NEPC Topic Experts on School Leadership and Management

Bruce Baker is Professor and Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami. Professor Baker is widely recognized as the nation’s leading scholar on the financing of public elementary and secondary education systems. His research spans public education finance and policy, postsecondary education finance and policy, teacher and administrator labor markets and education law. Professor Baker is author of two recent books from Harvard Education Press: School Finance and Education Equity, Lessons from Kansas (2021), and Educational Inequality and School Finance, Why Money Matters for America's Students (2018). In addition, Professor Baker has authored and coauthored a multitude of peer-reviewed research articles and law review articles, as well as influential policy reports for organizations including the Economic Policy Institute, Learning Policy Institute and Center for American Progress. Professor Baker is co-principal investigator on the creation of the School Finance Indicators Database, a resource used by researchers, advocates and policymakers across the country. He has consulted with numerous state legislatures on the design and reform of their state school funding systems, and has testified as an expert witness in state and federal constitutional litigation over the equity and adequacy of school funding in several states. 

Email Bruce D. Baker at: bdb119@miami.edu 

Arnold Danzig runs the doctoral program in educational leadership and is a professor at San Jose State University. He was previously professor of leadership and policy studies and the associate director of the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University, and served as the director of the Division of Advanced Studies in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at ASU.  He has authored or co-authored numerous articles, books, and reports on administrative leadership and education policy.  He is an editor of the Review of Research in Education sponsored by the American Educational Research Association.

Email Arnold Danzig at Arnold.danzig@sjsu.edu

David E. DeMatthews is the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Special Education. His research primarily focuses on district and school leadership. More specifically, he aims to understand how educational leaders create and sustain schools where all students are present, meaningfully engaged, and achieving at high levels, with a specific focus on students with disabilities. Given the importance of stable district and school leadership to school improvement processes, he has also cultivated a stream of research focused on superintendent and principal career pathways, job-related stress and burnout, and turnover. DeMatthews has also examined the impact of school choice policies on public schools and historically marginalized students. Prior to arriving at UT-Austin, DeMatthews was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. He began his career in education working as a teacher, campus leader, and district administrator in Baltimore City Public Schools and the District of Columbia Public Schools. 

Email David E. DeMatthews at: ddematthews@austin.utexas.edu

Amy Farley is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies program within the School of Education at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses broadly on equity in P-20 education systems and how consequential K-12 and postsecondary policies impact educational opportunity. She pays particular attention to school and university reform; high-stakes policies, including those regarding data use, measurement, and assessment; and the disparate impact of policies on minoritized student and teacher populations. Before becoming a faculty member, Amy worked as a K-12 educator and a Strategic Data Fellow through Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research, where she worked closely with state and local agencies to conduct research and provide technical assistance regarding the implementation of education policies and reforms related to standards, educator evaluation, and student assessment.

Email Amy Farley at: farleyay@ucmail.uc.edu

Ed Fuller is an Associate Professor in the Education Leadership Department at Penn State University. He is also the Director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis as well as the Associate Director for Policy of the University Council for Educational Administration.

Email Ed Fuller at: ejf20@psu.edu

Maria M. Lewis is an Associate Professor in Education Policy Studies and an affiliate law faculty member at Pennsylvania State University. Her research applies a critical lens to examine the intersection of education law, policy, and leadership. Specifically, her research explores: how the law can hinder or promote equity for minoritized students; the bidirectional relationship between social science research and laws or policies that implicate educational equity; and protecting and enforcing federal civil rights under the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

Email Maria Lewis at: mml25@psu.edu

Dr. Francesca López is the Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor of Education in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison . She began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. López is an AERA and APA Division 15 Fellow. Her research is focused on educator knowledge and behaviors that promote achievement and identity outcomes for marginalized youth in various educational settings. 

Email Francesca López at: flopez5@wisc.edu

Yongmei Ni is a professor and the chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah. She also serves as an Assistant Director at the Utah Education Policy Center. Her research examines educational policies related to school choice to improve education access, equity, and effectiveness for all students, and the importance of school leadership and leadership preparation programs. Her policy research has examined various issues related to the effects of charter school policies on racial/ethnic segregation and social stratification, effectiveness, resource allocation, teacher working conditions, teacher and principal labor markets. As part of the Initiative for Systemic Program Improvement through Research in Educational (INSPIRE) Leadership research collaborative team, her recent research explores the quality of leadership preparation programs and their impact on graduate learning and their leadership practices in schools.
 
She has published articles in journals such as Educational Administration Quarterly, American Journal of Education, Economics of Education Review, Teachers College Record, Educational Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, and Journal of Educational Finance. She was a 2012-2013 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer postdoctoral Fellow. In 2013, she received the William J. Davis Award for the most outstanding Educational Administration Quarterly article of the year. She obtained her Ph.D. in Education Policy and Master’s degree in Economics from Michigan State University.

Email Yongmei Ni at: yongmei.ni@utah.edu

Margaret Terry Orr was Professor (retired) in the Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy Division of Fordham University, where she directed their EDD program in Educational Leadership and served as the division chair. Previously, she was on the faculty of Bank Street College of Education, where she directed the Future School Leaders Academy, a two-year, dual certification leadership preparation program in partnership with 30+ school districts. In her prior work, she was an associate professor of Educational Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University and a senior research associate at the Academy for Educational Development (now FHI 360).

