Research Associate, SRI Education
Stephanie Suarez participates in a range of projects on high school redesign and college and career pathways. She is skilled at project management, qualitative data collection, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and communicating and disseminating complex research findings to a range of stakeholders.
Suarez provides technical assistance to Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia stakeholders in Kentucky and Virginia to strengthen postsecondary transitions. She supports the development of a program review protocol that will allow college access providers and education leaders to assess the level of rigor of college access interventions following What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) levels of evidence. Suarez also manages the coaching of five Kentucky school leaders’ continuous improvement planning to strengthen the transitions to postsecondary. In addition, Suarez supports an evaluation of the Barr Foundation’s Engage New England Initiative, which funds grantees to design and implement innovative high school models to support students who are off track to graduate. Suarez also manages dissemination projects for REL Appalachia helping to communicate complex research findings in an accessible way for practitioners.
Before joining SRI, Suarez was a graduate intern at the New England Board of Higher Education where she collected and analyzed longitudinal data from New England state representatives and educational databases for the development and dissemination of policy reports and presentations. Suarez also spent 4 years providing college and career readiness supports to first-generation, low-income students in California who were pushed out of the traditional school system. She also taught English as a second language to middle schoolers in Colombia and adults in California.
Suarez holds an EdM in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned a BA in international development studies with a minor in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.