Our Team: Staff

Griffiths leads and supports a portfolio of work investigating how emerging technologies and technology-enabled instructional models can enhance educational opportunities and enable new approaches to research. Examples of her studies include an evaluation of the academic and economic impacts of Open Educational Resource (OER) Degrees in community colleges, an exploration of ways in which OER enables more student-entered and equity-oriented teaching and learning practices, an evaluation of an informal STEM learning program for young men of color and rural girls, and a research practice partnership with a community college to embed employability skills in an advanced manufacturing technology program.

Before joining SRI, Griffiths was program director for online learning at Ithaka S+R, a nonprofit postsecondary education research and advisory practice. Griffiths has EdD in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania and a masters in new product and venture development at MIT, giving her a unique perspective on how technological innovations scale and achieve sustainability and on organizational development and change. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in East Asian Studies.

She is the principal investigator for the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR), a U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded research center on developmental education jointly run with the social policy research organization MDRC. Edgecombe also leads an IES study on English learners in community colleges and recently completed a study on the adaptation of Lesson Study for community college mathematics instruction.

Edgecombe joined CCRC from JPMorgan, where she studied the financial and organizational performance of publicly traded companies and made investment recommendations to institutional clients. Prior to her work in the private sector, she studied teacher learning and school-based professional development at the Urban Education Institute (formerly the Center for School Improvement) and Consortium on School Research at the University of Chicago. For the Collaborative, Edgecombe will co-lead the institutional policies and practice analysis and the national leadership and capacity building function. As a member of the leadership team, she will help to develop and execute the Collaborative’s strategy and leverage long-standing relationships in the broad-access postsecondary sector to maximize the impact of the work.

She holds a PhD and a MSEd in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Urban Studies–Economics from Columbia University.

Mislevy has led large-scale impact, implementation, and cost evaluations of digital learning products and initiatives, including quasi-experimental studies of OER Degree Pathways with 11 community colleges and randomized-controlled trials of adaptive learning programs in K-12 mathematics. For many of these projects, she oversaw the design, administration, and analysis of student and educator surveys, interviews and focus groups, and classroom observations, as well as analyses of system log data. She also provides technical assistance to technology developers and education stakeholders around rigorous evaluation design, evidence standards, and the selection of evidence-based programs, and to support their participation in rigorous research evaluations.

Mislevy earned her Ph.D. in measurement, statistics, and evaluation from the University of Maryland and is a What Works Clearinghouse certified reviewer. Before joining SRI, she worked in institutional research, planning, and assessment at the university, where she supported mixed-methods studies of student, faculty, and staff experiences and the development and validation of a university-wide online course evaluation system.

As lead of the research and development activities for the Collaborative, Mislevy will support all aspects of quantitative design and statistical methodology and ensure that all study plans, data collections, and analyses are up-to-date and aligned with the most rigorous methods available to answer the research questions.

Current projects focus on data-driven instruction, employability skills, self-regulated learning, socio-emotional skills, open educational resources, and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. Her studies investigate learners in secondary, postsecondary, and adult education contexts. Thomas manages and assists research and development activities for the Collaborative to ensure aspects of quantitative design are equitable, up-to-date, and aligned with the most rigorous methods available.

Before joining SRI, Thomas was an IES Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia, a lead statistician at the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, and a lab manager at the Cognitive Intervention Research, Culture and Learning Environments in Schools (CIRCLES) Lab. Thomas holds a PhD and master’s in developmental psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Virginia State University.

She concentrates on supporting traditionally under-resourced and underserved communities. Kori specializes in designing and implementing equity and school climate training and technical assistance, as well as designing and managing education project websites, interactive virtual spaces, e-newsletters, and social media accounts. Kori also supports the communication and equity efforts across the education division. Kori holds an M. in education from the University of California, Los Angeles, Center X, and a B. from Georgetown University.

Previously, she worked on projects including Engaging Adjunct Faculty in the Student Success Movement, Scaling Mathematics Pathways, and CUNY Start. For the Collaborative, Bickerstaff will conduct qualitative research on the institutional policies and practices related to teaching with instructional technology and the perceptions and experiences of students and faculty in online courses.

Bickerstaff holds a PhD in reading, writing, and literacy from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation focused on the experiences of adolescents at an urban community college. Bickerstaff holds a BA in community health from Brown University and an MS in education from Drexel University. She previously worked as a coordinator at a community-based adult education program and taught research methods courses at Rutgers Graduate School of Education and Oregon State University.

Boyce’s expertise includes Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) rapid cycles of improvement, practical measurement, mixture modeling, analysis of large-scale state and national data sets, and evaluation methods.

Boyce is involved in several studies at SRI at the intersection of implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement. He is currently co-leading statewide survey research for a statewide study of California afterschool STEAM programming and how afterschool sites use continuous quality improvement to better serve their students. Boyce also co-leads improvement science work with the First2 Alliance, a National Science Foundation-funded initiative to use improvement science to support first-generation STEM college students in persisting through and thriving in college. Previously, Boyce evaluated a variety of online postsecondary curricula including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded projects such as the Adaptive Learning Market Acceleration Program and Next Generation Courseware Competition.

Before joining SRI, Boyce consulted with the SUNY Charter School Institute, helped launch an online high school, and taught high school mathematics in public and private schools. Boyce earned his PhD in education leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, and his BS in symbolic systems, MA in philosophy, and MA in education from Stanford University.

