Lisa Jean Walker has a PhD in Learning Sciences and over 15 years of experience working in applied research centers in Chicago with a focus on P-12 education. She has methodological experience in R&D, evaluation and continuous improvement. She has broad P-12 knowledge in school leadership, school improvement, and school-based social services. Her anchor across these experiences has been a commitment to improving the life chances of children who live in poverty. A qualitative researcher by training, her work has used the power of data analysis to shift policy and practice perspectives to work towards greater equity. Looking forward, she is interested in community school initiatives and advocacy for highest-need schools.

Lisa has a long-standing interest in the ways applied researchers can support equity for high-need schools and the vulnerable students they serve (Chapin Hall Policy Brief). She has experience with broad policy initiatives that promise to improve the life chances of children who grow up in poverty, such as community schools (Chapin Hall Discussion Paper and Convening Summary).

Achievements: Lisa most recently used quantitative and qualitative evidence, along with the literature, to interrogate conventional policy/administrative perspectives from an equity perspective.

• She led changes to the admissions process of the EdD Program in Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago (see UIC Brief 1 and UIC Brief 2). This work was featured in a presentation to the U.S. Department of Education in July, 2022.

• She effectively advocated for the identification of "high-churn" schools with Chicago Public School district leaders to better serve Black student enrollment schools (UIC Brief 3 and UIC Brief 4). The work subsequently shaped the focus of a grant from a local foundation to improve principal leadership training.

• Lisa’s emphasis on continuous improvement has contributed to changes in UIC’s training priorities for school leaders of high-need schools and the redesign of the CPS accountability system. Her work on UIC’s selection process was recognized in a 2018 Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Background: Lisa was born in New Mexico on the Navajo reservation and went to public school in Gallup, NM. After serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa and early career experiences in education in Philadelphia, she came to Chicago to work on school reform and has lived here for 25 years. She earned her PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University in 2003 and thereafter worked at three different applied research institutes with a focus on:

—school improvement (Center for Urban School lmprovement, led by Tony Bryk and later absorbed into the Urban Education Institute at the University of Chicago),

—human services for children, families, and communities (Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago), and

—school leadership (Center for Urban Education Leadership, led by Steve Tozer and at the time closely affiliated with the EdD Urban Education Leadership Program at the University of Illinois Chicago).

Lisa also earned a Master’s Degree in History and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, which informs her broad perspective on school reform.