Dr. Orr has conducted a great number of regional and national studies over the last 35 years on leadership preparation approaches and school and district reform initiatives, and has published numerous books and articles. Her books address effective approaches to leadership preparation and development. Her articles on preparation program effects demonstrated the influence of preparation on leadership practices and school improvement work. Her forthcoming book, Leading Equity-Focused Inquiry for Continuous School Improvement, will be available Fall 2025.

Email Margaret Terry Orr at: morr4@fordham.edu

Gloria M. Rodriguez (MPA, Columbia University; Ph.D. Education, Stanford University) is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. Her research centers on educational resource allocation and leadership from a critical, social justice perspective and policy issues affecting Latina/o students and other minoritized populations.

Email Gloria Rodriguez at: gmrodriguez@ucdavis.edu

Kenneth Saltman is a Professor of Educational Policy Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago. His interests include the political economy and cultural politics of public school privatization. His work also explains how the privatization movement in education is part of the broader movement to undermine public democratic power and expand global corporate power.

He is the author and editor of numerous books on educational policy and politics including Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools, The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy, The Edison Schools, Education as Enforcement: the Militarization and Corporatization of Schools, The Failure of Corporate School Reform, The Politics of Education: A Critical Introduction, and Toward a New Common School Movement.  His most recent book (2016) is Scripted Bodies: Corporate Power, Smart Technologies, and the Undoing of Public Education.

Email Kenneth Saltman at: ksaltman@uic.edu 

Carrie Sampson, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University. Her scholarship focuses on how educational leadership and policymaking at the K-12 level influences equity and social justice for minoritized youth and their families. Dr. Sampson has conducted research on school desegregation policies. Her most recent line of research is centered at the school district level with an emphasis on governance, particularly the role of school boards, community advocacy, decentralization, and school choice policies. Her methodological expertise is in case study and qualitative methods. Dr. Sampson’s research on school boards was recently funded by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Email Carrie Sampson at: csampso4@asu.edu

Ron Scapp is the founding director of the Graduate Program of Urban and Multicultural Education at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx where he is professor of humanities and teacher education. He is currently the director of program development at the College, and is President of the National Association for Ethnic Studies. He is also serving as a member of the International Committee for Kappa Delta Pi and a member of United Federation of Teachers policy board for the NYC Teachers Center.  He has written on a variety of topics—from popular culture to education, from social and political philosophy to art criticism. 

His recent books include, Managing to Be Different: Educational Leadership as Critical Practice (Routledge) and Living With Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture, co-edited with Brian Seitz (Palgrave Macmillan). He has collaborated with others on different projects, most notably with cultural critic and author bell hooks [sic]. He is currently working on a book about education and the culture of reform and is co-editor with Kenneth J. Saltman of the Routledge series, Positions: Education, Politics and Culture. He is editor of the journal Ethnic Studies Review, and is a founding member of Group Thought, a philosophy collective based in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Email Ron Scapp at: ron.scapp@mountsaintvincent.edu

Janelle Scott is a Professor and the Robert C. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities at the University of California at Berkeley in the Graduate School of Education, African American Studies Department, and Goldman School of Public Policy. She earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Before earning her doctorate, she was a teacher in Oakland, California. 

Professor Scott’s research investigates how market-based educational reforms affect democratic accountability and equity in public education. She has explored this research program across several policy strands: 1) the racial politics of public education, 2) the politics of school choice, marketization, and privatization, 3) the politics of research evidence on market-oriented reforms, and, 4) the role of elite and community-based advocacy in shaping public education and research evidence utilization. Her work has appeared in several edited books and journals, including the Peabody Journal of Education, Educational Policy, Qualitative Inquiry, the American Educational Research Journal, and the Harvard Educational Review.

She was awarded a Spencer Dissertation Year Fellowship, and a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2014, she was awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Committee on Scholars of Color.  In 2020, she was elected as an AERA Fellow. She is Vice President for Division L (Policy and Politics) of AERA (2019-2022). She is the editor of School choice and diversity: What the evidence says (2005 Teachers College Press), and, with Sonya Horsford and Gary Anderson, author of The Politics of Education in an Era of Inequality: Possibilities for democratic schooling (2018 Routledge). 

Email Janelle T. Scott at: jtscott@berkeley.edu

Tina Trujillo is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA and her M.A. in Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a former urban public school teacher, school reform consultant, and educational evaluator. Dr. Trujillo uses tools from political science and critical policy studies to study the political dimensions of urban district reform, the instructional and democratic consequences of high-stakes testing and accountability policies for students of color and English Learners, and trends in urban educational leadership. Her work is published in a range of journals, including the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Educational Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. She is the co-editor of Learning from the Federal Market-Based Reforms: Lessons for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2016, Information Age Publishing, with William Mathis).

Email Tina Trujillo at: trujillo@berkeley.edu

Dr. Kathryn E. Wiley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the School of Education at Howard University. Her work focuses on racial inequality and educational opportunity. She uses multiple methods to understand the historic connections between past and present funding inequalities. An avid public scholar, she is passionate about supporting education leaders, advocates, organizers, and lawmakers in equity-oriented change. Her work on the Price of Opportunity project at NEPC has included coordinating and conducting qualitative research with state partners and creating public-facing research dissemination tools for advocates. 

Email Kathryn Wiley at: kathryn.wiley@howard.edu