Network Team

Rebecca J. Griffiths, Principal Investigator
Rebecca Griffiths, EdD, MBA, is the principal investigator for the LEARN Network. Griffiths brings over 20 years of experience leading projects in K–12 and postsecondary education, primarily focused on investigating benefits, costs, and implementation of educational innovations. She has worked extensively with developers, education partners, and funders to address challenges of scaling and sustainability, drawing on her earlier experience as a strategy consultant and product manager.

Jessica Mislevy, Co-Principal Investigator
Jessica Mislevy, PhD, is co-principal investigator and leads educator engagement and research activities. Mislevy brings extensive experience with the use of research to make decisions in education. She has led large-scale impact, implementation, and cost evaluations of educational interventions. Many of these evaluations have involved developing and administering surveys for educators and education leaders.

Zafeiria Panou, Co-Principal Investigator
Zafeiria Panou, MA, is co-principal investigator and co-lead for product team engagement. Panou brings unique experience with developing and scaling up products using the IAT framework. She collaborates with SRI researchers to assess the commercial potential of technologies, and she supports diligence for investments in early-stage start-ups and pre-incubation business concepts. She has held various market research roles in strategy consulting.

Vanessa Coleman, Senior Advisor
Vanessa Coleman, EdD, is a senior advisor with a focus on network development and stakeholder engagement. Coleman brings her extensive experience as a change management leader and technical assistance designer and provider. Coleman also has expertise in designing and leading learning and change-focused networks using various improvement science methods, including Liberatory Design. Before coming to SRI, Coleman was the director of The Equity Project at the American Institutes for Research (AIR).

Adrienne Woods, Co-Lead for Product Team Engagement
Adrienne Woods, PhD, is a co-lead for product team engagement. Woods works closely with product teams to help review and design effective scaling plans that increase access to evidence-based education programs. She offers methodological expertise in technical analysis of large-scale longitudinal data and substantive expertise regarding the developmental trajectories of children who receive special education services in U.S. schools. She also provides technical assistance to grantees and staff of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs through the Center for Improving Program & Project Performance.

Ela Joshi, Research Design and Implementation Support
Ela Joshi, PhD, supports the design and implementation of research activities. She brings experience with mixed-methods data collection and analysis in school systems, including with federally funded studies aiming to understand the processes through which educational innovations may scale and sustain through the use of Networked Improvement Community (NIC) structures. Previously, Joshi was an elementary school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona.

Candice Benge, Research Team Support
Candice Benge, MLA, MPA, supports research team activities, including development of surveys and interview protocols, literature reviews, and data collection. Benge is a mixed-methods researcher with experience in school finance, California education policy, and educational equity.

Kerry Friedman, Project Director
Kerry Friedman, MPP, is the project director. Friedman has experience leading dissemination, training, coaching, and technical support projects that build the capacity of practitioners to understand and apply evidence in the education system. She has also directed operations for large, complex projects.

Keena Walters, M.A. Ed.
Keena Walters, M.A. Ed., is an equity-focused qualitative researcher in education. Walters is an expert in creating protocols for interviews and focus groups. Walters has conducted evaluations of social-emotional learning, ELA, and math in K-6th. She has additionally worked on projects with alternative high schools and higher education students.

Erin Smith, Project Manager
Erin Smith, MPP, is project manager and supports research activities, product team engagement, and dissemination. Smith has knowledge of college and career access and pathway systems, career and technical education, and education advocacy. She brings experience with qualitative data collection and policy writing.

Hannah Kumbroch, Dissemination Support
Hannah Kumbroch supports dissemination on the network. Kumbroch has experience collecting qualitative data and conducting research on early literacy. She currently supports networked learning, technical assistance, and dissemination.

Morgan Solender, Dissemination Support
Morgan Solender, MEd, supports dissemination on the network. Solender contributes to the research and evaluation of policies and programs in digital learning, teaching quality, and language and literacy arts. She is experienced in project management, data collection, and quantitative data analysis.

Keith Heumiller, Dissemination Lead
Keith Heumiller is the dissemination lead. He has designed and led successful multichannel dissemination and engagement initiatives for national education research consortiums, state-level technical assistance providers, universities, colleges, and community organizations. Heumiller specializes in leveraging traditional and new media to present valuable education research in engaging, accessible, and actionable formats