AEA PreK-12 TIG Bios
Chair: George Chitiyo, Ph.D. is a Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation at Tennessee Tech University. He teaches courses in research methods, statistics, and program evaluation. His research interests include measurement and assessment in education, economics of health and higher education, and the psychosocial aspects of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. He has conducted extensive evaluations in PreK-12 educational and higher education settings (including the use of chess in education), advanced technological education, and STEM programs.
Chair-elect: David Osman, Ph.D. is Director of Research and Evaluation for Gibson Consulting Group in Austin. His team's work focuses on supporting educators and funders in continuous improvement efforts, program evaluation, and applied educational research. David earned his doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Educational Psychology. Before working at Gibson, David was the Director of Research and Evaluation in Round Rock ISD, a large public school district in Texas where he explored issues such as educational equity, academic achievement, school discipline, and educators’ data literacy. He has also served as a consultant for PreK-12 public schools on literacy initiatives for the College of Education at UT-Austin and is a former special education teacher, social studies teacher, and instructional coach.
Past Chair: Lisa M. Jones, Ph.D. is a Managing Researcher with McREL International. Dr. Jones holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (with a minor in Educational Psychology) from the University of Minnesota. She has over two decades of experience evaluating educational programs across K-12 and higher education. Her research and evaluation interests include school-based mental health programs, cultural equity and mental wellness, educator and leader development, education policy, STEM, and organizational learning.
Program Chair: Jenna LaChenaye, Ph.D. currently serves as an associate professor of educational psychology and research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research interests include sensitive topics evaluation, arts-based methods, place-based education, and the application of evaluation skills in K-12 education. She has conducted extensive evaluation work in arts education, place-based STEM programming, ESOL strategies, and health-based interventions.
Program Chair Elect: Kinsey Simone, M.A. is an instructor of educational assessment and quantitative research methods and design at Tennessee Tech University. She is set to earn her Ph.D. in Program Planning & Evaluation in August 2023, and her research interests include instrumental motivation and academic aspirations, predictors of educational expectation fulfillment, rural outmigration and depopulation, and quantitative research within program evaluation. She has assisted in conducting program evaluations in higher education settings, technological education, and STEM undergraduate programs.
Webmaster: Mya L. Martin-Glenn, Ph.D. is the Director of Assessment in the Division of Equity & Learning for Aurora Public Schools. She is responsible for directing District and state-level assessments within the district. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and English with a minor in Psychology from Washburn University in Topeka, KS; an MA in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Research and Evaluation Methodology from the University of Colorado, Denver; and a Ph.D. at the University of Denver in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Research Methods and Statistics.
Members-at-Large:
Sheila Arens, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Research, Evaluation, and Technical Assistance at McREL International. Dr. Arens holds a master’s degree in experimental psychology from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and a doctorate in inquiry methodology with emphases in program evaluation and educational policy studies from Indiana University, Bloomington. Sheila has extensive knowledge of research design, instrument development, program and policy analysis, and program evaluation theory. A common thread throughout her work is an interest in warranted claims and validity; her theoretical writings focus on the intersection of validity and context, stressing the importance of gaining a deep understanding of the space in which interventions are implemented or education is enacted to the complicated process of issuing valid claims.
Sofia Bahena, Ed.D. is an assistant professor of education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests include K-12 education policy, college access, program evaluation, and scale development. Dr. Bahena has experience working with English/Spanish bilingual communities, parents and families, and conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses. She holds a B.A. in business administration and sociology from Trinity University (San Antonio, TX) and an Ed.M. in human development and psychology and Ed.D. in cultures, communities, and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Brianna Crumly, M.S., is a Ph.D. student at Auburn University majoring in Human Development and Family Sciences. Her research interests include adolescent development in social contexts, emotion regulation processes, psychometrics, and program evaluation in K-12 schools and higher education. Brianna has experience in data management and dissemination through working as a graduate research assistant on a federally funded evaluation project. She is also building her evaluation design and implementation skills though a self-developed evaluation project being carried out in the near future and is extremely excited to continue to grow her research and evaluation capabilities.
Maia Elkana, MSW MA is the Evaluation Director at the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis where she leads program monitoring and evaluation. With over 15 years experience in education, healthcare, and nonprofit evaluation, she specializes in research-practice partnerships and connecting big picture goals and theories to measurable, practical activities. Maia holds masters degrees in social work and economics, balancing a love of data analytics with a respect for the nuance of human stories. She also serves as Program Chair for the Evaluation Association of St. Louis (EASL).
Chad Green, PMP has been an internal evaluator at Loudoun County Public Schools in northern Virginia since 2005. He is also a co-founder of the Educational Research and Evaluation Network, a regional collaborative of school district researchers and evaluators in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. He holds two master’s degrees: one in public administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and another in second language studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He formerly served as a TEFL Volunteer in the Peace Corps (1994-96, Latvia).
Amanda Klein, Ed.D. is the owner of Structured Solutions Educational Consulting, LLC and a Senior Research Associate at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. She brings extensive first-hand experience with students, families, school leaders, and district offices to her work supporting schools, districts, and non-profit organizations with measuring engagement. In addition to her experience as a teacher, community school coordinator, and district support staff, Amanda Klein has spent numerous years building data collection and tracking systems and conducting trainings on data usage in engagement and attendance. Dr. Klein holds two degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a Doctorate of Education from Vanderbilt University.
Marlana R. Lastres, Ph.D. earned her B.S. in Secondary Education with a concentration in History, M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Curriculum, and Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning with a concentration in Program Planning and Evaluation from Tennessee Tech University. Marlana’s experiences teaching middle school, undergraduate, and graduate students and her work in institutional effectiveness have all fueled her research interests. Her research interests primarily focus on childhood trauma, at-risk populations, evaluation, and quantitative analysis.
Leigh M. Tolley, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor, Secondary Education in the Department of Educational Curriculum and Instruction (EDCI) of the College of Education & Human Development at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she holds the Leonder & Louizette Labbe—Sy & Laura Arceneaux/BORSF Endowed Professorship in Education. As a long-standing member of this TIG’s leadership team, she served as Program Chair in 2014, and Chair in both 2017 and 2020. Her research interests include formative evaluation and assessment; K-12 preservice and inservice teachers’ education and learning, evaluative thinking, and reflective practice; mentoring in K-12 teacher education; the role of context in teaching, research, and evaluation; and the nature of exemplary evaluations.
Caroline R.H. Wiley, Ph.D. is a senior research scientist in the Validity Investigations in Education and the Workplace program at the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO). She holds a doctorate degree in educational psychology, with a minor in program evaluation, research and methodology, from the University of Arizona. She has over 17 years of experience in educational research revolving around educational policy, program evaluation in largely K-12 settings, assessment research, and classroom practices.