Who We Are
Jennifer Lin Russell
Jenn is an associate professor of Learning Sciences and Policy in the School of Education and a research scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh, where she leads the Partners for Network Improvement developmental evaluation team. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Her research examines policy and other educational improvement initiatives through an organizational perspective. Her recent work examines two primary issues: (1) how schools create social and organizational structures that support reform; and (2) how inter-organizational collaborations can be structured for educational improvement. In the first strand she has examined how teachers' social networks influence their implementation of reform mathematics practice and studied how coaches support instructional improvement. The second strand of research examines how organizations can productively collaborate to pursue educational improvement, including how networked improvement communities launch and develop.
Jennifer Iriti
Jennifer Iriti is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Inclusion and Outreach Strategy and a Research Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work focuses on supporting educational practitioners and decision-makers in using research, data, improvement methodologies, equity frameworks, and human-centered design to strengthen the quality of their work and accelerate achievement of their goals. Much of her recent work is centered on designing and evaluating collective impact efforts to increase equitable access to postsecondary education including evaluation of the Pittsburgh Promise, analysis of best practices across Promise programs nationally, the establishment of a new network of precollege STEM programs and building an evaluation plan for the Northern California College Promise Coalition. She has been providing evaluation and program development expertise for education-related organizations for over 20 years. Iriti specializes in applying improvement science, utilization-focused evaluation and developmental evaluation to support education systems improvement. She has authored numerous published journal articles, technical reports and book chapters including the recently released "The Free College Handbook: A Practitioner's Guide to Promise Research."
Jennifer Zoltners Sherer
Jen is a Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research & Development Center. As an Instructional Design Fellow at the Institute for Learning, she supports the IFL's data and evaluation process, designs tools and learning environments, teaches Accountable Talk online workshops, and writes. She co-developed the Process Engineering for Educational Results (PEER) project and co-designed and co-taught the IFL's Coursera MOOC: Accountable Talk: Conversation that Works. Her research interests focus on distributed leadership, organizational change, and improving teaching and learning in K-12 systems through tool design and implementation, professional development, reform initiatives, and curriculum. Prior to her work with the IFL, Sherer designed and implemented professional development for K-12 teachers for the MacAurthur Foundation's Network on Teaching and Learning and contributed to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's efforts to create a 90-day cycle process for educational Research and Development. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University, she was a teacher in Oregon.
Disan Davis
Disan (she/her) is a Research Associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center, where she is a member of the Partners for Network Improvement team. Her work focuses on the STEM PUSH Network, which aims to elevate Black, Latina/o/e, and Indigenous students' enrollment and persistence in STEM. In this role, Disan uses improvement science tools with STEM PUSH pre-college STEM program partners to build capacity around college-going pathways and develops connections and strategies with undergraduate admissions partners toward improving undergraduate admissions systems. Prior to this work, she led a pre-college STEM program and taught middle and high school science in New York City, received her Chemistry Teaching Certificate from Hunter College, and earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from The Rockefeller University.
Brooke English
Brooke (she/her) is a Research and Evaluation Specialist with the Evaluation for Learning team at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center. She uses mixed methods and community-engaged research to address challenges within marginalized communities. Her current work helps support the EFL's projects with the Pittsburgh Promise and its Coaching Initiative, the STEM PUSH Network, and the Northern California College Promise Coalition. In past work, she has collaborated with the Texas Transgender Non-Discrimination Summit and Houston-area community colleges to assess the efficacy of anti-discrimination policies at their campuses. She holds a Master's in Linguistics from the University of California - Santa Barbara and a Bachelor's in Cognitive Science and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Rice University. Her Master's thesis is titled "r/TransVoice: Emotions and Community-Based Voice Training." Outside of work, she loves to watch Jeopardy! and do crosswords.
Courtney Long
Courtney is a full time graduate student in the LSAP program for the Evaluation for Learning Group at the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research & Development Center. She holds a Bachelor's degree in business from Michigan State University and a Master's degree in education from Drexel University. Courtney spent four years in the classroom teaching secondary mathematics before coming to the Evaluation for Learning Group full-time. Some current and recent organization clients include The Pittsburgh Promise, Winchester Thurston School, Summer Dreamers Academy, Be A Middle School Mentor Program, A+ Schools. Her experience in evaluation includes a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including survey development and analysis and social network analysis. She has pioneered efforts on the team to improve data visualization and communication of findings to non-academic audiences.
Danielle Lowry
Danielle is a post-doctoral researcher at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh. As part of the Evaluation for Learning group at LRDC, she works as part of a team that uses mixed methods approaches to provide evidence-based support to strengthen decision-making by education leaders, practitioners, and policy makers. Additionally, she is involved in Partners for Network Improvement (PNI) where she currently contributes to the knowledge management team for the STEM PUSH Network. STEM PUSH is a networked improvement community which aims to broaden the participation of minoritized students in STEM fields. Danielle earned her doctoral degree in education administration and policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh, where she focused her studies on education policy and causal inference methods. She also holds a Master's in Public Administration from Ohio State University. Danielle's research primarily focuses on higher education financial aid policies and college access and success programs, with a particular emphasis on how these policies and programs affect the educational outcomes of students from underserved backgrounds.
Chris Matthis
Chris is a Research Program Manager for Dr. Jennifer Russell. He holds a Bachelor degree in biology as well as a Master's degree in education from Duquesne University. Chris has spent the last several years coordinating projects out of the LRDC and supported projects relating to understanding student interest and motivation in the pursuit of STEM careers and the effectiveness of math coaching. His experience mostly focuses on qualitative methods, including interview analysis.
