Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff
Suzanne M. Wilson (Chair) is a professor and Neag endowed professor of teacher education Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. Previously, Dr. Wilson was a university distinguished professor at Michigan State University (MSU), where she served as chair and professor in the Department of Teacher Education. While at MSU, she has collaborated on several large-scale research projects, including the National Center for Research on Teacher Education, the Educational Policy and Practice Study, and the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. She has written on teacher knowledge, curriculum reform, educational policy, and teacher learning. Her interests include exploring various measures of teaching and teachers’ understanding that might be used for teacher education and education research documenting the effects of professional development on science teachers’ professional knowledge and practice, and a study of the contemporary and jurisdictional battles over who should control teacher education and licensure. Dr. Wilson served on the National Research Council’s Committee on the Study of Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States and the Center for Education’s advisory board and is currently a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Science Education. Dr. Wilson has a B.A. in history and American studies from Brown University and an M.S. in statistics and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University.
Elizabeth A. (Betsy) Davis is a professor at the University of Michigan, School of Education. Her research integrates aspects of science education, teacher education, and the learning sciences. One major focus of Dr. Davis’ work is the use of educative curriculum materials in supporting elementary teachers in ambitious science teaching, building on earlier work on how preservice and new elementary teachers learn to teach inquiry-oriented science and how curriculum materials and technology can support those teachers’ learning. Dr. Davis is also interested in how coherent practice-based teacher education experiences support beginning elementary teachers in this learning, through the development of content knowledge for science teaching and high-leverage science teaching practices. Most recently, she chaired the Elementary Teacher Education Program at the University of Michigan for 4 years and helped lead the reshaping and redesign of this program. Dr. Davis received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House in 2002 and the Jan Hawkins Early Career Award in 2004. Dr. Davis earned a B.S.E. in engineering and management systems at Princeton University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in education in mathematics, science, and technology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Zoe Evans is an assistant principal at Villa Rica High School in Villa Rica, Georgia. Before becoming an assistant principal in 2012, she served as a middle-grades science teacher for 19 years in Florida and Georgia. Ms. Evans is a National Board Certified teacher in early adolescent science and a Georgia master teacher. She is the 2005 Georgia recipient of the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Ms. Evans has served as a member of the Georgia Department of Education Science Frameworks writing team, which created instructional models designed to help guide Georgia teachers in the implementation of the Georgia Performance Standards. Additionally, she is a member of the Georgia Science Education advisory committee. Most recently, Ms. Evans served as a member of the writing team for the Next Generation Science Education Standards. In addition to her work at the local, state, and national level, she serves as an active member of the Georgia Science Teachers Association having served as president from 2012-2015. She has held several executive board positions and is currently president-elect of the organization. Ms. Evans earned a bachelor’s degree in middle grades education, master’s degree in middle grades science, and specialist’s degree in middle grade science from the University of West Georgia. Additionally, she has received certification in Educational Leadership from the University of West Georgia.
Adam Gamoran is president of the William T. Grant Foundation, which supports research on the education and development of young people. He was formerly the John D. MacArthur professor of sociology and educational policy studies and the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research interests include school organization, stratification, and inequality in education. He recently concluded a large-scale randomized trial, supported by the National Science Foundation, on the impact of professional development to improve teaching and learning in elementary science in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Dr. Gamoran is a member of the National Academy of Education, and he has served on several National Research Council panels, including the Board on Science Education. In that capacity, he chaired the Committee on Highly Successful Schools or Programs in K-12 STEM Education and the Committee on the Evaluation Framework for Successful K-12 STEM Education. For the U.S. Department of Education, he chaired the congressionally mandated independent advisory panel of the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education, and he was twice appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Board for Education Sciences. Dr. Gamoran earned his Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago.
