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Who We Are

Division Officers

Division H Officers
2024-25

Vice-President (2023-2026)
Virginia Snodgrass Rangel
University of Houston
vrangel4@central.uh.edu

Secretary
(2023– 2024)
Jennifer Whitson
jennifer.whitson@acps.k12.va.us

Immediate Past Secretary
(2023-2024)
Rachel E. Durham
rdurham@ndm.edu

Immediate Past Vice-President
(2023-2024)
Bradley J. McMillan
bmcmillen@wcpss.net

Historian
Mary Yakimowski
yakimowski@aol.com

Division H Committee Roster

2023-2024

Virginia Snodgrass Rangel

W. Christopher Brandt

Rangel1638295197436733026

Vice President
5/1/2023 - 4/30/2026
University of Houston
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 4800 Calhoun
Farish Hall 112G
Houston, TX 77004
vrangel4@central.uh.edu

Dr. 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.

Program Committee Co-chair

Jennifer Whitson currently serves in the Department of Accountability and Research at Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia leading program evaluation and research projects as well as the administration of state and local assessments among other strategic initiatives. This is her second and final year in the role as Secretary serving Division H. Previously, Jennifer served as a reviewer and later Chair of the Division H Outstanding Publications Committee.

Secretary Jennifer L. Whitson

Program Committee Chair Rachel E. Durham

Rachel E. Durham is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Notre Dame of Maryland University and a Senior Fellow with the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC). With a background in sociology of education, education policy, and demography, her research focuses on graduates’ transition to adulthood, career and college readiness, community schools, and research-practice partnerships.

W. Christopher Brandt is an Associate at the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc., where he works with state and local education leaders to design, implement, and evaluate their assessment and accountability practices. Chris is also a What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) – certified reviewer who has held leadership and technical advisory roles on a range of impact and implementation studies of educational interventions.

Section 2 Chair Haigen Huang

Section 3 Chair Mikyung Kim Wolf

Haigen is an educational researcher serving public schools. His research interests focus on policy issues related to educational equity.

Mikyung is a principal research scientist in the Center for Language Education and Assessment Research (CLEAR) at Educational Testing Service (ETS). Her research areas include technology-enhanced language assessments, formative assessment, and validity issues in assessing K-12 English language learners in the U.S. as well as in global contexts. Mikyung has recently published an edited volume, Assessing English Language Proficiency in U.S. K-12 Schools (Routledge, 2020).

Awards Committee Chair Sara Jones

Awards Committee Co-chair David Osman

Dr. Sara Jones is the Executive Director of Accountability, Assessment & Analytics for Aldine Independent School District located in Houston, TX. Jones began her career in education in 2005 as a Teach For America teacher in the Houston Independent School District. She attended the University of Texas at Austin in graduate school, earning her master's in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Program Evaluation in 2011 and her doctorate in Educational Psychology in 2012. In Aldine, Jones oversees internal and external research and builds evaluation capacity through the management of campus and district improvement plans. Jones has been an active member of AERA since 2010.

Dr. David Osman is a Director of Research and Evaluation at Gibson Consulting Group, where he collaborated with district and school leaders in developing and leading evaluation projects, local applied educational research, and continuous improvement efforts. Dr. Osman has led large-scale evaluation studies for Regional Education Laboratory Southwest (RELSW), Fulton County Schools (GA), Hillsborough County Public Schools (FL), Kansas City Public Schools (MO), Round Rock Independent School District (TX), and Rochester City School District (NY). Dr. Osman is a former teacher and instructional coach and earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin.

Outstanding Publications Competition Committee Chair Angela K. Henneberger

Outstanding Publications Competition Committee Co-chair Chad Green

Dr. Henneberger’s research is situated at the intersection of education, developmental science, and prevention science, leveraging administrative data to examine the academic, social, and behavioral development of students in school contexts, with implications for policy and school-based prevention programming. The goal of her research is to strengthen the design and evaluation of policies and programs to prevent developmental problems and promote healthy development in school-based settings.

Chad Green, PMP has been an internal program evaluator at Loudoun County Public Schools in northern Virginia since 2005. He is also a co-founder of the Educational Research and Evaluation Network, a regional collaborative of school district researchers and evaluators in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Mentoring Committee Chair Jingshun (Jason) Zhang

International Relations Committee Chair Chris Brown

Dr. Jingshun (Jason) Zhang is a full professor in assessment, evaluation, and research at the College of Education, Florida Gulf Coast University. Dr. Zhang has more than 30 years of teaching, research, and academic experience in the USA, Canada, and China. He is the co-chair of the early career committee of Division H 2021-2024.

