REL Appalachia is led by Dr. Sarah L. Friedman (Director) and is supported by a team of experienced educators, researchers, and practitioners who work at The CNA Corporation. The project also receives support from partners, who are nationally recognized educational research and technical assistance organizations that are located throughout the four-state region. Lastly, the REL Appalachia Governing Board includes a group of leading scholars, researchers, and education leaders to provide administrative and programmatic oversight for the lab.
Organization Chart
Dr. Sarah L. Friedman
Dr. Sarah L. Friedman, the Director of the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia at The CNA Corporation (CNAC) joined CNAC in April 2006. Prior to joining CNAC, she was employed by the Federal Government, working at the National Institute of Mental Health as a research scientist, the National Institute of Education as a science administrator, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development as a science administrator and a scientist. In collaboration with others, she has authored more than 100 scientific papers (including some chapters) and edited 8 books. The topics of her scholarly and scientific work included (a) the effects of preterm birth on cognitive, educational and social development of children; (b) the interface of brain, cognition and education; (c) the development of cognitive skills; (d) longitudinal follow-up research strategies; (e) environmental influences on psychological development; and (f) child care and children's psychological and health development.
Dr. Sarah L. Friedman is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, American Psychological Association, the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology and the Society of General Psychology. She is a recipient of two Merit awards at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for her leadership role in a large long-term longitudinal study known as the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. She is also the recipient of a 2003 American psychological Association (APA) Meritorious Research Service Commendations. She is a past member of the Editorial Board of Child Development and Developmental Psychology and a current member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology and the Journal of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics. Dr. Sarah L. Friedman has an M.A. in Educational Psychology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Developmental and Experimental Psychology from the George Washington University.
Linda Cavalluzzo
Dr. Cavalluzzo has designed and executed a range of research studies and evaluations in K-12 and post-secondary education. As lead researcher of a five-site study of high-school—college collaborations (including middle college high schools and college-based dual enrollment programs), she designed and helped execute a mixed-methods evaluation of program effectiveness that included multivariate statistical analyses of several dimensions of student outcomes as well as document analysis, interviews and focus groups for a full-range of stakeholder groups within each district (including top-level college, district and program administrators, program faculty, guidance counselors, parents and students), and classroom observations. A summary of the project is forthcoming in Community College Journal of Research and Practice.
Dr. Cavalluzzo's work over the past few years has laid the intellectual foundation for research on several important issues facing educators in the Appalachian region. She developed a framework for considering the implication for costs, access, and program growth of alternative funding methods and governance structures of virtual schools—that is, schools or programs that offer online courses to supplement curriculum in, or as an alternative to, traditional schools. Her paper Cost, Financing and the Provision of Online Education was recently published as part of a volume entitled, Virtual Schools: Planning for Success. She also led a panel in the July 2004 NCLB eLearning Leadership Summit on the implementation of virtual school programs.
Dr. Cavalluzzo completed studies that examined the costs associated with the statewide virtual school programs in Kentucky and West Virginia. Based on this work and subsequent analysis of models being developed and implemented in several other states, she prepared several papers and policy briefs and participated on panels and in meetings throughout the region, and in at least four national gatherings, that focused on the cost and effectiveness of online and distance education. She met with top officials in Virginia and advised them on selecting approaches to ensure that online educational services addressed the State's critical educational needs. Because of her knowledge and reputation, Dr. Cavalluzzo continues to provide technical assistance to state and local educational officials in the region and throughout the nation.
Dr. Cavalluzzo headed the facilitation team supporting the Advisory Committee for the Southeast Region. In this role, she served as the principal technical advisor to the committee chair, facilitated routine online and face-to-face discussions, and assumed responsibility for editing and completing the final report to the Secretary of Education in March 2005.
Dr. Cavalluzzo has also led a pair of research studies on the quality of the teacher workforce. In the first study funded by the National Science Foundation, she created a longitudinal file linking 11 years of teacher records to estimate a model of the association between such factors as pay and school and teacher characteristics, and teacher retention. In the second study, she developed the first large-scale statistical study of the link between National Board Certification of teachers and student achievement in high school mathematics. She used sophisticated multivariate techniques, including individual and school fixed effects models in an analysis of over 100,000 student records. Her work with multiple years of individual student data, linked to specific subject-area teachers for 9th and 10th graders, offers estimates of effect sizes as measured by gains on the state end-of-grade exams in mathematics, for an array of indicators of teacher quality, including experience, state certification in mathematics, primary job assignment, competitiveness of undergraduate school, and National Board Certification status. Dr. Cavalluzzo has published her research in leading peer-reviewed journals such as The Review of Economics and Statistics and in edited volumes.
