Aaron Pallas is the Arthur I. Gates Professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has also taught at Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University, and served as a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education.

Professor Pallas uses a variety of research tools to inform the public about the relevance and usability of educational research for policy and practice. He educates stakeholders—including representatives of the media—about the complexities and unexpected consequences of accountability and resource distribution policies in public schools. His research, taken up by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and a variety of media reaching local political leaders, policymakers, parents, and voters, illuminates these dynamics across New York City, New York State and beyond.

Pallas’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of research to enhance educational discourse in the public sphere draw on his studies of the linkages between education policy and inequalities in life chances and the role of schooling in the course of human lives. His research has also addressed the sociology of teaching and teachers’ work and careers, including teacher accountability systems, undergraduate teaching improvement, and the preparation of education researchers. His current research examines patterns of segregation among and within New York City middle schools.

A former editor of the American Sociological Association journal Sociology of Education, he is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and an elected member of the National Academy of Education and of the Sociological Research Association, the preeminent honorary society of sociology scholars. He has also served as Chair of the Sociology of Education and Sociology of Children and Youth sections of the American Sociological Association.

Anna Neumann, Professor of Higher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, studies teaching in urban colleges and universities, with an eye toward improving first-generation students’ subject-matter learning in first- and second-year courses (in general/liberal education), and in post-graduate work (in law school). In this work, she seeks to illuminate what good teaching means and how it unfolds, how professors learn to teach, and professional development practices and programs for supporting teaching improvement.

Neumann’s research, which also examines professors’ intellectual careers, doctoral students’ learning of research, and academic organization and leadership, has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Review of Higher Education, and others. Her books include Convergent Teaching: Tools to Spark Deeper Learning in College (with Aaron M. Pallas, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), a reconceptualization of undergraduate teaching with implications for improvement; Professing to Learn: Creating Tenured Lives and Careers in the American Research University, an analysis of 40 university professors’ scholarly learning and intellectual identity development in the early post-tenure career (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009); and Learning from Our Lives: Women, Research, and Autobiography in Education (co-edited with Penelope L. Peterson, Teachers College Press, 1997), a study of the personal meaning of research in academic women’s lives in the field of education.

Other volumes address professors’ career-long learning and growth, collegiate cultures, and leadership cognition. Her work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, the Teagle Foundation, the U.S. Office of Education, the Lilly Endowment, TIAA-CREF, and others.

A Fellow of the American Education Research Association and an elected member of the National Academy of Education, she also is the recipient of her field’s top two research awards: the Research Achievement Award of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Exemplary Research Award of the American Educational Research Association, Division J (Higher and Postsecondary Education). Neumann is past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education. For over a decade she directed the Program in Higher and Postsecondary Education at Teachers College where she also served as department chair.

Dr. Jennifer Imazeki is a Senate Distinguished Professor and Professor of Economics at San Diego State University, currently serving as the Associate Vice President for Faculty and Staff Diversity. Her research has focused on the economics of K-12 education, including work on school finance reform, adequacy and teacher labor markets. In her previous role as CTL Director, Dr. Imazeki initiated multiple programs to promote inclusive teaching practices and to engage faculty in scholarly evaluation of their teaching. She is Past-President of the CSU Faculty Development Council, representing faculty developers in the California State University system, and has been an invited keynote speaker at multiple faculty development events. As AVP for Faculty and Staff Diversity, Dr. Imazeki serves as Director of the Center for Inclusive Excellence, the campus hub for professional learning and capacity-building around justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She also leads the Equity and Inclusion Councils, comprised of diversity liaisons from all campus units, and has overseen campus initiatives to diversify the faculty and to develop diversity plans for every division, college and academic school/department. Dr. Imazeki received her bachelor’s degree at Pomona College in Claremont, CA; and her master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, all in Economics.

Dr. Marlo Goldstein Hode currently serves as the Senior Manager of Strategic Diversity Initiatives for the University of Missouri St. Louis’ Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Staff Ombuds. In addition to professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, she leads UMSL’s Equity Advisor initiative to support the recruitment and retention of faculty from diverse backgrounds.  She holds a courtesy faculty position in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri – Columbia.  She is the co-author of DEI 2.0 – A Toolkit for Building Your Own Online Diversity Course. As a scholar, she has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters on various topics including sexual harassment, neurodiversity, racial issues on campus, and the effectiveness of online professional development courses. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

Marlo received her BA in Communication from North Carolina State University, an MA in Intercultural Communication from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, an LLM in Dispute Resolution from the University of Missouri School of Law, and a PhD in Organizational Communication with a minor in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri.

Joe has worked in education for over 20 years as a teacher, principal, and district administrator, and is the founder and CEO of Crescendo Education Group (crescendoedgroup.org), which since 2013 has supported K-12 schools, districts, and colleges/universities nationwide to improve grading and assessment practices.

He leads the Equitable Grading Project (gradingforequity.org), has presented at numerous education conferences, and his writings have been published in Education Week, Kappan, Education Leadership, District Administrator, and Black Press USA.

His book, Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms (Corwin) was published in 2018. Crescendo Education Group has partnered with the National Education Association as well as the American Federation of Teachers, National Association of Independent Schools, and Stanford University’s Challenge Success.

Joe earned his B.A. from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard School of Education, and is also the author of Teaching Without Bells: What We Can Learn from Powerful Practice in Small Schools (Paradigm, 2010). He lives in Oakland with his wife and two children.