Biography
I am a Teaching Professor at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Education, where I work with doctoral students leading change in their own schools, districts, and universities. My work is animated by the conviction that all students deserve access to a world-class education that unlocks their full potential. My research asks what stands in the way of that promise and what policy and practice can do to deliver it. My recent book, Essentials of Education Policy (Routledge, 2025), maps the system that shapes those outcomes. My current work turns to the newest force reshaping it, artificial intelligence. In Fifty States of AI, I compare how states guide AI use in K-12 schools, and in two recent studies drawing on survey and interview data from nearly 100 K-12 teachers and two dozen administrators, I argue that the AI readiness gap reflects institutional and structural shortfalls rather than individual teacher failure and I offer practical recommendations for building the policy, professional development, and equity infrastructure that safe and effective adoption requires. I have also been published in Action Research, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Political Science Education. I co-founded AI Education Infusion, a nonprofit that helps administrators and teachers decide when, whether, and how to use AI in service of student learning.
Before entering academia, I spent more than a decade in federal and state government. I worked as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island, and later as Policy Director at the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy under former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt Jr., working with governors and legislators nationwide to strengthen state and local education systems. I hold a master’s in public policy from Duke University and a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
