Vivien Chen is currently a demographer research analyst at the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, leveraging her extensive background in education policy and demography to evaluate state-funded programs. At JLARC, she specializes in performance auditing, ensuring policies serve equity and effectiveness. Her prior role, as a research lead and coordinator, at the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) involved leading efforts to conduct P-20 research and construct a comprehensive statewide student administrative data warehouse, enhancing the foundation for informed decision-making in education policy. She received a dual-title PhD in Education Policy and Demography from The Pennsylvania State University.

Prior to joining AIR, James was a graduate student in economics at Cornell University. His current work for the center focuses on the evaluation of novice teachers, exploring the relationships among teacher attrition, teacher training programs and teacher licensing requirements, and evaluating the college enrollment effects of high school dual-enrollment programs. James holds a BA from Seattle University. James can be reached at jecowan@gmail.com.

John M. Krieg is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Western Washington University where he also directs the University’s Office of Survey Research.  His research interests focus on the economics of education with specific application to teacher labor markets, policy evaluation, and employee unions.  Among others, his research has appeared in the American Education Research Journal, Education Finance and Policy, Economics of Education Review, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, and Education Evaluation and Policy.  Currently, Professor Krieg serves as a co-director of the Teacher Education Learning Collaborative which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Professor Krieg received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon and undergraduate degrees from Northwestern University.  

Professor Lavery’s interests include American politics, political behavior, civic engagement and public policy. Her scholarship focuses specifically on the ways in which policy may influence political engagement and participation.  Using No Child Left Behind as a lens, she recently examined parents’ views on schools, education policy and government, adding to a growing body research that suggest that public policies shape citizens beliefs about their place in and value to society.  Her recent work appears in Politics and Policy, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and the Economics of Education Review.

Prior to coming to Macalester, Professor Lavery worked to educate and inspire 7-year-olds as a Teach for America corps member in San Jose, California and conducted research at the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington.  

Mark C. Long is a Professor of Public Policy and Governance and Adjunct Professor of Economics. He was elected in 2019 to the Washington State Academy of Sciences. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Education Finance and Policy and previously served as Vice President and Executive Council Member and Policy Council Member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Managing Editor and Co-Editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Interim Director of the West Coast Poverty Center, and Executive Committee Member of the University of Washington’s Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.  He is an Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal. He previously served as the Evans School’s Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (2018-19) and Associate Dean for Research (2016-18).

Roddy Theobald is a Principal Researcher in CALDER. He received his PhD in Statistics from the University of Washington in 2015, and previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington and as a 7th-grade math teacher at Westlake Middle School in the Oakland (CA) Unified School District as a Teach For America corps member. His ongoing projects investigate teacher education and licensing in Massachusetts and Washington, postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities in Washington, teacher quality gaps in North Carolina and Washington, and collective bargaining in California, Michigan, and Washington. Roddy can be reached at rtheobald@air.org.