As Co-PI of a NSF-sponsored study of the impact of systemic reform in three medium-sized urban school districts, Dr. Cavalluzzo conducted interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations to help determine the extent to which components of systemic reform were implemented in each district. In addition, she designed and implemented a survey of mathematics and science teachers to evaluate their perceptions of change because of the reforms.
As a site observer for the Tennessee EdTech Launch evaluation run by the Center for Research in Education Policy at the University of Memphis, Dr. Cavalluzzo collected data and observed technology use in numerous classrooms, including over 60 in rural Tennessee.
J. Corbin Fauntleroy
Dr. Fauntleroy specializes in the design and use of information technology to help organizations accomplish their goals and missions. She has extensive experience working with federal, state, and local government agencies. As Director of Regional Dissemination, her skills are crucial for the successful dissemination of information from REL Appalachia. Previously, Dr. Fauntleroy was the Technology Coordinator for the Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) for educational needs and technology assistance. For this project, she designed, developed, and implemented a technology infrastructure that allowed the RACs to work in a collaborative online environment. Dr. Fauntleroy was the Director of Information Dissemination for CNAC's Appalachian Technology in Education Consortia (ATEC). She identified ways to extend technical assistance and ATEC products across the region. Dr. Fauntleroy has extensive experience developing and producing technical assistance materials to support information dissemination requirements, and has managed numerous information dissemination activities (including website design, on-going website maintenance, and publication production).
Michael Hanson
Since 2006, Dr. Hansen has been serving as CNAC's Field Scientist with the Kentucky Department of Education. His primary responsibilities include providing impartial assessments of external reviews of KDE programs and initiatives, empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of existing initiatives, and technical assistance with the design and implementation of new initiatives.
Dr. Hansen joined the CNAC staff in 1999 and became one of the leading experts on military compensation. The primary focus of his analyses has been improving the flexibility of compensation in order to effectively address both current and anticipated manning challenges. His most recent work addresses the efficacy of financial incentives for recruiting and retention, and the provision of incentives for Reservists that volunteer to serve in Iraq. Dr. Hansen frequently presents results of ongoing and completed research to senior leadership in the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense, including the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Naval Personnel, and the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He currently serves as scientific analyst to the Director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division.
Before coming to CNAC, he worked for Boston College as a dedicated research assistant performing program evaluations of welfare dynamics and job instability and as a teaching fellow providing instruction in the principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Dr. Hansen also has experience in such issues as employment stability and earnings variation, as well as private/public sector wage differentials. Dr. Hansen is the winner of the first Donald & Helene White Prize for the Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Social Sciences at Boston College.
Louis Jacobson
Dr. Louis S. Jacobson is a senior labor economist with extensive experience in designing, managing, and executing large-scale evaluations of social programs including the National Job Training Partnership Act and the National Assessment of Vocational Education. As a six-year member of the executive board of the Montgomery County Maryland Workforce Investment Board, Dr. Jacobson had worked with state and local officials to establish a comprehensive performance measurement system for One-Stop services, and conducted a comprehensive review of youth services. He has gained a national reputation for studies of the cost of worker dislocation and the effectiveness of Unemployment Insurance (UI), Job Service, and Trade Adjustment Assistance programs to offset those costs. He also has studied the incidence of and returns to community college training for dislocated workers, as well as the ability of Pell Grants to support training for dislocated and disadvantaged adults. Dr. Jacobson has used experimental and non-experimental techniques to develop accurate performance measures for the Employment Service and to analyze the effect of UI payroll taxes on firm behavior.
Arthur Sheekey
Dr. Sheekey serves as the principal investigator for determining the research and technical assistance needs for the REL Appalachia project. He served as the director of the Regional Advisory Committee project for CNAC that included 10 regional advisory committees appointed by the U. S. Secretary of Education. He oversaw the entire project, and he co-authored the Overview and Synthesis Report.
At CNAC, Dr. Sheekey also served as the Director of the Appalachian Technology in Education Consortium (ATEC), a project that provided technical assistance to the states within the Appalachian region. For ATEC, he assumed responsibility for the overall management of the project, coordination, and monitoring of the work of regional partners, the preparation and review of documents and reports, supervision of individuals responsible for the maintenance of the project's website, and routine communication with state and local education officials in the region.
Prior to coming to CNAC, Dr. Sheekey served as the Project Director for Learning Technologies Initiative, Council of Chief State School Officers. In this position he was responsible for the coordination of federal and state educational technology initiatives, planning and organization of national educational conferences, the preparation of periodic reports, presentations at national conferences, and for briefing state commissioners of education on matters relating to technology.
Dr. Sheekey also served in several positions as a policy analyst and education specialist in the U.S. Department of Education, the Federal Communications Commission, and Office of Management and Budget.
