Meet Our Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Students and Alumni

Our EEPA graduate students and alumni are engaging in important research that is helping to shape educational policy and transform K-12 schools. Meet them.

Christy Batts ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Graduate research assistant for EEPA, College of Education graduate student mentor, College of Education graduate student ambassador
Research Interests: Accurate representation of the diverse demographics and experiences within the homeschool sector and ways K-12 school policies interact with the home and families through emerging forms of partnership via dual enrollment or hybrid models.

Lindsey Lea Beam ’23PHD

Research Interests: The process of school improvement and the implementation of various reform models with a focus on how school leaders interact with these models and their related policies, and how those policies impact student and staff experiences

NC State College of Education doctoral student Victor Cadillia

Victor Cadilla ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Graduate assistant
Research Interests: Understanding how educational and social policies can act to impede or facilitate access to educational opportunities with a focus on examining how policies contribute to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic school segregation.

NC State College of Education graduate student Mary Elmer Esquivel

Mary Elmer Esquivel ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Program analyst with the Office of Career and Technical Education at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Research Interests: Ways to bridge the gap between educational research and practice among K-12 and higher education practitioners as well as ways to synergize education and military career pathways.

NC State College of Education graduate student Austin Gragson

Austin Gragson ’25PHD

Current Appointment: Research assistant
Research Interests: Early childhood education policy, including preschool policy and elementary school principal leadership.

Kendall Hageman-Mays ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Graduate research assistant at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and graduate student ambassador
Research Interests: Ways in which schools and districts in North Carolina are either addressing or exacerbating the disproportionality of historically marginalized students within gifted education programs.

Belltower framed by white blooms on a tree in spring.

Erin Huggins ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Interim associate director of Program Evaluation and Educational Research (PEER) at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Research Interests: Evaluation, digital equity, educational equity, teacher efficacy, new teacher support, early education, informal learning, school choice, remote teaching and learning and digital teaching and learning.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Mario Jackson in Liverpool, UK

Mario Jackson ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Research and teaching assistant for NC State’s Leadership Academies (NELA)
Research Interests: Advancing equity for marginalized groups through interrogating existing power structures that might perpetuate and or reinforce inequities, while also attending to school leaders’ capacity to challenge and resist these structures.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Jennifer N. Jarrett

Jennifer N. Jarrett ’24PHD

Current Appointment: NC Principal Fellows Program Support Coordinator at NC Central University
Research Interests: Understanding the identities and leadership behaviors of school leaders working to implement Black and Latinx student voices in their schools’ governance in order to develop equity-focused school leaders.

Abigail C. F. Kimball, Ph.D. ’28

Current Appointments: Reading Intervention teacher in Wake County Public Schools
Research Interests: The impacts of trauma on student academic and socioemotional well-being; how to implement trauma-informed teaching practices across the state of North Carolina; how neurodivergent students experience the K-12 educational setting

NC State College of Education graduate student Leanna Martin

Leanna Martin ’26PHD

Current Appointment: Policy Analyst, Early Learning – The Hunt Institute and Research Assistant
Research Interests: State and Federal Policy surrounding child care affordability and accessibility, impact of policy on child care providers, and factors that influence a child’s ability to access child care in rural communities.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Gage Matthews

Gage Matthews ’24PHD

Current Appointments: Graduate research assistant and graduate student ambassador
Research Interests: Community-centered and holistic supports, opportunities and policies for marginalized students and families.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Rodney O'Neal

Rodney O’Neal ’27 PHD

Current Appointment: Research assistant
Research Interests: Educational policies and impacts on the various socioeconomic levels for Pre-K through third grade.

Mary Kathryn Oyaga, Ph.D. ’28

Current Appointment: Graduate Assistant with Pathway to Practice
Research Interests: Exploring the intersection of individual choices and institutional policies in K-12 school (de)segregation.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Zainab Qaabidh

Zainab Qaabidh ’25PHD

Current Appointment: Graduate assistant in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development
Research Interests: Methods that will enhance learning experiences for students with disabilities, equipping school personnel with effective strategies to address all student’s needs and conducting research on school board reform policies.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Rachel Rana

Rachel Rana ’27PHD

Research Interests: Education and health equity, with particular emphasis on investigating the practices and mechanisms through which students are criminalized in schools, as well as the links between racism and injustice in school communities and the replication of these harms in the classroom.

NC State College of Education graduate student Jodi L. Roberson

Jodie L. Roberson ’24PHD

Current Appointments: Teaching assistant, instructor of record, graduate student ambassador and NC State student senator representing graduate and lifelong learners.
Research Interests: The recruitment and retention of teachers in rural settings and how the concept of being “of a place ” influences their choices about where they teach after graduation.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Rachel Rowan

Rachel Rowan ’26PHD

Research Interests: Expansion of Universal Pre-K versus targeted funding of early childhood programs as well as age-appropriate curricula in early childhood settings and early childhood teacher training.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Nicholas Sengstaken

Nicholas Sengstaken ’27PHD

Current Appointment: Transformation Manager for the Operational Excellence team within the Office of the Chancellor at UNC Chapel Hill.
Research Interests: Identifying, documenting and deconstructing the social and economic barriers to positive secondary and post-secondary educational achievement.

