Vinita Chhabra is an Education Research Analyst at the National Center for Education Research (NCER). She has been working for IES for 12 years, after serving as Senior Program Officer for Adult Literacy, focusing on prison literacy connections, at the National Institute for Literacy. She is the Program Officer for both the Literacy Program and the Civics Education and Social Studies Program. She also leads the dissemination of information about NCER funding opportunities and the outcomes of funded research grants on the IES website. Vinita has her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Bobbi Gentry is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater College as a scholar of teaching and learning who focuses on improving student engagement in the classroom through simulations, policy problem/solution proposals, and research projects. She is also a youth voting scholar and extensively researches political identity development. Gentry published her book, Why Youth Vote: Identity, Inspirational Leaders, and Independence (Springer, 2018), and recently coedited the APSA publication Internships in Political Science (2021). Her current work on the scholarship of teaching and learning includes best practices in internships, curriculum review in political science, and identity development in young people with intersecting identities.

Katie Giles is Director of Operations & Strategy for the Design Studio for Ethics and Civics Pedagogy at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. The Design Studio brings together ethics and civics teaching and learning initiatives across disciplines in a collaborative effort to generate ethics and civics learning tools and assessments for use across disciplines, professions, and learners’ lifespans.

She also serves as the Project Officer for the Democratic Knowledge Project (DKP), one of the Design Studio member initiatives. The DKP is a civic education initiative that offers curriculum development resources, professional development workshops for educators, and assessment tools and services—all supporting education for democracy. Katie oversees the Design Studio and DKP operations, administration, and strategy. She is also a lead project member supporting the implementation of the Educating for American Democracy roadmap, co-leading efforts to select and support K-5 pilot site projects aligned to EAD and a community of practice of civic education professional learning providers.

Katie has a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree in American Studies and Public Policy Analysis from Pomona College. Before joining the Center for Ethics in 2019, she was at the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she managed the implementation and evaluation of school, out-of-school time, and community-based interventions.

She also oversaw a national initiative studying the health and cost impact of health policy interventions in school, early care, government, and community settings. Katie has worked for two decades on school-based interventions and evaluations in districts throughout Massachusetts and North Carolina and on decision-making related to school-based health initiatives in states, cities, and counties across the country in partnership with health and education agencies.

Brian Grindrod is a seasoned history teacher at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, Connecticut. He has over 15 years of experience educating middle and high school students in the Bridgeport and New Haven school systems. Currently, Brian specializes in teaching Civics classes and an early college American Government course affiliated with Southern Connecticut State University.

Dedicated to fostering civic education, Brian holds the prestigious title of We the People teacher. He serves as the Connecticut state coordinator for We the People and Project Citizen initiatives. The Center for Civic Education honored his students as the 2023 John Lewis Class, and they participated in the highly acclaimed We the People National Finals.

Brian's professional journey with the Center for Civic Education began in 2017 as a mentee through the James Madison Legacy Project, leading to his active involvement in the Project Citizen Research Program in 2020. Notably, the Center for Civic Education commended Brian's class for their impactful Project Citizen presentation on "Wellness Wednesday" in 2021.

Committed to professional development and mentorship, Brian mentored Project Citizen Research Program (PCRP) teachers in Region 5 from 2021 to 2023 and eagerly anticipates guiding CEAS teachers in the same region. Alongside his teaching responsibilities, Brian also serves as the AP Coordinator and girls' soccer coach at Wilbur Cross High School.

Brian's academic achievements include a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Arts in Secondary Education from Sacred Heart University, and a Master of Science in Counselor Education from Central Connecticut State University. Currently pursuing his School Administrators Certificate from Sacred Heart University, Brian exemplifies a passion for education and leadership in his professional endeavors.

Jonathan A. Hanna (Ph.D., American History, Claremont Graduate University) is a research associate with CERL and an M.A. candidate in the Engaged and Public Humanities program at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, his work focuses on the intersection of the humanities, civic education, and public policy. More broadly, his principal research areas include early national American political and intellectual history, the history of the American South, and early modern/modern European and American political thought.

Joy Hatcher is the social studies program manager for the Georgia Department of Education and was formerly the President of the Council of State Social Studies Specialists. Before working at the DOE, Joy spent 12 years as a high school social studies teacher and two years as a professional learning facilitator in DeKalb County Schools. She was a National Board Certified teacher from 2009 to 2019 and, in Fall 2023, completed her PhD in Teaching & Learning with the dissertation titled "Not Throwing Away My Shot: Civic Education in the 2020 Pandemic."