Professor Chris Brown is Professor in Education and Director of Research at the University of Warwick UK. Chris is seeking to drive forward the notion of Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) as a means to promote the collaborative learning of teachers. Alongside his research into PLNs Chris also has a long-standing interest in how research evidence can and should, but often doesn’t, aid the development of education policy and practice.

Nominations Committee Chair Brad McMillen

Website & Social Media Committee Chair Lei Wang

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Dr. Brad McMillen is the Assistant Superintendent for Data, Research and Accountability with the Wake County Public School System. He has a masters and PhD in Education from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and has worked in research and assessment positions at both the state and local school district level since 1999.

Dr. Lei Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology at Auburn University at Montgomery. Throughout her career of teaching and research, she has developed strong interests in exploring the nexus of theory-based instructional models, design, and the possibilities technology offers in aiding the transformation of teaching and learning, and assessing learning resources using principles of design and learning.

Exhibit Booth Committee Co-chair Xue Wang

International Relations Committee Co-chair Jana Groß Ophoff

Xue is a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins University, School of Education, specializing in educational effectiveness research, meta-analysis, and learner autonomy. Xue’s research aims to inform evidence-based practices and empower learners to take an active role in their education.

Jana Groß Ophoff studied Psychology at the Free University Berlin and the University of Freiburg, Germany. After completing her PhD (Dr. phil.) in 2011 at the University of Koblenz-Landau, she worked for several years as a post-doc at the University of Education in Freiburg and the University of Tübingen. There, she received the Venia Legendi for Educational Science in 2020. Since February 2021, she is a professor of Educational Sciences at the University College of Teacher Education Vorarlberg, Austria.

Membership Committee Co-chair Ann Marie Howard

Membership Committee Co-chair Leslie W. Grant

Adjunct Psychology Professor and curriculum designer. Member of Division H since 2019. Served 2 years as co-chair on Division H Program Committee. Currently serving as a co-chair for Division H membership committee.

Leslie W. Grant, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Education in the Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership Department at the William & Mary School of Education. She specializes in curriculum development, assessment, and evaluation. Her current research focuses on cross-cultural comparative studies of teaching.

Inclusion & Equity Committee Chair Monique Saastamoinen

Mentoring Committee Co-chair Robyn K. Pinilla

Assistant Chair of the I&E committee, and Doctoral Candidate in Educational Leadership with a concentration on educational partnerships and equity policies.

Robyn K. Pinilla, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of early childhood education at The University of Texas at El Paso. She taught early childhood special education and served as an assistant principal in a large urban school district, which allows her to bring a practice-based lens to research in the schools, specifically in mathematics education. Robyn serves as the Mentoring Committee Co-Chair to support early career researchers and practitioners in creating connections and facilitating relationships with mentors and others in the field.

Graduate Student Award Committee Judith Kom Nguiffo

Graduate Student Junior Rep Marah Lambert

Judith Kom is an Evaluator pursuing a doctoral degree in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, focusing on Diversity and Equity in Education. Her work involves program evaluation, survey design and delivery, management of large datasets, and data analysis to support policymaking.

Marah Lambert is a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation program. She has her master's in Research Methods in Education from the University of Kentucky and her bachelor's in Mathematics from Queens University of Charlotte. She taught middle school math for five years with the Anchorage School District.

Professional Development Committee Chair Josephine Carnevale Seddon

Dr. Josephine Carnevale Seddon is the Director of Educational Effectiveness for the College in Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University of Rochester. She 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 and in the State of New York. Dr. Seddon provides leadership in program evaluation and student outcomes assessment, and also guides the implementation and evaluation of educational research projects. Her research interests include STEM education, course-based undergraduate research experiences, teacher/faculty development, and the impact of technology on education and society.

Goals of the Division

Division H is committed to supporting scholarly presentations and publications; providing opportunities for professional growth and recognitions; enhancing communication, outreach, and networking among members; and improving the capacity of the profession to enhance the public good.

Structure & Governance

Our bylaws were first developed during 2004-2005, received full approval at the 2005 Annual Breakfast Meeting and received full approval by the AERA Council at its April 2006 meeting.

Please take a moment to read our bylaws.

We have developed a handbook for our membership. Below you will find each section of the handbook.

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Phone: (202) 238-3200 | Fax: (202) 238-3250

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