The Impact Genome Project (IGP) seeks to solve social problems through standardization. The goal of the IGP is to create universal frameworks for intended outcomes and program activities used by nonprofits and others focused on social impact. This allows “apples to apples” comparisons between programs that may seem very different on the surface, but are in fact trying to solve the same problem. We build the frameworks from rigorous literature reviews, and then perform meta analyses to understand which activities are associated with intended outcomes. We then mobilize this information through our relationships with clients, including private, corporate, and community foundations, by aligning their grantee portfolios to the frameworks. We have also built a database of benchmarks for the social sector, allowing funders and nonprofits to better understand the cost per intended outcome, and how they compare to peers. I lead all research efforts related to the education “genome,” which currently includes frameworks for College and Career Readiness; Early Childhood; Education Systems; STEM Education; and Student Achievement.

Spark is a Career Exploration and Self-Discovery Program that gives middle school students opportunities to understand, experience and pursue what’s possible for their future. We are leading The Possibility Movement by bringing together diverse communities of families, schools and companies who care, share, teach and inspire. Spark Lab, Spark Mentorship and Spark High School Pathways use workplace experiences, mentoring and guided support to help students explore careers, build skills and find the right path to a successful future. My role as Director of Evaluation is to manage and lead all evaluation activities across our four regions (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia).

I'll be continuing my work at Outlier as an Associate Project Director! I'm looking forward to upcoming projects, including our CS10K project studying the implementation of introductory computer science courses.

As part of the Outlier Research & Evaluation group, I am part of an dynamic team of researchers, educators, scientists, and statisticians. We focus on fidelity of implementation, spread and sustainability, computer science education, and other areas in math and science education. We also conduct evaluations of programs.

I was the Entreprenurial Lead during the Summer 2016 National Science Foundation Innovation Corps for Learning program. I led a team of three (Dr. Amy Cassata and Tom de Boor) in conducting 100 interviews with potential customers, partners, and advisors over six weeks. Our task was to make an evidence-based decision on whether our idea for an innovative learning platform would be a feasible start-up. We used the lean start-up method as a lens through which we viewed the interview data. Our innovation, conceptualized by Jeanne Century, is Dibble, an online learning platform that gives learners everything they need to conduct a scientific investigation on their computer or mobile device. Learners can investigate anything of interest to THEM - even if it's not a scientific topic. Dibble has tools that allow users to crowdsource data, quickly and simply visualize data, and discuss findings with peers. Dibble is built using the most up-to-date research findings on how to foster scientific motivation and engagement, and has the potential to let anyone become - not just pretend to be - a scientist.We are currently working with ForAll Systems, our technical partners, to build and test Dibble. For more information about Dibble and our learnings from I-Corps, see our videos:Lessons Learned: https://youtu.be/keiIeXPFg2ADescription of Dibble: https://youtu.be/8P3041yewfA

I was a trainee of the motoIGERT (PI Melina Hale) at University of Chicago. The goal of NSF IGERT grants is to train graduate students in integrative research and outreach. Unlike traditional training programs in the sciences, IGERTs train graduate students in integrative methods, pulling together many fields, including the sciences, math, engineering, education, humanities, economics, law, and business.

Since 2007, I have volunteered for the Sisters4Science subset of Project Exploration. Sisters4Science is an after school program currently running at four middle schools in the Chicago area. As one of the female scientist volunteers, I plan and lead activities for 5-15 middle school girls, and give them opportunities to interact with me, ask me questions about my career, and to perform a science experiment from start to finish. The wonderful thing about this program is that the Manager of Girls' Programs, Elsa Rodriguez (previously Jameela Jafri), sees the girls every week and is a consistent influence in their lives. I believe that this is the key to the program's success, and encourage anyone reading this, male or female, that is involved in science, math, or engineering in the Chicago area to contact Project Exploration and give them just a few hours of your time.

I was a graduate student in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. I am interested in locomotion in vertebrates and the evolution of limbs.

I contributed to the "Scientist of the Month" articles for the Chicago AWIS Chapter.

I curated and created content on EOL for early tetrapods and non-tetrapod Sarcopterygians

I worked with Dr. Irving and his (then) graduate student Tanya Bekyarova on understanding the structure of flight muscles in Drosophila using x-ray diffraction.

I worked for three professors at IIT; with Dr. Jialing Xiang studying apoptosis as it relates to cancer, with Dr. Nick Menhart studying gene networks, and with Dr. Tom Irving studying stretch activation in cardiac muscle.