itest lrc staff
Siobhan Bredin - Project Director
Prior to becoming Project Director, Siobhan worked at EDC on the U.S. Department of Education's Information Technology Career Cluster Initiative - convening and collaborating with an industry advisory consortium and with ten high school and community college pilot sites to plan for, develop, test and implement a national IT Career Cluster Model, enabling increased numbers of students to access high potential careers in the IT field, with a special focus on attracting more females to IT careers.
Before joining EDC, Siobhan held positions at several software and Internet companies as a training specialist and product manager. She has eight years experience in early childhood education; as a teacher, curriculum developer, and creator of new programs. Siobhan holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Wellesley College and a Master's degree in Education from Lesley College.
Vivian Guilfoy - Leadership Team
Vivian Guilfoy is senior vice president of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and Director of its Center for Education, Employment, and Community. She brings more than 30 years experience in designing, managing, evaluating, and disseminating model programs in workforce development, education reform, and community development. Her special interest is facilitating partnerships and strengthening systems that help all learners achieve to high standards, especially those who face multiple obstacles in school or work. Many projects focus on the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) as a tool for success.
Ms. Guilfoy received her B.S. in Social Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. in Educational Research from the University of Pittsburgh.
Joyce Malyn-Smith - Principal Investigator
Dr. Malyn-Smith, Director of Strategic Initiatives in Workforce and Human Development for Education, Employment, and Community Programs at EDC, is Principal Investigator for the ITEST Learning Resource Center. Her professional interests focus on how people develop technology skills and translate those skills into intellectual pursuits and economic opportunity. In addition to the ITESTLRC, Dr. Malyn-Smith leads several pivotal national and international IT initiatives, including the NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) funded project IT Across Careers (ITAC) and EDC's Power Users of ICT Initiative. ITAC is developing a common language and framework for IT applications across all careers and a web-based resource library (including rubrics, scenarios, and "IT in Action" statements) to integrate and assess core IT skills in programs and courses at community and technical colleges. Power Users of ICT is an international research initiative on youths who have had long-term, intensive experiences using technology tools/systems and to learn how to nurture the creativity, innovation and potential of all youth empowered with technology, especially for STEM careers.
Leading to this work, Dr. Malyn-Smith was Project Director for the Department of Education's Information Technology Career Cluster Initiative (ITCCI) that developed the national IT Career Development Model and curriculum/skills framework which were adopted across the U.S. In partnership with the National Alliance of Business and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Dr. Malyn-Smith led the Techforce Initiative, a National School-to-Work Office-funded project, which highlighted and expanded the engagement of the IT companies in school-to-careers (STC) nationally. Dr. Malyn-Smith is EDC's skill standards development specialist having developed national voluntary skill standards for 3 industry sectors and implementation tools to integrate skill standards into programs and curriculum, both of which have been used across the country.
Tony Streit - Principal Investigator
Tony Streit is a Senior Project Director at Education Development Center, and a recognized leader in the fields of youth development, media education, and community technology. He is the Director of EDC’s YouthLearn Initiative, which develops technology integrated curriculum and training materials for educators in a range of settings, both domestically and overseas. For the last three years, YouthLearn has partnered with Foundations Inc. and other afterschool intermediaries in the creation of the Afterschool Academies, a Mott Foundation funded professional development effort to promote academic content integration in afterschool learning. Other current projects include consultation with Verizon Foundation on their Thinkfinity.org afterschool portal and the design and delivery of training for Adobe Systems Incorporated’s signature grant program supporting youth media making, Adobe Youth Voices. Streit is an experienced filmmaker, media artist, and instructor who has designed and led project-based learning activities with youth for over eighteen years. Prior to joining EDC, he was Co-Founder and Co-Director of Street-Level Youth Media in Chicago, an organization that he helped build into a nationally recognized youth development model integrating information technology access and the media arts. His work with youth has garnered numerous awards including two Emmy nominations and the inaugural Coming Up Taller Award from the Clinton Administration. Streit is currently an advisor to the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition, the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning, the Informal Learning in Science and Afterschool Project and the Ready to Learn Partnership.
Sarita Nair - Principal Investigator
Sarita Nair-Pillai is Project Director of the Gender, Diversities & Technology Institute
at EDC. The Institute's many projects seek to leverage the power of diversity to improve education and work systems through innovative technology design and use. She directs several technology-based projects aimed at encouraging greater participation in STEM education and the workforce by those populations currently underrepresented in STEM fields. Her most recent project The FunWorks is a STEM career exploration digital library was developed both for and by youth aged 11-14. The project worked with over 400 young people across the country to design and develop the FunWorks site, including an 8 member youth co-design team. In addition, Sarita directed the Gender & Science Digital Library an interactive digital library of exemplary gender-equitable STEM resources for grades K through 16 and informal education. Both projects are part of the National Science Foundation's National STEM Digital Library initiative (NSDL). Ms. Nair has presented nationally and internationally on digital library development and the use of technology to improve education and work. She has several years of experience in technology-based project management and prior to joining EDC held positions in the software industry in marketing, technical and business development. She has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University, and an Masters in Business Administration from Bentley College.
Cynthia Newson - Project Coordinator
Prior to joining the ITEST LRC, Cynthia began her journey here at EDC in 1989 working with the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) -- established more than 20 years ago to bring support and resources to the many exceptional efforts that are improving the education of girls and women in the United States.
The center was a national project that promoted bias-free education, believing that gender equity works for everyone--for girls and women, men and boys. Its mission was to increase educational opportunities and outcomes for all students by focusing on gender equity and drawing on the strengths of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and income. Cynthia left EDC in 1993 to spend more time with her children. She returned to EDC in 1998, to work with the WEEA group again, and joined the new ITEST LRC in October, 2003.
Leslie Goodyear - Research Scientist
Dr. Goodyear is a Research Scientist at EDC and is a recognized leader in the field of Program Evaluation. She holds a Masters of Science and a Ph.D. in Human Service Studies from Cornell University where her major area of concentration was Program Evaluation--specifically mixed-method and participatory approaches to program evaluation. Leslie has over ten years' experience in program evaluation and research and has conducted research and evaluation focused on: HIV/AIDS prevention, adult education, school reform, adoption and foster care, educational research, nutrition, after school and out-of-school time, youth development and civic engagement, youth media and STEM education. Nearly all of her work has focused on serving at-risk populations and promoting diversity and equity in organizations, research and service provision. Dr. Goodyear has been an active member of the American Evaluation Association for over ten years, and in addition to her recent election to the Association Board of directors, she serves as chair of the Qualitative Methods Topical Interest group and is a member and past chair of the AEA Ethics Committee. Leslie directs the research and evaluation work of the ITEST Learning Resource Center.
Prior to joining EDC in September, 2003, Leslie served as national director of evaluation for City Year, Inc., and before that she was the managing editor of the Harvard Family Research Project's nationally renown publication, The Evaluation Exchange.
Wendy Rivenburgh - ITEST Team Member
Wendy Rivenburgh, an associate with the YouthLearn Initiative, has many years of experience in teaching, curriculum development, and communications. Her interests include innovations in learning, such as inquiry-based projects, and the application of technology to educational programming. Wendy initially joined the community technology group at Education Development Center in 2000 as an Education Specialist on the America Connects Consortium staff. In this capacity, she managed the AT&T Young Leaders Program. Previously, Wendy taught English literature and writing courses at the high school and college level, and worked with young people in academic enrichment and other extra-curricular activities. She has also served as a communications professional with nonprofit educational organizations. Wendy holds a master's degree in the humanities.
Dorothea Wheeler - Administrative Coordinator
Dorothea Wheeler has worked at Education Development Center, Inc., since 1999, and joined the ITEST team in 2006. She is the Administrative Coordinator for Workforce & Human Development at Education Development Center, Inc. In this capacity, Ms. Wheeler works closely with the Director of Strategic Initiatives, providing administrative support to a variety of projects within this strategic area. Dorothea provides support on budget and/or proposal preparation and control; financial analysis, tracking and reporting; along with technology coordination. She also coordinates conference planning for various meetings including arranging conference materials, handling lodging and meal arrangements, distributing and processing participant registrations, working with hotel staff on meeting room specifications and banquet event orders, and arranging presenter's audio/visual requirements.
Before joining the Workforce & Human Development Strategic Area, Dorothea was a Project Coordinator for the New England Comprehensive Assistance Center (NECAC). NECAC served Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Dorothea performed various administrative duties for the center including meeting planning, as well as maintaining the Comprehensive Center's website, and working closely with State DOE officials as well as School and District administrators. She also worked on the technical development and assistance for an on-line Root Cause Analysis course. Dorothea started her work at EDC with Learning In Deed, a service-learning initiative.
Caroline E. Parker, Ed.D. - Research Scientist
Carrie has worked at Education Development Center, Inc., since 2000, and is a Research Scientist in Education, Employment and Community Programs. She is the Principal Investigator of an NSF-funded research study looking at the longitudinal effects of informal science education programs such as ITEST on youth participation in high school STEM classes, as well as a lead researcher with the New England and the Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, conducting studies on large-scale assessment, English language learners, and students with disabilities. She serves as consultant in quantitative and qualitative research design to numerous EDC projects. Carrie's research interests focus on access to educational opportunities in both the formal and informal sectors.
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert - Technical Assistance Team Member
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert joined the ITEST team in October of 2006, and serves as Project Liaison for 25 of the ITEST projects announced during 2006-2007. She also engages in writing, marketing, and research activities for ITEST. In addition, she manages the day-to-day functions of the National Girls Collaborative Project subcontract at EDC, providing technical assistance to and dissemination of the work of NGCP project, also funded by the National Science Foundation.
Suzanne worked in external sales and as the supervisor of an internal sales force before returning to graduate school. Prior to joining the ITEST team at EDC, Suzanne worked from 1998-2004 as a Research Associate on various projects within EDC's Health and Human Development Programs, where she provided technical assistance, wrote publications, and supervised and updated Web sites. She holds a bachelor's degree in Communication from Stonehill College, and a Master's degree in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago. She has an interest in researching and increasing the well-being and educational opportunities available to girls and underrepresented populations.
Alyssa Na’im - Technical Assistance Team Member
Alyssa Na’im joined the ITEST LRC in December of 2006, and is a member of the research team. Her professional background includes experience in research, public policy analysis, and program evaluation. Alyssa also has substantive experience working with a range of community-based initiatives focused on education, after school and out-of-school time opportunties, and youth development. She is particularly interested in the ‘soft skills’ that are acquired and developed through youth’s exposure to STEM opportunities. Alyssa earned her Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; she received her Bachelor's in Chemistry from Spelman College.
Bercem Akbayin, M.Ed. - Research Assistant
Bercem is a Research Assistant in Education, Employment and Community 
Programs and for the ITEST LRC Team. She is carrying out an NSF-funded research study looking at the impact of informal science programs on teacher’s philosophy, practices and technology skills. She is also a research assistant in Regional Educational Laboratories for Northeast and Islands conducting a study about English Language Learners and students with disabilities. While Bercem’s research interests focus on access to educational opportunities, diversity and equity issues, she is also very interested in research methodologies.
Prior to joining EDC in summer 2007, she was a graduate assistant in Boston College supervising pre-service teachers in their practicum, and also taught Mathematics back in Istanbul, Turkey.
Bercem holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics Education from Bosporus University and a Master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction from Boston College.
