Our Advisors

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The work of STELAR is guided by a board of advisors comprised of individuals who are nationally recognized leaders in informal education, gender equity, workforce development, broadening participation, and in working with minority-serving institutions of higher education and community colleges. Our advisors bring both deep content expertise and best practices related to serving the needs of populations historically under-represented in STEM.

Nadya Fouad (University of Wisconsin, Career Development and Social Cognitive Career Theory) studies how people make work- and career-related decisions, particularly in understanding the work choices of women and underrepresented minorities. She publishes on social cognitive career theory, cross-cultural interest assessment, contextual issues in career development, and competence.

Irene Lee (Teacher Education, Computational Thinking in K–12) is a research scientist at MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade. Her research focuses on students’ and teachers’ understanding of complex adaptive systems and their development of computational thinking skills.

Diana Wogan (Public Policy) is a Policy Analyst at EDC. She leads a team in providing analytic technical support to ensure that research informs the day-to-day work in schools, school districts, state departments of education, and state capitals. She contributes expertise in research, policy analysis, and school improvement to a wide range of initiatives.

Joylin Kirk (Business and Industry) is the director of Public Sector Partnerships at Burning Glass Technologies. She connects community and social services agencies with leading-edge labor market data and analytics solutions that improve organizational and systems-level performance, promotes the economic vitality of businesses and communities, and helps individuals take greater control over their own career success.

Shuchi Grover (Computer and Learning Sciences) is a computer scientist and learning sciences researcher and co-Founder of Looking Glass Ventures. Her doctoral work at Stanford University and subsequent research has focused on K–12 computer science education, especially computational thinking in computer science and STEM+Computing integration settings at the primary and secondary school levels.

Maria Brisk (Bilingualism and Special Education) is a professor of education at Boston College. Her research and teaching interests include writing development and instruction, bilingual education, bilingual language and literacy acquisition, and preparation of mainstream teachers to work with bilingual learners.

Tim Podkul (The HOW Institute for Society) has experience working across complex teams at regional, national and international scales to design, implement, learn and improve upon solutions to multifarious problems in the social sector, as well as with program evaluation, continuous improvement, systems mapping, needs assessments, asset-mapping, theory of change development, and creating and reporting upon learning agendas. 

Special advisors will work with STELAR to develop strategic plans for engaging practitioner and professional communities in the work of the ITEST program and to conceptualize and implement activities designed to ensure that ITEST program outcomes reach their relevant constituent communities with actionable information and resources. STELAR special advisors include the following:

David Evans, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, has held various science-related positions throughout his career, directing research and education activities, strategic planning, outreach, and fundraising.

Michael Connet is the associate deputy executive director at the Association of Career and Technical Education. He leads the Association’s efforts to build relationships that harness the potential of career and technical education and to create projects and initiatives that elevate the profession.