Kris D. Gutiérrez is professor of language, literacy, and culture at the University of California, Berkeley. She was most recently, distinguished professor and professor of learning sciences literacy and the inaugural provost’s chair at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is also professor of social research methodology at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research examines learning in designed learning environments, with attention to student from nondominant communities and English learners. Specifically, her work focuses on the processes by which people negotiate meaning in culturally organized contexts, using language and literacies that are embedded within socio-historical traditions. Issues of equity and excellence are recurrent themes in her work. Dr. Gutiérrez is a past president and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and an elected member of the National Academy of Education. She has been an Osher fellow at the Exploratorium and is a fellow at the National Conference on Research on Language and Literacy and at the National Education Policy Center. She has served on numerous policy-making and advisory boards, including the U.S. Department of Education Reading First Advisory Committee and as a member of President Obama’s education policy transition team. She has received numerous awards, including the AERA Hispanic Research in Elementary,
Secondary, or Postsecondary Education Award and the inaugural AERA Award for Innovations in Research on Diversity in Teacher Education. Dr. Gutiérrez holds an M.A. in English education, reading and English from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in English and education from the University of Colorado.
Paula Hooper is senior science educator and learning research scientist in the Institute for Inquiry at the Exploratorium. Dr. Hooper has been an elementary classroom teacher; worked on the design and teaching of inquiry-oriented science professional development experiences for K-8 teachers, administrators, and museum educators; and worked with youth in informal settings on robotics and using digital design fabrication for their creative activism. Her research and teaching addresses the uses of digital media to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in formal and informal learning settings from a sociocultural perspective. She is also interested in the design and facilitation of online communication and cyberlearning projects that complement STEM professional development. Dr. Hooper has worked for TERC, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Shaker Heights Public Schools. She has served on advisory boards for the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Technology Committee of the American Educational Research Association and was a Warren Weaver fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Hooper holds a Ph.D. from the Massachussettes Institute of Technology Media Lab in media arts and sciences with a focus on epistemology and learning with digital media.
Judith Warren Little is dean of the Graduate School of Education and professor of policy, organization, measurement, and evaluation at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley. Before becoming dean in 2010, Dr. Little had been on the University of California, Berkeley, faculty since 1987. Her research interests center on the organizational and occupational contexts of teaching, with special attention to teachers’ collegial relationships and to the contexts, policies, and practices of teachers’ professional development. In pursuing these interests, she attempts to balance attention to the daily life of schools and the search for locally situated meanings, identities, and relationships with a broader view of the larger social, institutional, and policy environments in which the work of teaching resides. An elected member of the National Academy of Education, she has received numerous awards, including being named a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the Frank H. Klassen Award for scholarly contributions in teacher education, and the Spencer Foundation Faculty Mentor Award. Dr. Little has a B.A. from the University of Colorado, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado.
Julie Luft is the inaugural athletic association professor of mathematics and science education at the University of Georgia. Her previous professional experience includes teaching science in middle and high school. Dr. Luft’s areas of research expertise are science teacher education (preservice and inservice), mixed-methods research, and science teacher beliefs and practices. She has served as a board member and president of the Association of Science Teacher Educators (ASTE), and she has been the research director, board member, and council member of the National Science Teachers Association. She has received the ASTE Outstanding Science Teacher Educator Award, the ASTE Mentor Award, the Journal of Research on Science Teaching Award, and she is an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow. Dr. Luft has a B.S.Ed. in life sciences from the University of New Mexico, an M.S.T. in science education and ecology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Iowa.
Barbara Miller is a vice president at Education Development Center (EDC) and associate director of EDC’s Learning and Teaching Division. A national expert in professional development for districts and schools, Dr. Miller conducts research on professional development and teacher leadership; provides technical assistance to programs and districts; and creates materials for teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators. Dr. Miller directed the award-winning Success at the Core project, a video-based professional development toolkit designed to improve instructional quality in classrooms and among school leadership teams. She has conducted research on knowledge management for the National Science Foundation’s Math and Science Partnership Program, by synthesizing and sharing knowledge from the field around teacher leadership and professional learning communities; consulted with numerous districts on leadership development efforts; evaluated systemic reform initiatives; and provided assistance to underperforming schools and districts. A former middle school teacher and teacher educator, Dr. Miller has co-authored numerous articles, chapters and books on teacher leadership and school reform. Dr. Miller has a B.A. from Carleton College and an Ed.D. from Harvard University.
