Grace Falken is a Project Director on Professor Matthew Kraft’s research team. She primarily works on research at the intersection of climate change and education, and the expansion of empirical work in this area. In particular, she is leading the coordination of a new initiative on climate and education research which will serve as a hub for knowledge development and policymaker engagement in this area. Her prior research spans topics including the broad-level impacts of COVID-19 relief funding in public education, the impacts and difficulties of implementing tutoring programs at a large scale, and analyses of teacher labor markets.

Prior to joining Annenberg, Grace was a Research Consultant at the University of Washington’s Center for Education Data and Research. She has a B.A. in economics and English from Davidson College and an M.S. in public policy and governance from the University of Washington.

Gajendra's research area aims to decipher the descending motor neural circuit in neurodegenerative diseases utilising electrophysiology, optogenetics, neurocomputation, AI and machine learning. 

In Gajendra's recent research, he's discovered real-time field-programmable gate array-based closed-loop deep brain stimulation platform targeting cerebellar circuitry rescues motor deficits in a mouse model of cerebellar ataxia (CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics 2024), developed artificial intelligence-assisted graphical user interface for early detection of depression using EEG and facial expression recognition (Neural Computing Applications 2024), computation model of Cerebellar ataxia (Neural Networks 2023), artificial intelligence and machine learning model to predict the finger kinematics (Neurocomputing, 2023), deep brain stimulation to ameliorate the ataxia (Molecular Neurobiology, 2022), elucidate the target-specific neural activity and visual function recovery after optic nerve injury (npj Regenerative Medicine, 2022; PNAS, 2022), dissect the mechanism of glutamatergic system impacts on spontaneous motor recovery (npj Regenerative Medicine, 2022).

Francisco Arturo Santelli is a Research Scientist at the Annenberg Institute where he supports work on Rhode Island education initiatives and research with district learning networks. In his research, Francisco has partnered with school districts and state education agencies to examine practices that undergird inequitable patterns in educator hiring, placement, and retention. Francisco's experience as a 9th grade English teacher and debate coach led him to pursue local advocacy and policy work to address racial and economic educational inequities. These experiences taught him to foreground the needs of districts, educators, and students when developing and conducting research. 

Prior to joining Annenberg, Francisco completed his Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership at Vanderbilt University. His work there examined racial and ethnic isolation among teachers, teacher commutes, and the dynamics of leadership labor markets. He also earned an MPP in Educational Policy at Vanderbilt University and a BA in English at the University of Florida. 

Erika Byun is a Project Manager at Annenberg Institute at Brown University. She manages Annenberg’s partnership with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), including overseeing the execution of projects, communicating with district leadership, and producing evidence-based and actionable findings that inform district practices. Her current research focuses on barriers to achieving equity goals and human resource needs. Previously, she was a Predoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Erika earned her B.A. in Economics and B.A. in Public Policy with an emphasis on education policy in 2017 from Brown University, where she was Phi Beta Kappa.

Eric Taylor is an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Eric studies the economics of education, with a particular interest in employer-employee interactions between schools and teachers—hiring and firing decisions, job design, training, performance evaluation, compensation. His work has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Human Resources,Journal of Labor Economics, and Journal of Public Economics; and featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Education Week. Eric was a Spencer Dissertation Fellow in 2014, and was recognized for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring by the Stanford GSE in 2013.

Emma Zorfass is a Project Director at the Annenberg Institute, where she works with Professor John Papay. Her current work focuses on the effects of standardized assessment policies on students’ long-term outcomes in the state of Massachusetts. Her research interests include the economics of education and the transition from high school to higher education. She holds an M.A. in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also graduated from the University of Michigan in 2017 with a B.A. in Public Policy. Prior to joining Annenberg, she was a Research Assistant at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at Teachers College.

Emily Rauscher is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Brown University. Her research seeks to understand intergenerational inequality with a focus on education and health. She uses quantitative methods and causal inference techniques to investigate these areas and to identify policies that could increase equality of opportunity. She received her BA from Wesleyan University, Master’s degrees from USC and Trinity College Dublin, and a PhD in Sociology from New York University.

Emily Oster's research focuses on health and statistical methods, as well as educational recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Emily is the founder and CEO of ParentData, a data-driven guide to pregnancy, parenting, and beyond.  ParentData’s weekly newsletter now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, along with a strong social media community. Emily is also a New York Times best-selling author, whose books include Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and The Unexpected. 

Emily Kalejs Qazilbash is a Professor of Practice in Education at Brown University, and the Director of the Urban Education Policy A.M. program. Prior to her position at Brown, Dr. Qazilbash most recently served as Chief Human Capital Officer in the Boston Public Schools. After beginning her career as a teacher in Baltimore and Boston, she conducted research focused on issues of teacher quality and worked on issues such as educator evaluation, teachers unions, school reform efforts, and Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) programs. She holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Emily Handsman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University and former Annenberg Postdoctoral Research Associate. A sociologist of education who uses qualitative methods to study processes of cultural, political, and organizational change in the context of K-12 schools, her research considers how cultural and political changes impact K-12 schools and how K-12 schools as organizations are either resistant to or open to change. In her current book project, Eras of Equity, she studies equity efforts in three suburban school districts, highlighting how exogenous shocks impact these efforts. In her other projects, she examines changes in character education in US schools as well as equity efforts in mathematics. She is also engaged in a long-term, collaborative project on equity-centered school leadership funded by the Wallace Foundation