Leadership

The team leader of the Hannah Chair, Barbara Schneider, is dedicated to bringing rigorous education research to all her research designs and investigations, including CAP, CESE, and ML-PBL.

Barbara Schneider

Barbara Schneider is the John A. Hannah University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and the Department of Sociology. She uses a sociological lens to understand societal conditions and interpersonal interactions that create norms and values for enhancing human and social capital. Her research focuses on how the social contexts of schools and families influence the academic and social well-being of adolescents as they move into adulthood. In her career, Schneider has also played a significant role in the development of research methods for the real- time measurement of learning experiences. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Academy of Education, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and, most recently, was elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2017, she received an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Helsinki. Schneider is the principal investigator of the College Ambition Program (CAP), a study that tests a model for promoting a STEM college-going culture in high schools that encourages adolescents to pursue STEM majors in college and in their careers. She is also the principal investigator of Crafting Engagement in Science Environments, an international high school study that tests the impact of Project Based Learning on student academic, social and emotional factors in science classes. Professor Schneider has published 15 books and more than 100 articles and reports on family, social contexts of schooling and sociology of knowledge.

CV - Barbara Schneider

Meet the team

Here at the Hannah Chair, we work together to bring innovative methodology and key insights to education research.

I-Chien Chen

I-Chien Chen received a Ph.D. in Sociology and worked as an assistant professor in the College of Education at the Michigan State University. Her research uses sociological lens to understand how social contexts, interpersonal relationships and intervention programs enhance students’ educational expectations, social emotional learning, college-going decisions, and career pathways into adulthood.

Her research centers on the ways to make educational opportunities, resources, and information accessible to students, particularly for those who are historically underrepresented in the educational system. She draws on social-psychological and sociocultural perspectives to understand learning opportunities and inequality by applying the quantitative method, causal inference, textual data analysis, and social network analysis as toolkits to understand education-related behavior of decision-making, collaborative learning, and career pathways.

Lydia Bradford

Lydia Bradford is an advanced graduate student in Measurement and Quantitative Methods at Michigan State University College of Education. She graduated from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in Romance languages and Global Health with a minor in Economics in 2017. Before starting her doctorate, Lydia was a high school chemistry and economics teacher which has led her to an interest in science education; however, her main research interest lies in statistical modeling, analysis, research design, mediation and moderation effects, and causal inference within the context of educational research. In the fall of 2019, Lydia began working on two separate science curriculum interventions, Crafting Engaging Science Environments and Multiple Literacies in Project Based Learning. In these projects, she has participated in data construction and data management as well as various statistical analysis of both the main treatment effects and other exploratory analysis and applications of machine learning for scoring teacher observations.

Kayla Bartz

Kayla Bartz is a doctoral student in the Measurement and Quantitative Methods program at Michigan State. Her research interest includes test development and studying the psychometric properties of varying assessments and surveys.

Katie Ward

Katie Ward is a Ph.D. student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education program at Michigan State University. Her research interest is in the intersection of language, culture, and faith in culturally and linguistically diverse Catholic schools.

Claire Smith

Claire Smith is a junior undergraduate student studying Social Relations and Policy in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. She also has minors in Portuguese, Educational Studies, and Latin American and Carribean Studies. Her primary research interest is equitable higher education access.

Alumni

Rachel Marias Dezendorf

Rachel Marias Dezendorf earned her Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Rachel is currently an analyst at UC Berkeley's Academic Senate.

Nathan Jones

Nathan Jones earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Nathan is currently an Associate Professor at Boston University.

Michael Broda

Michael Broda earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Michael is currently an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Venessa Keesler

Venessa Keesler earned her Ph.D in Measurement and Quantitative Methods from Michigan State University. Venessa is currently a senior project director at AEM Corporation.

Justina Judy Spicer

Justina Judy Spicer earned her Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Justina is currently an educational research analyst and consultant.

Anna Katyn Chmielewski

Anna Katyn Chmielewski earned her Ph.D in Education from Stanford University. Anna is currently an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Christopher Klager

Christoper Klager earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Chris is currently a Research Associate the the Institute of Policy Research, STEPP.

Soobin Kim

Soobin Kim earned his Ph.D in Economics from Michigan State University. Soobin is currently a research scientist at Education Analytics.

Wei Li

Wei Li earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Wei is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida.

Timothy Ford

Timothy Ford earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Timothy is currently an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Gregory Wallsworth

Gregory Wallsworth earned his Ph.D in Economics from Michigan State University. Gregory is currently a manager in talent insights modeling and evaluation at Amazon.

Kri Burkander

Kri Brukander earned his Ph.D in Educational Policy from Michigan State University. Kri is currently a senior research associate and Research for Action.

Sarah Maestrales

Sarah Maestrales is a Ph.D. student in Measurement and Quantitative Methods at Michigan State University. She has a B.S. in physics and a background in psychology and chemistry. Her research focuses on promoting equity through research design and adapting assessment to machine scoring. Sarah currently works as a data analyst and content expert for John A. Hannah University Distinguished Professor Barbara Schneider with Crafting Engaging Science Environments. She has previously worked with the Physics Education Research Lab at Michigan State University.

Join the team

If you are interested in joining the work here at the Office of the Hannah Chair, email Barbara Schneider at: bschneid@msu.edu with your CV and a brief letter explaining your interest.

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