Staff

Jessica Bowman is a Researcher with the National Center on Educational Outcomes and the TIES Center. In this position, she works to improve inclusion of students with significant cognitive disabilities in general education classrooms by creating resources for parents and educators and providing targeted and intensive technical assistance to states, districts, and schools related to systems change and professional development. Dr. Bowman began her education career as a teacher of students with significant cognitive disabilities and has experience developing, delivering, and evaluating professional development efforts at the state level. Her research has focused on inclusion and access to the general education curriculum in mathematics for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Dr. Bowman holds a PhD in Special Education from the University of Utah.

Linda Goldstone, Ph.D., is a National Center on Educational Outcomes Research Associate. She conducts and manages research projects on improving the accessibility of assessments and grade-level standards at the systemic levels to support the academic achievement of students with disabilities. She is the principal investigator for the Making Improved Decisions for Students on the Cusp of Alternate Assessment Participation Using Multiple Measures of Academic Achievement from Multiple Sources (MIDAS) project. Linda has more than 10 years as a speech-language pathologist in various school settings, serving pre-K through grade 12 students with disabilities, including those learning English as an additional language. She holds the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certification in speech-language pathology.

Andrew Hinkle is Co-Director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) and leads NCEO’s technical assistance activities. With over 30 year working in the field of special education, his focus is on topics related to the inclusion of students with disabilities in inclusive balanced assessments systems. In this capacity, he oversees the development, planning, operation, and internal evaluation of multiple technical assistance activities that are provided to state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders. Prior to joining NCEO, Andrew worked at the Ohio Department of Education managing the inclusion of students with disabilities in large-scale assessments, including issues with accessibility, alternate assessments, assistive technology, and graduation requirements. Andrew is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on disability and assessment and also serves as the advisor for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) Assessment, Standards, and Education of Students with disabilities (ASES) State Collaborative.

Kristin Kline Liu is Co-Director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) and Director of the TIES Center. As the Principal Investigator for NCEO, Kristi brings over 30 years of experience leading state and federally funded projects and contracts. In addition to being Principal Investigator, she oversees NCEO’s publications and dissemination process. Her assessment-related research and technical assistance expertise includes: universal design of assessment, accessibility and accommodations, assessment participation decision making, and policy development. Additionally, she provides national leadership on the instruction and assessment of students with disabilities who are English learners. Kristi has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota. She brings a unique perspective from her background as a former secondary school and college English language development instructor to this specialized area of the Center’s work.

Michael Moore, Editor/Writer, oversees NCEO's publishing efforts, including publications, website content, media relations, and social media. Moore is an award-winning writer who has published articles, essays, and stories in local and nationally published newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and books. He received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Hamline University and is the recipient of many awards, including a University of Minnesota Communicators Forum “Gold Award” for feature writing and the Institute on Community Integration 2014 “Excellence and Community Building Award.”

Mari Quanbeck is an Education Professional with the National Center on Educational Outcomes. In this position, she is involved in several projects focused on issues related to the inclusion of students with disabilities–as well as students with disabilities who are English learners–in assessments. Prior to her work at NCEO, Mari worked as a behavior technician providing direct behavioral therapy to young children with autism before moving into the school setting as a special education paraeducator. Her primary areas of interest include accommodation use and policies for statewide assessments, the state-level 1% cap on participation in the AA-AAAS, and data-based decision making.

Darrell Peterson is an Educational Program Specialist involved with several projects at the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). His focus is the development and implementation of professional development on topics related to the inclusion of students with disabilities, ELs, and ELs with disabilities in assessments and instruction, primarily in the form of online training modules for parents and educators. Darrell has over 20 years of professional experience designing and developing professional development for online delivery. His primary area of interest is in the use of instructional technology to enhance the educational achievement of individuals with disabilities.

Virginia Ressa, Ph.D., is a Research Associate with the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). In this position, she provides research-based and policy-based technical assistance to states around the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). She conducts research and provides leadership to improve the inclusion and achievement of students with disabilities. Prior to coming to NCEO, Virginia worked as an Education Program Specialist at the Ohio Department of Education where she focused on helping educators meet the needs of diverse learners through professional learning. Having taught in public schools in multiple cities, Virginia’s career began with a focus on urban education and school improvement. Virginia’s areas of research and publication include professional learning for teachers, formative instructional practices, and the local implementation of federal and state policies. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership at The Ohio State University. 

Kathy Strunk, Ph.D., is an Education Program Specialist at the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) where she conducts research and provides technical assistance related to special education assessment policies and practices. Kathy’s current emphasis is providing technical assistance to states for implementation of requirements related to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) 1.0% state-level threshold on participation of students in Alternate Assessments based on Alternate Academic Achievement Standards (AA-AAAS). In addition to providing leadership for the October 2018 National Convening on the AA-AAAS, she facilitates NCEO’s bi-weekly, 48-state membership 1% Community of Practice and facilitates NCEO’s intensive technical assistance for states working on the 1.0% requirements. Kathy supports technical assistance for state identified measurable results (SIMRs) and also provides leadership of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) / Assessing Special Education Students (ASES) / NCEO forum held in conjunction with the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA).

Dr. Wu is an experienced psychometrician and the statistical expert for the National Center on Educational Outcomes. She has been working with large-scale assessment data since 2000. She has also had experience on analyzing state-wide assessment datasets and different types of datasets. She has used the analyses of regression model and MANOVA on various projects and presented at national conferences. Dr. Wu has authored more than 40 publications, including 18 journal articles, 22 technical reports, and made more than 40 conference presentations on the topic of reading and psychometric areas. Dr. Wu holds a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota.