Education Researcher, SRI Education
Stephanie Suarez is an education researcher and technical assistance provider who focuses on forging college and career pathways for students, especially those who have been historically excluded from higher education opportunities. Suarez participates in a range of projects focused on equitable teaching practices 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 educators.
Since 2019, Suarez has partnered with education leaders in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia through the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia to provide coaching and technical assistance on strengthening students’ preparation for college and careers. She currently provides technical assistance to educators and their constituencies in Tennessee and Kentucky to strengthen postsecondary transitions and math instructional coaching. As the partnership lead for the Strengthening Students’ Preparation for College and Careers partnership in Tennessee, Suarez designs and facilitates coaching and training sessions aligned to stakeholders’ needs, such as the development of instructional materials to teach students’ employability skills. She is also partnering with education leaders in Kentucky to develop an asynchronous training series to strengthen math instructional coaching practices.
Additionally, Suarez is the project manager for the Equitable Educator Fellowship evaluation, which provides formative feedback to education leaders who are fostering teachers’ equitable teaching practices through a series of coaching and professional development supports in Philadelphia. In this role, Suarez manages data collection and analysis activities.
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 in California to students from low-income households who were first in their family to attend college. 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.
Key projects
- Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia
- Equitable Educator Fellowship Evaluation
Selected publications
- Suarez, S. (2024, April 30). A holistic approach to supporting students’ college and career readiness.REL Blog. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/appalachia/Blog/107980
- Mislevy, J., Marcus, J., Seftor, N., & Suarez, S. (2021, September). The college access evidence matrix: Interventions to support postsecondary transitions [Training materials]. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/appalachia/Resource/-89626
- Suarez, S. (2020, December 7). More than getting to the door: Non-academic supports to ensure students graduate from college (Part 1—An overview). Equitable Pathways to College and Career. https://collegecareerpathways.org/more-than-getting-to-the-door-non-academic-supports-to-ensure-students-graduate-from-college-part-1-an-overview/
