Dr. Aman Yadav (PI) is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University with extensive experience in research, evaluation, and teacher professional development. His areas of expertise include computer science education, problem-based learning, and online learning. His research and teaching focus on improving student experiences and outcomes in computer science and engineering at the K-16 level. His work has been published in a number of leading journals, including ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Journal of Engineering Education, and Communications of the ACM. Twitter (@yadavaman), website (http://www.amanyadav.org)

Dr. Rafi Santo (Co-PI), principal researcher at Telos Learning, is a learning scientist focused on the intersection of digital culture, education, and institutional change. Centering his work within research-practice partnerships, he has studied, collaborated with, and facilitated a range of organizational networks related to digital learning, computing, and technology in education. Within informal education, he has focused on the design of innovation networks as co-founder of Hive Research Lab, a partnership with the Hive NYC Learning Network collective of over 70 informal learning organizations. In K12 schooling, he’s partnered with CSforALL to support and study school districts as they develop equitable and sustainable computing education initiatives. His scholarship spans multiple levels of activity—from understanding youth learning pathways across settings to investigating policy implementation and organizational network design—in order to develop practical insights that come from a holistic perspective. His work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, the Susan Crown Exchange, and Google. Rafi holds a PhD in Learning and Developmental Sciences from Indiana University.

Dr. Secil Caskurlu is a postdoctoral research associate in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University. Secil received her PhD in Learning Design and Technology from Purdue University. Secil’s research interests are: factors that impact student outcomes and how to integrate them into the design, development and evaluation phases, application of learning principles derived from cognitive sciences to online teaching and learning, and teacher competencies required for meaningful integration of computational thinking into K-12 to foster student outcomes. As for teaching, Secil has designed, developed and taught various face-to-face, blended and fully online graduate courses focusing on different topics ranging from instructional design to advanced research in instructional design and technology and online teaching and learning. 

Carlos León
During this project, Carlos served as Senior Director of Learning and Educational Impact at Mouse, Inc. and currently works at BootUp PD.  His work concentrates on the depth, breadth, and quality of K12 teacher computer science professional development programs with projects focused on STEM curricular design, teacher credentialing, culturally responsive pedagogy, and student digital badging. Carlos holds an Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation & Education from Harvard University; he is a former bilingual elementary school teacher and teaches principles of computer science education courses at Lehman College.

Kyle Dunbar is a PhD student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program at Michigan State University and a technology integration specialist at a middle school in Alexandria, Virginia. Her research interests include the intersection of student-centered pedagogies, equity and educational technology.

 
Tom Bijesse, the Director of Instructional Design at Mouse, Inc. has extensive experience in designing and implementing Computational Thinking curricula in K-12 classes. Tom has led hundreds of STEM & pedagogy focused professional development workshops for thousands of educators across three countries. Tom holds a M.S. in Management of Technology from NYU and is a former NYC Computer Science teacher.

Andrew Hu is a PhD student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. Their research interests include computer science education and algorithmic bias awareness.