Kathleen Roth is a principal investigator at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she is engaged in building on a line of research about videocase-based, analysis-of-practice professional development for elementary science teachers. In earlier work, she was principal investigator of a series of National Science Foundation-funded studies that developed and tested the effectiveness of this professional development
approach on upper-elementary teachers’ science content learning, their pedagogical content knowledge, their science teaching practice, and their students’ science learning. An example of this is the Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis Program, which demonstrated significant effects on teacher knowledge, teaching practice, and student learning. Later, as a teacher educator and researcher at Michigan State University, she taught elementary school science and studied her own practice and her students’ learning. She also served as director of the LessonLab Research Institute, where her research examined science teaching in classrooms. Dr. Roth received a B.S. in biology from Duke University, an M.S. in secondary science teaching from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in science education from Michigan State University.
Irwin Shapiro is the Timken University professor at Harvard University and a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Shapiro is the former director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), where he was instrumental in the Center’s research initiatives including the development of powerful telescopes and the establishment of a science education department. Prior to joining the CfA, Dr. Shapiro spent 28 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the research staff, as a professor of geophysics and physics, and the Schlumberger professor. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and other honorific societies. He has been active on a number of academic and government advisory boards, including the NASA. Dr. Shapiro has served as a member of the Radio Science teams for the Mariner, Viking, and Pioneer Venus spacecraft missions. More recently, Shapiro has devoted some of his interest to precollege and college science education, and has for years worked on curriculum development and teacher training. Dr. Shapiro has been the recipient of a number of awards, among them the Dannie Heineman (1984) and the Fred Whipple (1989) prizes of the American Astronomical Society, the Charles A. Whitten (1991) and William Bowie medals (1993) of the American Geophysical Union, and the Einstein Prize of the American Physical Society (2013). Dr. Shapiro received a B.S. in mathematics from Cornell University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.
Patrick M. Shields is executive director of the Learning Policy Institute. Previously, he served as the executive director of SRI Education. Dr. Shields’ research focuses on effective educational policies and teaching practices for economically poor and ethnically diverse populations. Currently, he is the co-principal investigator of the Science Learning Activation Lab, a national research and design effort to strengthen science teaching and learning in the United States. Since 1999, he has served as
the director of research for state-wide policy and research initiative to improve the teacher workforce in California. Dr. Shields is also principal investigator of a national randomized trial assessing the efficacy of the National Writing Project, a professional development program to improve the teaching of writing. Dr. Shields has served on the National Research Council committees on the Influence of Standards in Mathematics, Science, and Technology and Lessons Learned from Large-Scale Reforms in K-12 STEM Education. He was a senior policy advisor to the Center for Research on Educational Diversity and Excellence at the University of California and a member of the National Council for Teacher of Mathematics Standards Impact research group. He is currently a member of the committee of visitors for the Center for Informal Learning and Schools and is a member of the editorial board of Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Dr. Shields holds a Ph.D. in educational policy from Stanford University.
Warren Simmons is executive director of the Annenberg Institute and co-directs its work in community-centered education reform at Brown University. He also co-chairs the Aspen Urban Superintendents Network and the Working Group on School Transformation in New York City. Before joining the Annenberg Institute, he was founding director of the Philadelphia Education Fund, a local reform support organization that helped the School District of Philadelphia to fund, develop, and implement new academic standards, content-based professional development, standards-based curriculum resources, and comprehensive school reform. Previously, at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, he developed and funded initiatives on community development and urban school reform. He also served as director of equity initiatives for the New Standards Project and as special assistant to the superintendent of schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he planned and/or implemented district-wide initiatives on improving the achievement of traditionally underserved students. He is a recent recipient of the Distinguished Citizens Award from the National Governors Association and has served on the advisory groups or boards of several national organizations for science education. He was chair of the Rhode Island Urban Education task force and a member of the National Commission on Civic Investment in Public Education. Dr. Simmons received a B.A. in psychology from Macalester College, and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University.
