Meet Our Staff
Center Leadership
Faculty Director: David Blazar |
Co-Founder: Robert Croninger |
Co-Founder: Gail Sunderman |
Faculty Collaborators
Michel Boudreaux
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Jennifer King Rice |
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Graduate Students
Kayla Bill
kaymbill@gmail.com
Kayla Bill is a doctoral candidate in Education Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research uses mixed methods to examine issues of equity in U.S. education systems, with a focus on how political dynamics shape the advancement and outcomes of policies intended to redress racial inequities. She earned her M.S. in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her B.S. in Health and Exercise Science from Syracuse University.
Shilpa Bista
sbista@terpmail.umd.edu
Shilpa is a research assistant with the Maryland Equity Project and fourth-year Ph.D student in the Education Policy and Leadership Program. She received her M.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests are related to the different educational, familial and sociocultural factors that contribute to intergenerational persistence of inequality and social status in America.
Nandi Carson
nandi.c@hotmail.com
Nandi is a Spelman College Alumnae (C’O 2021) and current Doctoral Student in Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership with a Specialization in Education Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland. She plans to investigate per-pupil-spending and financial investments for students in public schools; looking at the benefits to student achievement, access to resources and programming, school learning environments, parent involvement and teacher satisfaction/ burnout.
Wenjing Gao
wgao12@terpmail.umd.edu
Wenjing is a doctoral student in Education Policy at the University of Maryland. She desires to improve educational opportunities for underprovided students in K-12 education. Her primary research interests are exclusionary discipline, early childhood education, and the transition from secondary to higher education. Prior to starting her Ph.D., Wenjing received a M.A. in Public Administration at UMD and a M.A. in Business English Studies at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
Francisco Lagos
flagosm@umd.edu
Francisco is a doctoral student in Education Policy at the University of Maryland, where he is also completing a Certificate in Population Studies through the Maryland Population Research Center. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of educational inequality, both in developed and developing countries. Francisco’s work characterizes the dynamics of educational stratification; exploits different sources of exogenous variation to identify plausible determinants of between-school segregation; and investigates the consequences associated with changes in the composition of schools on educational and social outcomes.
Doug McNamara
dmcnama1@umd.edu
Doug McNamara is a doctoral student in Teacher Education/Professional Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his M.Ed. from the University of Maryland in 2017. His research focuses on measuring the effectiveness of instructional coaching and professional development programs using quantitative methods. He is a former high-school math teacher.
Danett Song
dsong619@umd.edu
Danett is a research assistant with the Maryland Equity Project and second-year Ph.D student in the Education Policy and Leadership Program. She received her M.A. in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and her research interests broadly focus on bilingual education, second language acquisition, and heritage language education.
Antoinette J. Waller
ajwaller@umd.edu
Antoinette is a doctoral student in Education Policy and Leadership and works as a research assistant with the Maryland Equity Project. She received her B.S. in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, and then went on to receive her M.S. in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences from the University of Florida. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods, her research examines the intersections of race and class on students schooling experiences, policies and practices that improve educational access and opportunity for mininortized students (i.e university-school partnerships), and exclusionary discipline practices. Antoinette’s work as a scholar aims to promote equity and use high-quality research to inform decisions and policies that students and their families can discern in their everyday lives.
Jiehui Zhao
jzhao126@umd.edu
Jiehui is a research assistant with the Maryland Equity Project and a doctoral student in the Education Policy and Leadership Program. She received her M.A. in Educational Theory and Policy from The Pennsylvania State University in 2019. Before studying in the U.S., she obtained her M.A. in Higher Education from Fudan University, China. Her research interests include sociology of education, educational inequality, social and cultural context’s influence on family practices, schooling, and student academic achievement.
Xiaoxue Zhou
xxzhou@umd.edu
Xiaoxue is a research assistant with the Maryland Equity Project and second-year Ph.D student in the TLL(Technology, Learning and Leadership) Program. Before starting her study in University of Maryland, she worked as a senior research data analyst in Johns Hopkins University for about four years. She owns two master's degrees in science and a bachelor's degree in Engineering. Her research interests include computer science education, data science education, education workforce, education policy, and student achievement assessment.