Yuno supports and advances RPPL research projects through data collection and analysis, managing research studies, and contributing to academic papers and policy reports. 

Joining the Annenberg team excited Yuno because of a shared commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to advancing equity in education. 

During her undergraduate studies, Yuno worked as a research assistant and fellow for Dr.Nakamuro Makiko, at the Applied Econometrics Lab at Keio University (Japan), honing skills in designing and conducting quasi-experimental studies to produce evidence. She spent a year at Brown University as a visiting student, immersing herself in the field of Education Policy and serving in research assistant roles working with local organizations. This experience deepened her appreciation for the power of evidence and collaborations in shaping educational policy and practice to advance equity. Completing her master’s in education policy and analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she strengthened her research skills and enhanced her ability to generate robust evidence in education. 

Her passion stems from personal experiences as a bilingual student navigating multiple education systems in Japan, Canada, and Singapore and an intern at an educational nonprofit organization. As a bilingual student, she often found herself struggling to adapt to different education systems and languages. However, she has clear and vivid memories of the incredible support she received from her teachers. Their dedication and efforts to help her succeed played a crucial role in her academic and personal development. These experiences made her aware of the challenges faced by students who, like her, come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as the importance for teachers, the frontline advocates, to be well-equipped to support students and ultimately promote equity in education. 

She spent over three years supporting a nonprofit organization in Tokyo that provided academic support for low-income students. As a teaching staff, she aided 20 low-income students with their schoolwork and high school preparation. Additionally, as an intern, she led fundraising campaigns and served as a point of contact for community stakeholders to support the organization’s finances. These experiences deepened her understanding of the educational barriers faced by underprivileged students and the crucial role that targeted support and collaboration between schools, families, and community organizations play in ensuring that the support systems remained effective and responsive to the needs of the students.  

Virginia Lovison was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Her research uses applied econometric and survey methods to examine the impact of education programs and policies on teachers and students. She is particularly interested in the teacher workforce; her current projects focus on policy issues related to teacher recruitment, certification, development, and retention. Virginia's professional interests span research and policy. She splits her time producing academic research at Brown and providing practical advice to policymakers as a member of the education practice at Deloitte Access Economics. Virginia started her career teaching preschool in Ecuador and middle school math in Tennessee. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University, a Master’s in International Education and Policy Management from Vanderbilt University, and a B.A. in Economics from North Carolina State University.

Tricia Kelly has extensive experience working with Multilingual Learners as a teacher, program consultant, and curriculum specialist. She has taught in Spanish/English bilingual programs in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island and has served as an MLL Specialist supporting teachers in Providence-based charter schools. She earned her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University where her research focused on cross-cultural relationships within dual language programs. Current research and advocacy interests include ways to infuse asset-based and culturally-affirming practices into integrated programs for Multilingual Learners in K-12 school settings. Tricia is especially interested in innovative strategies that consider how teachers, families, and community organizations can holistically support Multilingual Learners, particularly newcomer students. Recent projects have focused on how translanguaging pedagogies and practices can help to sustain multilingualism in schools as well as ways to expand dual language programming to secondary school settings. All of Tricia's teaching, research, and advocacy focuses on maintaining joy at the center of hard work in schools.

Tracy Steffes is Professor of Education and History. Her primary research and teaching interests are twentieth century United States history, the history of American education, educational inequality, and political and policy history. She has published two books: School, Society, & State: A New Education to Govern Modern America, 1890-1940 (University of Chicago Press, 2012) and Structuring Inequality: How Schooling, Housing, and Tax Policies Shaped Metropolitan Development and Education (University of Chicago Press, 2024). She has started work on a new project tentatively titled Education Inc.: For-Profit Businesses and the Development of American Public Education about the long history of businesses selling products and services that shape teaching and learning in public schools and what that history tells us about the definition and development of public education over time. She has received fellowships to support her research from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Howard Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Guggenheim Foundation among others.

Tracy Gladstone, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and a faculty member at the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University. She received her B.A. in psychology from Brown University and her doctorate in clinical psychology from Emory University. She completed her predoctoral training at the Atlanta VA and her postdoctoral training at Judge Baker Children’s Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Gladstone holds a health service provider psychologist license in Massachusetts, a license in clinical psychology in Rhode Island, and has been trained in evidence-based clinical prevention and intervention protocols.   

For the past twenty-five years, Dr. Gladstone has focused her research on the prevention of depression in adolescents and families at risk. She has conducted several depression prevention trials, including an effort to evaluate a group cognitive-behavioral intervention for adolescents at risk for depression; a pilot study to develop, implement and evaluate a depression prevention program for women recovering from fistula repair surgery in Ethiopia; and multiple efforts to develop, evaluate and refine the technology-based Competent Adulthood Transition with Cognitive Behavioral Humanistic and Interpersonal Training (CATCH-IT) intervention. Currently she is leading an effort to adapt the CATCH-IT intervention for college students with symptoms of depression, and she is working with a team to develop strategies for preventing depression in adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  In addition to her research investigating interventions to prevent depression in adolescents, over the past several years Dr. Gladstone has been working with local school districts to develop and implement a community-based depression/anxiety/suicide screening and prevention program for middle and high school students. Her work is funded by federal agencies, including the National Institute of Mental Health and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and by a range of foundations, local agencies, and school districts.   

Thyra is a Research Associate on the Rhode Island Education Research Initiatives team, where she supports research efforts on projects in partnership with local schools and district leaders. Before coming to Brown she worked at an education consulting group evaluating K-12 and postsecondary academic programming, and MIT Econ. Thyra holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an A.M. in Urban Education Policy from Brown University. Outside of work, she enjoys relaxing on the beach with a good book, hiking, and tending to her many house plants.