Krystal Thomas

Education Researcher, SRI Education

Krystal Thomas, PhD, education researcher, brings a developmental psychology and equity lens to research, evaluation, and capacity building. Her projects span issues of teacher quality and practices, students’ academic and social identities, and patterns of contextual inequality in the classroom.

Thomas is involved in several studies, including leading survey development and project management. Her current projects focus on data-driven instruction, employability skills, self-regulated learning, socio-emotional skills, open educational resources, and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. Her studies investigate learners in secondary, post-secondary, and adult education contexts.

Before joining SRI, Thomas was an IES Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia; a lead statistician at the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium; and a lab manager at the Cognitive Intervention Research, Culture and Learning Environments in Schools (CIRCLES) Lab.

Thomas holds a PhD and master’s in developmental psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Virginia State University.

Key projects