As the leader of NCER, Brock spearheaded a comprehensive research program around improving educational outcomes for students of all ages while focusing more of the center’s work on postsecondary research. He also planned and launched national research centers and networks dedicated to topics such as college completion, developmental education, and career and technical education.

In January 2017, former Education Secretary John King delegated to Brock the duties of director of IES. Brock served in the role for more than a year, overseeing IES’s centers on research, evaluation, and statistics and the release of several major reports. Prior to his work for the U.S. Department of Education, Brock spent nearly a decade as the head of the postsecondary education division of MDRC, capping more than 20 years at the independent social policy research organization. Brock will be an advisor to the Collaborative.

Brock earned his BA in anthropology from Pitzer College and holds an MPA from Columbia University and a PhD in social welfare from UCLA.

Her current projects include the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative, English Learners in Community Colleges, and a study on the costs required to manage and operate the Federal Work-Study Program. Brown’s past research at CCRC has focused on community colleges implementing guided pathways reforms. Specific projects include guided pathways adoption at the state and national levels, the potential for guided pathways reforms to address barriers to student access to and success in STEM programs, the development of a strategy to assess the impacts of whole-college reform adoption, the costs of guided pathways reforms, and student major selection processes. Her professional interests include efforts to challenge and remedy educational inequities and the craft and ethics of qualitative research. For the Collaborative, Brown conducts qualitative research on institutional policies and practices related to teaching online and perceptions and experiences of faculty and staff.

Brown holds an MSEd in reading, writing, and literacy from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in education and creative writing from Colgate University. Prior to joining CCRC, Brown assisted on faculty research projects at Penn and at Colgate. She also worked with young children in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, at Abington Friends School, and at the Bowdoin College Children’s Center.

At SRI, Cheever is involved in various studies, including creating evaluation plans for Maryland’s work-based learning opportunities as part of the Region 4 Comprehensive Center. Cheever serves as Center Manager for the Collaborative as well as supporting national leadership, capacity building, and engagement activities.

Prior to joining SRI, Cheever worked as a policy analyst at the National Center for Education and Economy and as a data coordinator for Urban Teachers. Cheever holds a M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Davidson College.

She conducts press outreach, manages CCRC’s blogs and social media accounts, writes website updates, and contributes to a variety of projects. Ganga also writes report summaries and briefs and helps researchers communicate their findings through blog posts, op-eds, graphics, audio, and video.

Ganga is a member of the Collaborative’s communications team. She joined CCRC in 2015 after a 20-year career in newspaper journalism. She earned a BA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Prior to his service there, he was the chief diversity officer at Lansing Community College. Dr. Hernandez is a nationally recognized leader in college access and success, community outreach, and pedagogy, a former faculty member and non-profit administrator. He was awarded the National Education Association Reg Weaver Human and Civil Rights Award, the Michigan Education Association Elizabeth Siddall Human Rights Award, the Equity in Education Award by the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and an Honors Professor of the Year Award for teaching. He is also the author of the book The Pedagogy of Real Talk: Engaging, Teaching and Connecting Students At-Promise.

Dr. Hernandez earned his doctorate in sociology from Michigan State University, his bachelor’s degree from California State University, and his associate degree from Los Angeles Community College. Prior to earning his degrees, he was engulfed in gang culture and deep poverty, surviving on the streets of Los Angeles. He openly shares his powerful personal story hoping to influence and empower young people traveling a similar path.

His work also includes leadership of grant-funded learning initiatives, including our recently launched Strengthening Our Students’ Education to Employment Journey through Regional Professional Learning Communities and our recently concluded Engaging Adjunct Faculty in the Student Success Movement.

Jon is co-author (with Bret Eynon) of the new ATD Teaching & Learning Toolkit: A Research-Based Guide to Building a Culture of Teaching and Learning Excellence. His other recent publications applied the theory of intersectionality to the work of faculty/educational development and appeared in New Directions for Teaching & Learning and To Improve the Academy. Jon brings over 20 years of higher education experience to his role, most recently leading the Teaching & Creativity Center at Monroe Community College and teaching psychology at colleges and universities in Texas, Tennessee, and New York.

In addition to Jon’s academic background and previous work experience, he regularly facilitates workshops and institutes on equity-focused faculty/educational development; inclusive leadership development and community building for faculty and middle managers in academic environments; and strengthening communication to enhance collaboration. He recently concluded a 3-year term on the Board of Directors of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education.

A proud product of the New York City public schools, Jon earned his BA in Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York and his MS in Psychology at Texas A&M University.

She has designed and evaluated the efficacy of new forms of technology to improve learning in college and on the job, including leading national studies on adaptive learning products and several studies focused on design and prototyping new learning methods using mobile, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence technologies.

Yarnall excels at analyzing both technical knowledge in a wide range of domains and non-technical skills that support success in life and work. Yarnall has analyzed such content in college, military, and employer courses. She has documented the knowledge of expert workplace technicians. She has studied techniques for improving employability skills such as communication, teamwork, and adapting to workplace expectations. She led a team that developed a work-based learning framework for the state of Maryland. Yarnall also is an expert in the design and delivery of problem-based learning and adaptive learning courseware.

In her doctoral thesis at UCLA, she measured how well people discern different viewpoints in news reports and editorials. This work led her to explore how people learn core knowledge in multiple fields and how educators can design instruction to accelerate the development of expert understanding in many domains.