About Us

Bill Penuel is Distinguished Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development in the Institute of Cognitive Science and School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. He studies research-practice partnerships and the co-design, testing, and evaluation of high-quality instructional materials in STEM.

Philip Bell is a professor of the Learning Sciences & Human Development and holds the Shauna C. Larson Endowed Chair in Learning Sciences in the College of Education at the University of Washington. Bell pursues a cognitive and cultural program of research across diverse environments focused on how people learn in ways that are personally consequential to them.

Tiffany Clark is a learning scientist with expertise in research-practice partnerships, design-based implementation research, STEM education, and learning across settings. Her work includes multi-year partnerships with school districts, state agencies, community organizations, and professional associations.

Kylie Peppler is a Professor in Informatics and Education at the University of California Irvine. An artist by training, her research focuses on the intersection of arts, computational technologies and interest-driven learning.

Ashley Potvin is a research associate at the Renée Crown Wellness Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research explores teacher well-being, and she is the leader of a multi-program initiative focused on compassion and dignity for educators that includes an online graduate certificate program for teacher leaders.

Barry Fishman is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Learning Technologies in the University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education and the School of Information, and the inaugural chair of the Learning, Equity, and Problem-Solving for the Public Good bachelor's degree program. Ongoing research foci include video games as models for learning environments, the design of mastery- and competency-based programs in higher education, and the development of usable, scalable, and sustainable learning innovations through DBIR.

June Ahn is a a Professor of Learning Sciences and Research-Practice Partnerships at the UC Irvine (UCI) School of Education. He conducts research at the intersection of participatory design, technology, education, and community partnerships.

Dan Gallagher is Director of Secondary Academic Programs & Career and Technical Education at Shoreline School District. He is a leader in multiple research-practice partnerships and co-author of Creating Research-Practice Partnerships in Education with Bill Penuel.

Nichole Pinkard is the Alice Hamilton Professor of Learning Sciences and Faculty Director of the Office of Community Education Partnerships in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her current scholarly interests include the design and use of pedagogical-based social networks and socio-technical systems to support community-level ecological models of learning.

Jennifer Russell is a Professor, Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. She examines policy and other educational improvement initiatives through an organizational perspective and seeks to reshape the relationship between educational research and practice in order to accelerate improvement in the field.