Aida Ali Akreyi is a research and data strategy expert with over a decade of experience in federal data collection, institutional research, and education policy. Most recently, she served as Statistician and IPEDS Operations Lead at the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, where she directed national postsecondary data collection, compliance, and reporting initiatives, ensuring data integrity, accessibility, and usability. Aida brings deep expertise in leading large-scale research projects, developing performance metrics, and translating complex data into actionable insights for policymakers, institutional leaders, and the public. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Policy from the University of California, Riverside, and is passionate about using data to inform systems change and expand opportunity.

Dr. Alka Arora is a researcher and psychometrician with more than 25 years of experience in K–12 STEM assessment, measurement, and data analysis across the major national and international studies, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and TIMSS Advanced, and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Her work centers on the content and framework side of large-scale assessment — assessment design, framework and standards-alignment studies, item and scoring-guide review, and the cross-assessment comparisons that allow NCES to interpret and report U.S. results in an international context. She brings particular depth in mathematics and science content, constructed-response scoring, and standard-setting.
Most recently, Dr. Arora spent more than a decade as a Senior Researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), supporting the NAEP assessment development program through development plans, assessment design, item and framework review, and small-scale investigations to support assessment quality, alongside reviews of NAEP results, snapshots, and state and TUDA reporting. She conducted multiple framework and item comparisons among TIMSS, NAEP, and PISA to identify how the assessments’ constructs align and differ, and served as lead mathematics content expert for the 2023 Maryland College and Career Readiness Empirical Study. Earlier, over nearly a decade at Boston College’s TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center — as Researcher, TIMSS Advanced Project Coordinator, and Assistant Research Director — she coordinated the development of TIMSS, TIMSS Advanced, and TIMSS Numeracy frameworks, achievement tests, background questionnaires, and scoring rubrics, and served as a liaison among study directors, participating countries, and the international research community.
Dr. Arora holds a Ph.D. in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation from Boston College and began her career as a secondary STEM teacher. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a certified reviewer under the What Works Clearinghouse 5.0 group-design standards, and is a member of AERA, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the Comparative and International Education Society. Her published scholarship includes work on student misconceptions in physics and mathematics drawn from TIMSS data and a comparison of the Next Generation Science Standards with the NAEP frameworks.

Laura is a social policy scholar with wide-ranging interests in U.S. domestic policy and particular interests in sometimes hard-to-identify populations (immigrant communities, LGBTQ+ individuals). She has training in causal inference and demography, as well as extensive expertise working with large-scale administrative data. She also has a long-time interest in collaborating with state agencies and non-profits. She has a B.A. in History and English from Rice University, a MPA from Indiana University-Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Duke University.

Experienced leader in large-scale assessment and psychometrics with over 25 years specializing in educational measurement, statistical analysis, and data-driven reporting. Recognized for managing complex national and international assessment programs and coordinating cross-functional teams through all phases of test development, validation, administration, and analysis. Adept at translating sophisticated data into actionable insights and effectively communicating results to all.

Experienced mathematical statistician with a wide range of research and analytic skills. In-depth experience with all aspects of survey research, including conceptual development, survey design management, and quantitative data analysis using appropriate statistical methodology. Specific expertise in data confidentiality and statistical disclosure limitation procedures. Effective written and oral communication skills.

