Linda Darling-Hammondis President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University. She is author or editor of a number of award-winning books and more than 500 publications on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on achieving equitable and empowering education for all children through a focus on meaningful learning, educator quality, and adequate resources. Read more >
Aneesha Badrinarayan supports LPI projects related to performance assessments. For the last decade, her work has focused on supporting states, districts, and educators to develop and implement student-centered systems of assessment that support all learners. Read more >
Jessica Barajas is a Research and Policy Associate at LPI. Prior to joining LPI, Barajas worked as an early childhood educator at the Stanford Bing Nursery School and at The Primary School in East Palo Alto. Both schools are dedicated to meeting the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and academic needs of the child. Read more >
Dion Burns is a member of the Deeper Learning team. He presently conducts quantitative and qualitative research into issues of educational equity and the policies and practices that support the development of deeper learning competencies. Read more >
Desiree Carver-Thomas is a member of LPI’s Educator Quality team. Her work focuses on how educator quality, teacher diversity, and leadership development can promote equitable opportunities for teaching and learning. She has authored several LPI reports, including Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color. She also leads LPI’s Racial Equity Leadership Network team. Read more >
Erin Chase is the Publications Manager. In this role, she manages all stages of LPI’s publications process. Chase brings 25 years of experience in academic publishing, editing, and project management. Read more >
Julia Clunn is the Deputy Director of Communications. She coordinates production of LPI’s web, publication, and outreach efforts to ensure timely and high-quality delivery of LPI research and policy findings to a wide range of audiences. Read more >
Peter W. Cookson, Jr. co-leads LPI’s Equitable Resources and Access team and provides leadership for several equity initiatives. In addition to teaching sociology at Georgetown University, he co-leads the American Voices Project, a joint research project of Stanford University, Princeton University, and the American Institutes for Research. Read more >