Reuben Henriques is the History/Social Science Content Support Lead at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In this role, he supports work around the implementation of student-led civics projects and the development of Investigating History, an open-source social studies curriculum for grades 3 through 7. Originally from Madison, WI, Reuben taught middle and high school history in Boston for six years. He has also written curriculum and delivered professional development for the KIPP Foundation as part of their effort to expand access to AP history courses. Reuben has a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing on instructional leadership.

John Ishiyama is University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas. He was President of the American Political Science Association (APSA) from 2021-22. From 2012-2016 he was Editor- in -Chief for the American Political Science Review and was the founding editor-in-chief of the APSA’s Journal of Political Science Education serving in that role from 2004-2012. He was also one of the leaders in establishing the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, which has met annually since 2004. He was Principal Investigator and Director of the US National Science Foundation-Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) site on Civil Conflict Management and Peace Science from 2010-2020. From 2002-2008 he was Director of the Ronald E. McNair Program at Truman State University, a US Department of Education funded program designed to prepare students from First-Generation College and/or students from underrepresented groups in higher education for graduate school.

His research interests include democratization and political parties in post conflict politics (with a focus on Russian, Eurasian, and Ethiopian politics) ethnic politics, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He has published extensively, producing ten (10) books and 198 journal articles and book chapters.

In addition to his service as APSA President, he was a Vice President of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA), and has served on the APSA Executive Council, and the executive boards of the MPSA and Pi Sigma Alpha, the Political Science National Honorary Society. He is also a longtime active member of the International Studies Association. He has received numerous awards national, state, and university awards. These include the APSA Frank J. Goodnow Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the APSA Political Science Education Section, the APSA Distinguished Teaching Award, the Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar Award by the International Studies Association, and the APSA Heinz Eulau Award for best article published in an APSA journal. From the State of Texas he received the 2017 Minnie Stevens Piper Professorship (statewide award for professors for outstanding academic, scientific, and scholarly achievement and for dedication to the teaching profession).

He has also received major grants from the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, the US Department of State, and the APSA.

Joseph Kahne is the Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Professor for Education Policy and Politics and Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) at the University of California, Riverside. Professor Kahne's research focuses on the influence of school practices and digital media on youth civic and political development. For example, with funding from the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES), and in partnership with scholars from Ohio State, Brown, and UCR, CERG has launched and is studying the impact of Connecting Classrooms to Congress (CC2C). CC2C is a social studies curricular unit that enables students to learn and deliberate about a controversial societal issue and then participate in an online townhall with their Member of Congress. In addition, Kahne and CERG are currently engaged in related studies of efforts to promote youth voice, lived civics, and a broad vision of social studies reform tied to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap. This work takes place through partnerships with reformers and school districts in CA, IL, NM, OK, FL, and CO. In addition to studying the impact of these curricular experiences on young people’s civic development, with John Rogers, we are currently devoting particular attention to the politics of democratic education. We are examining ways the political contexts of school districts shape possibilities for educational reform and the varied ways educators respond.

Professor Kahne was Chair of the MacArthur Foundation’s Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. Kahne was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. He currently chairs the Educating for American Democracy Research Task Force. Professor Kahne is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. He can be reached at jkahne@ucr.edu and his work is available at www.civicsurvey.org.

Genie Massey has taught social studies in public and private schools and was recognized as the Archdiocese of Baltimore Teacher of the Year (2017-2018). She holds a BA from Randolph-Macon Women’s College, a MAT from Johns Hopkins University, and is a doctoral candidate at Frostburg State University. Genie works with the Maryland Civic Education Coalition, volunteers with community organizations, and serves as an election judge in Washington County, MD. She is also a proud mom of three, who loves languages and travel.

Dr. Alison Rios Millett McCartney (PhD University of Virginia) is a Professor of Political Science and Faculty Director of the Honors College at Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA. A member of the Executive Editorial Board of the Journal of Political Science Education, she is co-editor of three books published by APSA: Teaching Civic Engagement Globally (2021), Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines (2017), and Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen (2013), and author of several book chapters, journal articles, national and international conference presentations, and webinars on political science pedagogy. She received the APSA Political Science Education section’s Distinguished Service Award, the P20 Partnership Award from Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic, the University of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Mentoring, the Towson University Presidential Community Partnership Award, and the Towson University Outstanding Service-Learning Faculty award twice. Some of her recent service to the profession includes being a member of the APSA Presidential Taskforce on Re-Thinking the Political Science major, co-chairing the 2023 Teaching and Learning program at the International Political Science Association World Congress, serving as founding co-chair of TLC at APSA, and serving as past president and past executive board member of APSA’s Political Science Education section. Currently, she is also a member of the APSA Council, the Steering Committee of the AAC&U American Democracy Project, Vice President of the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council, and co-creator and co-chair of the Towson University-Baltimore County Model United Nations conference, a free civic engagement program for local youth.