Jared Coopersmith (PhD) is a statistician with 19 years of experience focusing on survey research, statistical sample designs and weighting, report writing, and evaluation design. His most recent role was Chief Statistician for the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, leading a team of statisticians to develop complex sampling and weighting designs to meet specific client needs. Outside of his KnowledgePanel work, he also participated in developing proposals and led sampling and weighting for large-scale projects. This included the nonresponse bias analysis and weighting for the US Department of Transportation 2022 National Household Transportation Survey.
Prior to his work at Ipsos he was a Senior Statistician at Mathematica, where he led the sample design and implementation for multiple large scale survey e􀆯orts for the US Department of Education, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and non-profit clients like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Much of this work involved extensive sample frame construction, and utilized complex, multi-stage sample selection to achieve precision targets and supporting analytic goals.
Dr Coopersmith also had extensive experience with evaluation design at Mathematica and co-led an evaluation of prior authorization for non-emergent ambulatory transportation for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which identified significant cost savings with little impact on beneficiary health. Along with other colleagues he also co-authored several papers examining the ability of non-experimental methods to replicate experimental findings. Before joining Mathematica in 2012, Dr Coopersmith was an associate research scientist at the National Center for Education Statistics, overseeing two rapid turnaround survey systems.

Kristi is a sociologist with expertise in research design, data analysis, and stakeholder communications. At NCES, she led the Digest of Education Statistics, which is a core statistical reference that covers education topics from early childhood to K-12, post-secondary, and adult outcomes, all across several equity dimensions. Her prior experience includes working with state and local education organizations, including the city of Newark, NJ, and Saint Louis Public Schools, on community-driven research projects. Kristi has more than 10 years of experience with quantitative data analysis and writing for technical and non-technical audiences.

Senior project leader with over 20 years of experience managing federal statistics projects and tasks in both federal and contract settings. Subject matter expertise in high school transcript study analysis and knowledge of various education and health datasets. Expertise in program coordination, statistical analysis, technical writing and editing, and dissemination planning. Experience working in state and local education organizations on K-12 education accountability and performance measures.

Most recently at NCES, Linda served as project leader responsible for leading the U.S. data collection of 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) as well as the 2019 and 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Studies (HSTS). She presented key findings from the ICILS 2023 U.S. Highlights Report to staff from the Secretary of Education, White House, and Congressional offices and the 2019 NAEP HSTS Results at several National Assessment Governing Board meetings. In addition, she oversaw the development of various presentations, briefing books and press releases, and led in preparing for the NCES Commissioner’s media briefing, resulting in useful and policy-relevant national media coverage. She managed the restart of the NAEP HSTS and established policies and procedures for a new middle school transcript data collection. Early in her career, she conducted statistical analysis using SAS, SUDAAN, and Wesvar for a variety of private organizations looking at national health metrics and developed database applications for collecting data.

Linda also has considerable federal acquisition and contract experience working with program leaders and contract officers to manage the First International Consolidated National Contract for three international studies, and Education Statistics Service Institute Network (ESSIN) and Procurement of Research Evaluation and Statistics (PRESTO) task orders. She led in developing solicitations for and rewarding several of these task orders, reviewed contract proposals, monitored contract performance and budgets, and prepared contract modifications.

Dr. Claire Han is a researcher and with expertise in meta-analysis and systematic review. She is passionate about communicating meta-analytic results to practitioners and policymakers by encouraging understanding without ignoring complexity. Her meta-analysis application, MyEducationResearcher, aims to democratize evidence in education by making meta-analysis affordable and swift. Previously, Dr. Han has worked for the American Institutes for Research, and received her PhD in Education from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Han’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation; Society for Research and Reform in Education, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

Dr. Rebecca Hinze-Pifer is an education researcher and former classroom teacher whose work closes the gap between rigorous evidence and actionable insight for education leaders. Over more than a decade of district-partnered research, she has led multi-year evaluations of major reforms in Chicago Public Schools including the removal of police officers from schools, alternative high school transfer policy, and the effects of community violence on student outcomes, briefing district leadership and reaching public audiences through the Chicago Tribune, Chalkbeat, and WBEZ. She has directed randomized controlled trials of school-based social-emotional interventions in the United States and internationally, including a 30-school RCT in El Salvador presented to the World Bank and USAID. Her methodological toolkit spans causal inference, longitudinal and geospatial data integration, and mixed-methods design, with particular interests in school discipline and safety, teacher retention, and K–12 administrative data. She has served on the faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she taught doctoral quantitative methods, and holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago — having started out, improbably, in astrophysics.

