. in museum studies from the University of Washington with a specialization in evaluation. She has also worked in communications at several educational nonprofits, including Humanities Washington and the University of Washington.
Corey Shih is the Assistant to the Director of the Institute for Science and Math Education (ISME). In addition to managing the Executive Director’s calendar and travel, she provides day-to-day administrative support to the ISME research group and coordinates, plans, and executes Center-wide activities and events. Prior to joining the UW family in January of 2020, Corey worked as a Department Administrator at Stanford University and a Registrar at the New York College of Health Professions.
Trang Tran
Trang Tran is a PhD student in the Learning Sciences and Human Development program at CU Boulder and previously worked as an associate researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage. Through sociocultural and ecological lenses, Trang’s interested in studying how learners engage and develop STEM identities in formal and informal learning environments. An important goal of her research is to inform learning designs to center the complex and multifaceted experiences of non-dominant learners and honor their roles in theorizing new horizons of STEM identities, equity, and justice.
Past Team Members
Dr. Lizette Burks (Principal Investigator)
Dr. Lizette Burks is the founding Director of Secondary Science Education for the Arkansas Academy for Educational Equity in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Burks has been committed to broadening student engagement in K-12 STEM education by promoting equity as a central component in science education innovation. Dr. Burks teaches graduate courses for the Academy and leads direction for equity-focused science education innovation. Her research interests are focused on examining culturally expansive science instruction.
Prior to joining the Academy, Dr. Burks served as the K-12 State Science Education Supervisor for the Kansas State Department of Education supporting implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards curriculum, instruction, and assessments state-wide. Dr. Burks served as co-principal investigator of the Advancing Coherent and Equitable Systems of Science Education NSF grant with the Council of State Science Supervisors. Burks was a member of the equity panel for Design, Selection, and Implementation of Instructional Materials for the Next Generation Science Standards, a workshop convened by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Science Education, promoting culturally expansive science instruction.
Kristen Davidson is a research associate for the National Center for Research in Policy and Practice (NCRPP) and Inquiry Hub. Her research focuses on collaborative research and research-practice partnerships among researchers, educators, and community members. She brings a theoretical foundation to qualitative and survey methods, with central attention to advancing justice and equity in education. Kristen earned her PhD in Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Dr. Heena Lakhani is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, where she is working with elementary teachers to design equitable and ambitious science instruction. Prior to this, she spent 4 years working with middle and high school science teachers in designing NGSS-aligned lessons and assessments, and supporting teachers to attend to students' experiences in the science class. She has previously worked as a chemistry instructor and as an analyst for the National Science Foundation. She holds Masters degrees in Chemistry, Mathematics for Teaching, and the Psychological and Brain Sciences, from the University of Washington, Harvard University, and Johns Hopkins University, respectively. She also recently completed her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the University of Washington.
Robbin Riedy is a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research examines the collaborative design of resources to promote educational equity in state systems of science education and educators’ conceptions of equity.
Sam Shaw (Principal Investigator)
Sam Shaw is currently the Director of Science Review at EdReports.org. Sam came to EdReports after spending seven years with the South Dakota Department of Education, where he oversaw science education in addition to social studies, fine arts, advanced placement, the South Dakota Virtual School, among other programs, and was also a participant in the SD Governor’s Leadership Program. Sam worked statewide with teachers and school leadership to advance education related to college and career readiness (CCR), specifically with regard to CCR standards implementation. He has also held positions of board director and financial officer with the Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS) where he was also a collaborator on the Science Professional Learning Standards and Co-Principal Investigator of the ACESSE project. Prior to his role at the Department of Education, Sam was a middle school science teacher. Sam earned his B.S. in Biology from South Dakota State University and his Executive Master in Public Administration from the University of South Dakota.
Dr. Shelly Stromholt
Shelley Stromholt studies STEM-related learning and identification processes that occur as youth engage in scientific and engineering practices in and across settings. This work is done in relation to an unfolding policy focus on ‘learning through practice’ to create more relevant and agentic learning experiences across diverse environments for youth from non-dominant communities, especially in relation to environmental science. Before pursuing a Ph.D., Shelley taught science and environmental education in informal settings and supported graduate students in their teaching practice. Shelley completed a B.S. in Biology at Oregon State University, a M.Ed. in Science Education at University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington.
Gina is currently a Teacher Team Leadership Coach for the New York City Department of Education’s Ed Tech Program with 10 years experience as a special education teacher. Her work with Ed Tech Model Teachers during remote learning has cultivated a community of collaboration and sharing that connects teachers across all five boroughs. Gina worked with the ACESSE project to collaboratively design professional learning resources to support the development of equitable science learning environments. During her time on the Project she helped develop ACESSE Resource G: Learning to See the Resources Students Bring to Sense-Making and webinar Designing Inclusive Science Learning Environments. Gina is passionate about using design thinking to reimagine and create inclusive, culturally responsive and justice centered learning environments.
Kerri Wingert is a postdoctoral associate in the Learning Sciences. She received her PhD from the University of Washington in 2017, an M.Ed from Concordia University (2010). She has taught science and English as a Second Language in public schools in Omaha, Houston, and the UK. Dr. Wingert is deeply concerned with helping teachers and school systems enact more socially just instructional practices, and she studies how teachers enact new pedagogies to support ELLs and speakers of minoritized languages. As a learning scientist and former teacher, Dr. Wingert studies how to rethink traditional “spray-and-pray” models of professional learning through design-based implementation research. In her spare time, she (quietly) roots for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and rides her bicycle.