April 2025

A special session at this year’s Annual Meeting will focus on leveraging research for the public good, honoring the contributions of Felice Levine during her tenure as AERA’s executive director. This Annual Meeting will be the final meeting held with Levine at the helm of the association.

The session, featuring thinkers and scholars from various sectors of the field, will take place on Thursday, April 24, 1:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., in the Colorado Convention Center.

Roundtable participants David E. DeMatthews (University of Texas at Austin), Liesel Ebersöhn (University of Pretoria), Kent McGuire (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), Rachel M. Perera (Brookings Institution), AERA President Janelle T. Scott (University of California–Berkeley), and Leah Watson (American Civil Liberties Union). AERA Past President (2017–18) Deborah Loewenberg Ball (University of Michigan) will moderate.

The session will focus on the core dimension of AERA’s mission, “the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.” In that context, it will give tribute to the laudable intellectual vision, leadership, and organizational contributions of Levine to AERA’s mission and to the field.

Participants will bring a wide range of perspectives and expertise to examine the central questions of the session: What is the role of evidence and research in supporting the public good? And what does that look like in this moment? The participants will highlight major areas of inquiry and research advanced by Levine at AERA.

The discussion will center on the threats to knowledge and to scholarship in the present moment and the unique role of universities, scholars, journalists, the legal community, and professional associations in supporting research that makes the world and our education systems more equitable.

Complete details about this session, along with information on other major sessions at the Annual Meeting, are available on the AERA website.