Since 2015, David Richards worked as a study director at the National Center for Education Statistics, in the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences, with responsibility for large, nationally-representative postsecondary sample survey studies.

I specialize in education research studies by guiding diverse teams of programmers and analysts through the entire research lifecycle. My skills include designing and implementing complex data processing systems, programming custom solutions, and executing procedures for data cleaning and editing, reporting, analytic variable derivation, data matching, and data dissemination. I specialize in managing technical operations for education research, leading business development initiatives, establishing rigorous quality control standards for consistency and accuracy, and fostering collaboration through cross-team events to enhance partnerships and drive innovation.

Shannon Russell is a versatile education researcher, specializing in motivation and cognitive development in children and adolescents. With demonstrated success in client and project management, and expertise in survey methodology, cognitive assessments, and data analysis, she promotes processes and decision-making that lead to high-quality data. As a team leader she fosters professionalism, collaboration, and high-quality work within a positive, supportive environment.

For over 10 years, Dr. Russell provided expert technical support for multiple National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) longitudinal studies including the HS&B:22, HSLS:09, ECLS-K:2024, and MGLS:2017.

I’m a Researcher with over two decades of experience designing, implementing, and analyzing large-scale education assessments. My work focuses on uncovering meaningful patterns in student learning—across countries, cultures, and contexts—through rigorous data collection and thoughtful analysis.

At the American Institutes for Research (AIR), I collaborated with federal agencies and partner organizations on the U.S. implementation of PISA, a global assessment of student literacy conducted in over 80 countries. This experience deepened my understanding of how school systems and cultural factors shape educational outcomes, and strengthened my ability to translate complex data into practical, evidence-based takeaways. I’ve led technical reviews, managed sensitive student data, and supported the development of high-quality publications under tight deadlines. Beyond analysis, I’ve guided dissemination efforts through in-depth statistical reports, tailored presentations, media briefings, and practitioner-friendly briefs. I also spearheaded the RISE webinar series, which highlights global education research and encouraged dialogue across policy, practice, and research communities.

I’ve always loved the mix of precision, analysis, and people in my work—whether I’m refining survey tools, exploring complex datasets, or mentoring junior staff. I care deeply about making data clear and useful, and I bring empathy and attention to detail to every aspect of the process. Years of remote collaboration have also sharpened my ability to stay organized, meet tight deadlines, and stay connected across teams and time zones.

I’ve seen how much we can learn from different education systems—whether across countries or across states—by comparing student and school-level factors like motivation, instructional methods, and learning environments. Rigorously designed assessments don’t just measure what students know; they help us understand how students learn and grow. I’m committed to using research to shape smarter education policies and create more equitable opportunities for all learners.

Emmanuel Sikali spent twenty years at the National Center for Education Statistics, most recently as Acting Chief of the Assessments Division’s Reporting and Dissemination Branch, where he led the team responsible for releasing NAEP results. He served as federal project officer for EdSurvey, the open-source R package suite used internationally to analyze NAEP, TIMSS, PIAAC, and ECLS data, and founded the first federal center for process data — the time-stamped record of how students interact with digital assessments. He directed NCES’s annual training program for secondary analysts and led the agency’s work applying generative AI to assessment reporting and scoring. He has advised education ministries in Zambia and South Africa, taught graduate statistics and econometrics at George Washington University, and holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University.

Maura Spiegelman is a survey methodologist with more than 15 years of experience in social science research. She served as the Study Director for the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) for nearly 10 years, a system of interrelated surveys of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers. She has extensive experience in all aspects of survey data collection, including questionnaire development, designing data collection protocols, data processing and weighting, analysis, and rigorous documentation. Her research includes innovations to increase survey response rates while lowering respondent burden. This includes using extant data and commercial data, utilizing new survey and communication modes, and testing incentives and contact materials. She holds a PhD in survey methodology from the University of Maryland.