Dr. Gayle Blanchard currently holds the position of Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University. She completed her doctoral studies in educational leadership at the same institution in 2012, focusing her research on organizational citizenship behavior and communication to enhance leadership effectiveness. In recognition of her academic accomplishments, Dr. Blanchard was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award by the Arizona School Administrators Association in 2013.

Before joining Northern Arizona University, Dr. Blanchard dedicated 35 years to various roles in Arizona’s public education system, including teacher, principal, human resource director, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. At NAU, she instructs master’s and doctoral level courses in educational leadership and provides mentorship to doctoral candidates pursuing their academic goals.

As an educator and researcher, Dr. Blanchard’s interests encompass school improvement, leadership development, school finance and funding policies, communication strategies, and governance. She prioritizes delivering relevant course content that addresses contemporary issues and trends while supporting students in honing their leadership skills.

Dr. Blanchard remains actively engaged in professional organizations at both state and national levels, including the Arizona School Administrators Association (ASA), Arizona Professors of Educational Leadership (APEL), and the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership (ICPEL). Her involvement underscores her commitment to advancing educational leadership practices and scholarship.

Dr. Jill Gildea is a distinguished Organizational Systems Leader with over 20 years of experience in public education, encompassing early learning, elementary, high school, and unit districts across diverse urban, rural, and suburban settings. 

She has successfully led educational institutions in various leadership roles, including Superintendent of Schools in Park City, UT; Greenwich, CT; and Fremont School District 79 in Mundelein, IL. Her tenure is marked by significant achievements such as implementing learner dashboards, expanding universal preschool programming, and championing professional learning communities.

Dr. Gildea holds a Doctorate in Education from Northern Illinois University, a Master of Education from National Louis University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Secondary Education from Bradley University. Her commitment to education is further evidenced by her professional licenses in Illinois, Utah, and Connecticut, as well as numerous fellowships and awards recognizing her contributions to the field.

In addition to her practical leadership, Dr. Gildea is actively involved in various professional and community memberships, including the Park City Chamber of Commerce and the Park City Education Foundation. Her extensive experience and visionary approach continue to drive her passion for creating impactful educational opportunities for all learners.

Dr. Jilliam N. Joe joined the Aurora Institute in 2024 as Aurora’s Research Director. She is an experienced psychometrician and program evaluator with a demonstrated history of working in nonprofit and startup environments. Dr. Joe is the founder and president of the consultancy Measure by Design and has served as the Vice President of Learning Insights at Leap Innovations and an Associate Research Scientist at ETS.

She has designed, managed, and provided technical guidance for applied research projects and assessment programs within the large-scale testing industry, state education agencies, and university settings. Dr. Joe has a proven record of reducing project costs and increasing the quality of outcomes through smart design decisions. She has contributed to projects, consultations, and studies that have impacted the measurement of performance-based assessments and, in particular, classroom observation practices, notably the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Additionally, Dr. Joe is a contributing author on a number of classroom observation implementation reports and books.

She earned her Ph.D. in Assessment and Measurement from James Madison University, an M.S. in Urban Studies from the Strome College of Business, and a B.S. from Old Dominion University.

Bror Saxberg is the founder of LearningForge LLC, a consulting firm to help a wide range of organizations across education and training ecosystems think about applications of learning science to products, services, and strategies. Before this, he was VP of Learning Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, working on bringing evidence-based practices into learning ecosystems. He was previously the Chief Learning Officer at Kaplan, Inc, helping convert Kaplan into a “learning engineering” organization. Before that he was Chief Learning Officer at K12, Inc., building evidence-based learning for practical use at scale across K-12. Prior to this, he had roles at Knowledge Universe, Dorling Kindersley, and McKinsey. Saxberg holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, and received an M.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University.  He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1989 and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1990.

Dr. Daniel S. Stanhope was the founding researcher at LearnPlatform and supports strategy and partnerships at Instructure. Daniel received his PhD in I/O Psychology from N.C. State University and has extensive experience working as an applied scientist, research methodologist, and psychometrician with various private, public, and not-for-profit organizations across multiple sectors. He taught at a Tier 1 research university and has published research in numerous outlets, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, and Journal of Personnel Psychology. Dr. Stanhope serves as a reviewer for multiple academic journals and sits on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Online Learning Research. Dr. Stanhope has served as Principal Investigator on multiple federally funded grants/projects, provides research consultation and strategic advisory for both education institutions and solution providers, and has served on multiple advisory committees, including the EdTech Genome Project, EdTech Evidence Exchange, CoSN Digital Equity Committee, and the Triangle Learning Network.

Kenneth Wong is the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair for Education Policy at Brown. He has conducted extensive research in the politics of education, federalism, policy innovation, outcome-based accountability, and governance redesign (including city and state takeover, management reform, and Title I school-wide reform). His research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the British Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has advised the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Secretaries of Education and Interior, state legislature, governors, mayors, and the leadership in several large urban school systems on how to redesign the accountability framework. He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a recipient of the Louis Brownlow Best Book Award at the National Academy of Public Administration.