Denise Schulz ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Mathematics Consultant with the Office of Academic Standards at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Research Interests: Ways in which Elementary Mathematics Specialists are perceived, utilized, and positioned within school communities.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Dre'Sha Singleton

Dre’Sha Singleton ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Research associate at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research
Research Interests: Investigation of the federal role in education to improve educational politics through the study of discourse and language.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Julie Whetzel

Julie Whetzel ’24PHD

Current Appointment: Appointment: Facilitator: Pathway to Practice/Research Assistant
Research Interests: How K-12 special education teachers who are seeking licensure through alternative pathways perceive their preparedness to teach in high poverty public schools and/or in schools that have been identified as low-performing.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Kelsie Yohe

Kelsie Yohe ’25PHD

Current Appointments: Graduate research assistant and facilitator for Pathway to Practice
Research Interests: Sex education in K-2 and its intersection with social-emotional learning.

NC State College of Education doctoral student Sora Yoo

Sora Yoo ’26PHD

Current Appointment: Graduate research assistant
Research Interests: Examining the effects of accountability policies on students’ academic outcomes with a current focus on grade-span configuration and its impacts on students’ achievements.

NC State College of Education graduate Elizabeth Adams

Elizabeth Adams ’17PHD

Current Appointment: STEM Researcher at Southern Methodist University
Research Interests: Measuring equity-oriented and STEM-focused classroom instructional practices.

Marvin Boomer ’23PHD

Current Appointment: Linked Learning College and Career Pathway Administrator, Oakland Unified School District
Research Interests: School closure, outcomes-based funding, collective impact, collaborative improvement and promise neighborhoods.

NC State College of Education graduate Autumn Cano-Guin

Autumn Cano-Guin ’20PHD

Current Appointment: Extension Associate at the N.C. Department of 4-H Youth Development
Research Interests: Community program development; youth development; programming with underserved youth, families and communities;
non-formal education, curriculum development and educator professional development

NC State College of Education graduate Amanda Danks

Amanda Danks ’21PHD

Current Appointments: Senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research and associate director of the Economic Evaluation of Policies and Programs (EEPP) Methods Hub
Research Interests: The economics of education, special education, early child care and education and public subsidy programs

Ariana DeBey Kanwit ’22PHD

Current Appointment: Department chair for culturally and linguistically diverse learners at Relay Graduate School of Education.
Research Interests: Bilingual education and effectively supporting multilingual learners.

NC State College of Education graduate Jen DeNeal

Jen DeNeal ’22PHD

Current Appointment: Director of policy and research at The Education Trust-Midwest
Research Interests: Educator effectiveness, educator preparation, school funding and equity and access in education.

Jamie Gillespie ’21PHD

Current Appointment: Research scholar at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Research Interests: Teacher unions, educational politics, teacher leadership, student leadership and educational policies

Sarah Hammond ’22PHD

Current Appointments: Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in the Center for Innovative Pharmacy Education and Research
Research Interests: Post-baccalaureate access and attainment; diversity, equity and inclusion in the health professions; interprofessional education; experiential learning and consequential validity in education research.

Iwinosa Idahor ’21PHD

Current Appointment: Student equity, engagement and opportunity coordinator at Durham Public Schools
Research Interests: Teacher diversity and recruitment/retention, culturally responsive family and community engagement, student affinity groups and grow-your-own educator programs

Wayne D. Lewis ’09PHD

Current Appointment: President of Houghton University
Research Interests: Educational leadership, politics of education, school choice, Christian higher education and Christian leadership

Collin McColskey-Leary ’21PHD

Current Appointments: Vice president of research, evaluation, and innovation at Communities In Schools of North Carolina, member of the Board of Directors for Durham’s Partnership for Children and Advisory Council member of Voices Together
Research Interests: Integrated student supports, achievement gaps and college and career readiness.

NC State College of Education alumna Audrey Martin-McCoy

Audrey Martin-McCoy ’10PHD

Current Appointment: Specialist for State Projects at The SERVE Center at UNC Greensboro
Research Interests: Qualitative research methodology; organizational process and improvement; organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion; African American learning experiences in schools and workplaces; and adult and continuing education.

Elizabeth M. Uzzell ’22PHD

Current Appointment: Postdoctoral research associate at the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education
Research Interests: Inequities in K-12 education, implementation evaluation and anti-racist education.

NC State College of Education graduate Iris Wagstaff

Iris W. Wagstaff ’14PHD

Current Appointment: STEM Program Director at AAAS and Founder/Executive Director of Wagstaff STEM Solutions
Research Interests: Broadening participation in STEM and innovation, science policy, HBCU engagement, K-20 STEM student college/career preparation and K-12 STEM teacher professional development.

Sheronda Witter Fleming ’19PHD

Current Appointment: Out-of-School Time Partnerships Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education – Office of the Secretary
Research Interests: Youth development, out-of-school time, after-school programs, summer programs, adverse childhood experiences and trauma-sensitive interventions development.