Co-Chairs (term 2 years)

• Steph Tuters is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She researches how social justice pursuits are enacted through leadership, policy, and practice. She is currently investigating how actors within and outside of school districts are working towards racial and greater social justice. Dr. Tuters received her Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Policy Studies from OISE at the University of Toronto. You can learn more about her work at LHAE :: Stephanie Diane Tuters :: Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education (utoronto.ca).

• Alice Huguet (she/her) is a policy researcher focused on K–12 education at the RAND Corporation. She studies policies that influence the academic and life opportunities of students who have been historically underserved by educational institutions. Huguet employs qualitative methods to better understand complex environmental, institutional, and organizational factors that intersect with the design and implementation of such policies. Prior to joining RAND, Huguet was a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She earned her Ph.D. in urban education policy from the University of Southern California, and her motivation to study education stems from five years teaching reading and history in Los Angeles middle schools. She is currently the co-director of RAND’s Center for Qualitative and Mixed Methods.

Co-Program Chairs (term 2 years) 

• Susan Bush-Mecenas  is an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, Professor of Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School of Policy, and a Senior Fellow at the Claremont Graduate University School of Educational Studies. Her research examines the enactment and implementation of PreK–12 education policy and practices in urban school systems using robust, innovative qualitative methods and drawing upon perspectives from organizational theory, sociology, and political science. She is particularly interested in the intersection between school systems, their policies, and educators and school leaders as agents of change. Her research has covered a wide range of topics, such as continuous improvement, equity-focused reforms, teacher evaluation, instructional coherence, administrator coaching, and district portfolio management, with articles appearing in journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Administration Quarterly, Education Finance and Policy, and Educational Policy. Dr. Bush-Mecenas holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California and an M.A. in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University. She is also trained in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) External Facilitation, a structured approach to coaching decision makers and practitioners through planning and implementing improvement projects. Prior to joining RAND, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy, and she has previously served as a middle school teacher.

• Joshua Childs

Secretary (term 2 years) 

• Sarah Diem is Professor and Chair in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri. She is also a Faculty Affiliate in the Harry S. Truman School of Government and Public Affairs and the Qualitative Inquiry Program in the College of Education and Human Development. She researches the social, political, and geographic contexts of education, focusing primarily on how the politics and implementation of educational policies affect outcomes related to racial equity and opportunity within public schools. She is also interested in the ways in which future school leaders are being prepared to address racism in their school communities. Dr. Diem received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Planning from The University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate Student Representative

• Sheena Bell is a PhD Candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Her research focusses on governance in decentralized education systems in low-and middle-income countries. Her SSHRC-CGS supported mixed-methods dissertation, under the supervision of Dr. Karen Mundy, examines the management practices and organizational contexts of high performing education districts in Ghana. Before starting her PhD, Sheena worked for a decade as an education policy and data specialist with UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. She holds an MPA – International Development from the University of York (UK), an MA in Political Science from McGill University, and a BA (Hons) in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.