This is a banner year for NERA – our 50^th Anniversary Conference! The conference theme is “Transformation by Design,” and we are planning as purposefully as the theme would indicate. We have three great keynote speakers confirmed for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: Dr. Monika Williams Shealey – Dean of the College of Education at Rowan University, Dr. Ezekiel Dixon-Román – Associate Professor in UPenn’s Social Policy and Practice program, and Dr. Alina von Davier – Senior Vice President at ACTNext. In addition to these compelling speakers, we will have a panel discussion where members such as Alina von Davier and Kristen Huff (and more) will discuss how they have transformed both themselves and the innovative programs they’ve worked on by design.

Prior to the conference, we will be hosting three webinars tied directly to the conference. There will be a 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition we will be running during the conference. The 3MT is an academic competition in which participants have three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a panel of judges and the audience. We will have two competition categories: one for graduate students and one for professionals. The pre-conference webinar associated with the competition is aimed at working with members to better visualize and communicate their core research to a broader audience. The other two webinars in the conference series are: “Key Advice for Different NERA Research Formats” and “Getting the Most Out of the NERA Annual Meeting.” The first webinar in the conference series will be held in March – Be on the look-out for more details!

Aside from the conference series, we will be announcing additional webinars throughout the year aimed at providing our NERA members with opportunities to add or improve professional skills. These will include research topics of interest such as social-emotional learning (SEL), as well as broader skills such as interviewing skills and starting a business as an independent consultant.

Everything we do is geared towards transformation by design – being intentional in our growth as an organization and as individuals. We would love to hear back from you on what you think of our plans and anything else you would like to know. Please contact us at NERA.CoChairs@gmail.com.

 

  Dr. Alejandra Garcia                                          Dr. Paola Heincke                                          Dr. Bridget Thomas         
University of Massachusetts Amherst                   Educational Testing Service                      Quality Information Partners (QiP)

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