Mark Windschitl is a professor of science teaching and learning at the University of Washington. His research interests deal with the early-career development of science teachers—in particular, shaping their trajectories toward ambitious and equitable pedagogy. He has recently been principal
investigator on two projects that tracked science teachers from preparation through their first year of teaching. His research group has prototyped a set of high-leverage practices for K-12 science instruction that represent a “’beginner’s repertoire” and has tested the conditions under which these core practices, with the help of specially designed tools to support the intellectual work of teaching, can be appropriated as novices begin their professional careers in high-needs schools. His most recent funded work by the National Science Foundation is the Mapping Clinical Experience project in which he is collaborating with multiple institutions to do analyses of the advice and information networks that teacher candidates rely on when in their school placements. He is the recipient of the 2002 AERA Presidential Award for Best Review of Research and an author of the chapter on Science Teaching in the new American Educational Research Association Handbook of Research on Teaching. Dr. Windschitl received a B.S. in zoology, an M.S. in education research and evaluation, and a Ph.D. in education in curriculum and instruction from Iowa State University.
James Wyckoff is a Curry Memorial professor of education, professor of policy and director of EdPolicyWorks at the University of Virginia. Currently, his research examines a variety of issues in the preparation, recruitment, development and retention of effective teachers. Dr. Wyckoff has written widely on issues of education finance, including teacher compensation, teacher recruitment and retention of teachers in New York State, New York City, and the District of Columbia. He has served on several National Research Council committees, including the committee on the Study of Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States. He serves on the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy and several other advisory panels. Dr. Wyckoff received a B.A. in economics from Denison University, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina.
Carla Zembal-Saul is a professor of science education in the College of Education at the Pennsylvania State University. She holds the Gilbert and Donna Kahn endowed professorship in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, and she was recently named a NSTA fellow by the National Science Teachers Association. Her research takes place in the context of specially designed content courses for nonscience majors who are preparing to be teachers and in school-university partnerships where she investigates the long-term development of elementary teachers’ knowledge and practices for supporting children’s meaningful science learning and scientific discourse. She has developed online video-based cases of reform-oriented science teaching, used video analysis tools with preservice and practicing teachers, examined the use of software
scaffolds to support meaningful science learning, and implemented electronic teaching portfolios in teacher education. She is an elected member of the executive board for the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and she chairs the organization’s publications advisory board. Her previous experience includes teaching science in middle school. Dr. Zembal-Saul received a B.S. in science education from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in science education from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Michigan.
Staff
Heidi Schweingruber (Study Director) is the director of the Board on Science Education (BOSE) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this role, she oversees the BOSE portfolio and collaborates with the board to develop new projects. She has worked on multiple Academies’ projects on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education including co-directing the study that resulted in the report A Framework for K-12 Science Education. She co-authored two award-winning books for practitioners that translate findings of Academies reports for a broader audience: Ready, Set, Science! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms (2008) and Surrounded by Science (2010). Prior to joining the Academies, she was a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education and the director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project, an outreach program in K-12 mathematics education. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (developmental) and anthropology, and a certificate in culture and cognition from the University of Michigan.
Natalie Nielsen (Study Director until January 2014) was a senior program officer with the Board on Science Education (BOSE) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and acting director of the Board on Testing and Assessment (BOTA) from December 2013 until June 2015. While at BOSE, she directed studies on K-12 and undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, including the studies that produced the reports Successful K-12 STEM Education and Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education. As BOTA director, she oversaw the completion of projects related to assessing Next Generation Science Standards and evaluating governance reforms in the District of Columbia’s public schools, and the launch of projects related to NAEP achievement levels, character education, and inter- and intrapersonal competencies in postsecondary education. Before joining the Academies, she was director of research at the Business-Higher Educa-
tion and a senior researcher at SRI International. Dr. Nielsen holds a B.S. in geology from the University of California, Davis; an M.S. in geological sciences from San Diego State University; and a Ph.D. in education from George Mason University.
