Network Team

Kerry Friedman, Principal Investigator
Kerry Friedman, MPP, is the principal investigator for the LEARN Network. 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.

Rebecca J. Griffiths, Co-Principal Investigator
Rebecca Griffiths, EdD, MBA, is co-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.

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

Adrienne Woods, Product Team Engagement Co-Lead
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.

Ela Joshi, Research Design and Implementation Co-Lead
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 Steele, Research Team Member
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.

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.

Morgan Solender, Dissemination Team Member
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.