Contact: 
Kevin Welner, (303) 492-8370, welner@colorado.edu

URL for this press release:  http://tinyurl.com/prpattw

Boulder, CO (September 11, 2015) - The National Education Policy Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Michelle Renée has joined NEPC as Associate Director. As Associate Director, Michelle will be based at CU Boulder where she will lead and manage research initiatives and multi-sector collaborations and engage with CU School of Education faculty, staff and students in a variety of projects. She joins an NEPC leadership team that includes NEPC Director and CU Boulder Prof. Kevin Welner along with Drs. Alex Molnar (Publications Director) and Bill Mathis (Managing Director).

Welner noted: “Michelle Renee’s extensive expertise in conducting and disseminating policy-relevant research combined with her experience in management and development increases NEPC’s capacity. Renee will help NEPC strengthen our collaborative efforts with other organizations and disseminate our research to a broader audience.”

Prior to joining NEPC, Renée served as Associate Director and Assistant Clinical Professor at Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR). At AISR, she led the Time for Equity Indicators project (www.timeforequity.org), funded by the Ford Foundation. The Project, which she will continue to work on as a partner of AISR, develops and supports the use of a comprehensive set of indicators that measure how expanded time and learning opportunities can transform the lives of students, the structure of schools, and the power of communities. Michelle will also continue to serve as the Vice Program Chair for the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association.

Throughout her career, Renée has focused on the development and implementation of equitable education policies by conducting original research and building collaborations across education sectors, including education researchers, policymakers, district leaders and low-income communities of color. She has served as a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and worked as a legislative assistant to then Congressman (now Senator) Tom Udall. Her collaborative work with NEPC Fellow and UC Berkeley Professor Tina Trujillo examined the systemic impact of school turnaround strategies on low-income communities. 

Renée has a PhD in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The mission of the National Education Policy Center is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence.  For more information on the NEPC, please visit http://nepc.colorado.edu/.