Maureen McGuirl has been a middle school teacher and social studies curriculum leader in a small island community for twenty-four years. She became involved with Project Citizen in the Summer of 2002, which led to opportunities to be a facilitator from 2015-2019 and mentor from 2020-2023. As a member of the Rhode Island History and Social Studies Advisory Committee and the Civics Task Force, Maureen worked with teachers and stakeholders to review materials that encourage historical thinking skills and promote action-based civics education. Maureen is indebted to former Project Citizen and We the People state coordinators, Michael Trofi and Carlo Gamba, for their mentorship and for creating opportunities to deepen her knowledge as an educator through the James Madison Memorial Fellowship at Georgetown, her Masters in Constitutional History from Providence College, and a teacher exchange with Ireland.

Mary McHugh is the Executive Director of Civic and Community Engagement in the Stevens Service Learning Center at Merrimack College, where she oversees the College’s service learning program and community partnerships. She is a member of the political science department and teaches various courses in US Politics and Political Institutions. She is the advisor to Pi Sigma Alpha and the Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA. She received her BA from Colby College and her MA from Boston College. She serves on the American Political Science Association Council and is an editorial board member for the Journal of Political Science Education. Her teaching and research interests include campaigns & elections, the presidency, civic engagement, and service learning.

Elizabeth Miller is a master's student in the Communication, Culture & Technology program at Georgetown University, where she studies tech policy with a focus on mitigating digital harms. She has extensively researched children's online safety and the constitutionality of legislative interventions. Most recently, she was a Google Public Policy Fellow with the Aspen Digital program at the Aspen Institute, working on artificial intelligence-related policy issues. Elizabeth has a degree in communication, specializing in public relations, from the University of Maryland, College Park.

I research citizenship education and law-related education. I am an international member of the Kettering Foundation for Civic Education in Ohio and a board member of the Society for Social Studies Education in Japan.

I taught elementary and middle school social studies for 16 years. Currently, I am a university teacher in the College of Education. My research focuses on Law-Related Education and Civic Education.

Ed O’Connell is the Civic Engagement Manager at Revolutionary Spaces, the organization charged with stewardship of Boston’s Old State House and Old South Meeting House. Ed has spent the past decade in civic education and engagement. Beginning in 2012, Ed developed and ran an after-school civic education program in his community’s middle school, eventually persuading the school district to adopt civics as part of its formal curriculum. Elected to his local School Committee in 2015, and thereafter serving as Committee Chair and gaining re-election in 2019, Ed continued his civic education and engagement work as a member of the education team at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. Before joining Revolutionary Spaces, Ed created a first-in-the-nation civics education program for incarcerated persons at the Middlesex County Jail in Billerica, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and New England Law, Boston.

Ariana (she/her) is currently a second-year Masters student in the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program at Georgetown University. Before entering Georgetown, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. She gained four years of professional experience in partnerships and program management. Her work focused on cultivating social innovation and tech for development in the Philippines, including leading incubation programs and conducting impactful events. At CCT, she is focused on learning more about the intersection between culture, context, and technology in development. Ariana is a dedicated advocate for promoting responsible technology for social impact, with a background in social innovation and impact incubation. Ariana is committed to leveraging her skills and experiences to drive positive change and create a more equitable world.

Steven Rathgeb Smith is the executive director of the American Political Science Association and adjunct professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Previously, he taught at several universities, including the University of Washington. He was the Nancy Bell Evans Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center for Nonprofits & Philanthropy. He is a past president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and formerly editor of the association’s journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. He is also a past president of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR). He is chair of the Executive Committee of the CEO Group of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). He is the author of several books, including Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting (with Michael Lipsky) and, most recently, The Changing Dynamic of Government–Nonprofit Relationships: Advancing the Field(s) with co-author Kirsten A. Gronbjerg (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

Lindsay Stepanek grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended West Virginia University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies, a Master of Education (Social Studies), and a Master in Education- Mulicategorical Special Education. Lindsay spent ten years teaching special education and 7th and 8th-grade social studies at Taylor County Middle School before starting at University High School in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 2020. During her four years at UHS, Lindsay taught world history, Intro to Psychology, and general and honors civics. Lindsay was introduced to Project Citizen in 2021 and has enjoyed implementing this program with her senior civics classes. This year, she has also begun using the We the People program. These programs have had a positive impact in her classroom and have helped to create well-rounded and well-informed students.

