Professional Development Opportunities


Professional Development Webinar: Perspectives on Career Building

Please reserve the date and time on your calendar and register for AERA’s virtual PD session, “Perspectives on Career Building”

Presented by Division H on Monday, March 31, 2025 (7:30-8:30 pm ET)

We are excited to announce that we will be offering a virtual PD session open to all AERA Division H members and friends!

Please click on the link below to register for the webinar.

https://tinyurl.com/AERA-PD-CareerBuilding

As part of the registration process, you will have an opportunity to share any areas of interest that you would like to see addressed during the session or as follow-up.

Some areas of interest could include:

  • Navigating Career Transitions
  • Employment Application Strategies
  • Sector-Specific Insights
  • Staying Resilient and Building Networks

We look forward to you joining us!

Sincerely,

AERA Division H

Panelists

  • Sara Jones, Ph.D.Learning and Evaluation Officer, Houston Endowment, Houston, TX
  • Sonya Stephens, Ph.D. Chief of Staff, Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, NC
  • Reid Whitaker, Ph.D. Founder and SVP, Research & Measurement, STEMscopes by Accelerate Learning, Inc., Houston, TX
  • Marc Sager, Ph.D. (AERA Division H, Co-Chair of PD Committee), Sr. Research Specialist with The Budd Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

Co-Moderators & Facilitators

  • Virginia Snodgrass Rangel, Ph.D. (AERA Division H, Vice President), Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Houston, Houston, TX

  • Colleen Paeplow, Ph.D. (AERA Division H, Secretary), Senior Administrator for Program Accountability, Wake County Public School System’s Data, Research, and Accountability Department, Wake County, Cary, NC

  • Josephine Carnevale Seddon, Ph.D. (AERA Division H, Chair of PD Committee), Director of Educational Effectiveness, Academic Excellence, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Panelists

Dr. Sara Jones is an Evaluation Officer at Houston Endowment, a private philanthropic foundation in Houston, Texas. She works with colleagues and partners to design evaluations that inform strategy, support learning, and enhance impact across the foundation’s portfolios.

Sara has spent the majority of her career in the Houston education sector. She began as a Teach For America corps member in Houston ISD before earning her doctorate in Educational Psychology. She later served as a faculty member in the College of Education at the University of Houston, and most recently as the Executive Director of Assessment, Accountability, and Analytics in a large public school district. Across these roles, Sara has led evaluation initiatives, supported data-informed decision-making, and built capacity for learning and improvement across systems. Sara holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Educational Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. from the University of Mississippi.

Dr. Sonya Stephens has been an educator for nearly 30 years and has served Guilford County Schools for four years. In her role as Chief of Staff, she collaborates with the Superintendent to develop, execute, and monitor the district’s strategic direction and assists with the development, review, and implementation of policies and procedures to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of district operations. Additionally, she is responsible for the district’s state and local assessments, data analytics and support, student information system, and research and evaluation initiatives. Sonya received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree from North Carolina A&T State University and she earned her Ph.D. from Cardinal Stritch University in leadership for the advancement of learning and service with a concentration in educational leadership and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Strategic Data Project Fellowship.

Dr. Reid Whitaker is the creator of STEMscopes, which led to his being named by EdTech Digest as one of the nation's leading "Eduprenuers" or Education Entrepreneurs. Reid is an advocate for providing a high-quality education for the most underserved and underrepresented students. He began his teaching career with Teach For America as a 5th grade and elementary science lab teacher, for which he was awarded the HEB Texas Excellence in Education Rising Star Award. Reid has also provided numerous hours of professional development training and coaching to teachers in Houston ISD as a content specialist for the district and then as an Associate Director for the Center for Education at Rice University. Subsequently, Reid returned to Port Houston Elementary as principal. In his three years as principal, he raised the accountability rating of the school from Academically Acceptable to Exemplary, earning Port Houston Elementary a spot in the top 2 percent of ll HISD schools for student growth. In 2009, Reid received the distinguished Houston's Emerging Leader Award from the Greater Houston Partnership. Reid returned to Rice University to create STEMscopes and joined Accelerate Learning to help solve the STEM crisis in the country and globally through the biggest lever to eradicate this problem-education. He earned his Ph.D. from his alma mater, Rice University, in Educational Administration.

Dr. Marc Sager’s research focuses on data science education, informal learning, and research-practice partnerships, aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practical application. Marc holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in Elementary Education from Missouri State University. He has a background in food production and experience in teaching secondary agricultural sciences in both formal and informal settings, his work uniquely intersects the realms of agriculture and education. He recently earned his Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in Learning Sciences from Southern Methodist University.

Co-Moderators & Facilitators

Dr. Virginia Rangel serves as the Vice President of Division H, in addition to her role as an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Houston. Her eclectic research interests encompass teacher leadership, data usage in policy and practice, policy implementation, school reform, and STEM education. She received her B.A. in International Studies from Middlebury College, and her M.A. in Government and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from The University of Texas at Austin. After graduation from UT-Austin, she was the Associate Director of Research at Rice University’s Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship where she and her team worked on program evaluation and the use of learning analytics in program evaluation. During her time at Rice, she was the Principal Investigator of an NSF DRK-12 grant that investigated how middle school science teachers used data in their daily work.

Dr. Colleen Paeplow has over 20 years of experience in program evaluation, 12 years as a university instructor, and 9 years serving on graduate committees. As the Senior Director for Program Accountability within the Wake County Public School System’s Data, Research, and Accountability Department, she collaborates with district program staff and university research partners to conduct evaluations and research studies. She serves as an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University teaching graduate courses on statistical analysis and data-based decision making. Working through universities and directly via her company, Dissertation Coaching Pros, she supports graduate students attending a variety of universities to finalize their degrees. Colleen earned a Ph.D. in Educational Research and Policy Analysis from North Carolina State University.

 

Dr. Josephine Carnevale Seddon provides leadership in program evaluation and student outcomes assessment at the University of Rochester and guides the implementation and evaluation of educational research projects. Josephine has over three decades of experience across the disciplines (K-20) as a teacher, professional developer, and assessment and evaluation specialist in the Province of Ontario (Canada) and in New York State. Her research interests include STEM education, course-based undergraduate research experiences, teacher/faculty development, and the impact of technology on education and society. Josephine holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. (in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning) from the University of Toronto, a B.Ed. from York University, and an Honours B.A. (in Mathematics & Sociology with a minor in Computer Science) from the University of Waterloo.

Special note from Division H VP Virginia Snodgrass Rangel

As the Division H VP, I am excited to welcome all to join us in this PD session. We also hope you will consider joining AERA and Division H if you have not done so already. As a Division of AERA, we are committed to supporting and spotlighting high quality research related to program evaluation, accountability, and assessment. Our members hail from many areas, including school districts, state agencies, nonprofits, research and assessment companies, and universities, and from all over the world. We are confident you will find that Division H is a good home for you and your work, too.