J. Cherie Strachan is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. Her political science research combines interests in political participation, voluntary civic and political organizations, and political communication. Recent work explores the #MeToo movement, women's political ambition, and the effects of partisan polarization, rudeness, and civility on political engagement. Her applied civic engagement pedagogy research focuses on mitigating college students' reactions to rude politics, facilitating student-led deliberative discussion sessions, and enhancing political socialization within campus student organizations. Strachan also co-authors the textbook Why Don't Women Rule the World? and co-edits the APSA-published resource Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond.

Bradlee Sutherland is a research associate with CERL and an M.A. candidate in the Communication, Culture & Technology program at Georgetown University. Bradlee’s research focuses on understanding how technology extends our capabilities and its implications on learning/memory, performance, and social interactions. Before Georgetown, Bradlee was a contract researcher, contributing insights from roles at the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). He also held an internship with the American Institutes for Research, where he worked with NAEP data to understand the digital divide among students in grades 4, 8, and 12 by race/ethnicity.

Marcie Taylor-Thoma, PhD. coordinated social studies instruction, curriculum, assessment, policy, and professional development programs for over twenty years at the Maryland State Department of Education in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Thoma taught secondary social studies in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland for ten years before her tenure in state education. She recently retired to the Maryland Council for Civic and History Education, where she coordinates history and civic programs such as the Gilder Lehrman History Maryland Teacher of the Year, Project Citizen, We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, the James Madison Legacy Program, and Civics that Empowers All Students. She completed her doctoral studies in leadership and policy at the College of Notre Dame in Maryland in 2008. Her research interests include studying the relationship between effective civic education policy and student learning in the United States and abroad. Dr. Thoma has been an international civic educator with the Civitas project since 2006, working in Russia, Armenia, Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, Thailand, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She continues to serve under a USAID grant in Armenia. She is committed to mentoring social studies educators, including supervising pre-service teachers at American University. Dr. Thoma considers herself a strong advocate for civic education and social justice and serves on numerous boards and commissions across the nation. Most recently, she chairs the Annapolis Heritage Commission and the Annapolis Friends of Lafayette.

Ms. Jackie Viana is a public school educator from Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the nation's 3rd largest school district, with 29 years of experience: 16 years as a middle school social studies teacher and the past 13 years as a District Curriculum Supervisor in the Department of Social Sciences. Ms. Viana is a national and international trainer and curriculum developer for the Center for Civic Education and organizes many other civic and law-related education programs. In addition, she has served on the Standing Committee for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Ms. Viana's expertise in Civics has been instrumental in developing curriculum and providing professional learning experiences for 7th-grade Civics and 11th-grade U.S. History. Due to her leadership, M-DCPS' student performance on required assessments has consistently been higher than the state proficiency average in a district with high percentages of economically disadvantaged and limited English proficiency students. Ms. Viana is a passionate educator who motivates teachers to shake things up and become more engaging teachers. She has been honored as the 2002 National Law Related Teacher of the Year and 2010 American Civic Education Teacher of the Year. One often hears her asking, "Is this good enough for our students?" If the answer is no, the task starts over.

With over three decades of teaching experience, Kim Wahaus, an AP Government and Women's Studies teacher from Olathe, Kansas, is driven by a passion for cultivating questioners, civic advocates, and open-minded thinkers. Kim's dedication to Education and inclusivity led to her earning master's degrees in Education and History, becoming nationally certified in service learning, and pursuing a doctorate in Constitutional Law. Kim extends her impact by crafting lessons that blend creativity with curricular standards, designing meaningful professional development, mentoring educators of all grade levels with the Kansas Department of Education and the Center for Civic Education, and serving as her district's high school social studies facilitator.

I am an international student from Japan and China. I spent my first ten years in Shanghai, China, and then moved to Japan for another ten years, including my freshman year at Chuo University in Japan. After graduating from Randolph College with a major in media and culture and minors in sociology, gender studies, film studies, and Asian studies, I enrolled in the CCT program at Georgetown University. Representation in the media and how the media influences the public have always been my passion for studies. My experience in Asian countries and America has shaped a unique view for me to look at it.