Meet the Team
Our Board of Directors

Dr. Chris Stephenson
Chair
Former Head of Computer Science Education Strategy, Google; Founder/Former Executive Director of CSTA

Carlos Zavala
Vice Chair
Vice President, Whiteboard Advisors

Jennifer Rosato
Treasurer
Director, Northern Lights Collaborative for Computing Education

Tamara Pearson, PhD
Secretary
Director, Constellations Center for Equity in Computing

Jennifer Parham-Mocello
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Oregon State University

Pedrito Maynard-Zhang
Independent Consultant

Evan Trout
Grantmaking Manager, Siegel Family Endowment
Our Team

Dr. Monica McGill
Founder, President & CEO

Dr. Julie Smith
Senior Education Researcher

Dr. Joe Tise
Senior Education Researcher

Jessica Rago
Business Operations Associate

Megan Souter
Grants and Contracts Specialist
Our staff has decades of experience conducting research and supporting business operations.
Consider joining our dynamic and skilled team in the future.
Our Contractors and Volunteers
In addition to the energetic, skilled staff, we are honored to have contractors and volunteers working to help us achieve our mission.

Dr. Emily Thomforde
Faculty Lead (Computer Sciences), Reach University
K-12 Computer Science Education Research Center
We created the Resource Center with an amazing cast of people who have provided resources and support, including their time, thoughtful feedback, and insight into future ideas for the growth of IACE. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1625005, 1625335, 1757402, 1745199, and 1933671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Monica McGill, Ed.D.
Principal Investigators

Adrienne Decker
Principal Investigators

Brian McSkimming
Former Postdoctoral Associate
IACE and Resource center Contributions

Charity Odetola
Graduate Research Assistant

Precious Eze
Graduate Research Assistant

Fatima Brunson, PhD
Senior Education Research

Laycee Thigpen, MEd
Research Assistant

Emily Nelson
Undergraduate Comms Intern
(2022-24)

Tavian James
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2021-22)

Joey Reyes
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2021-23)

Hung Vu
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2019-22)

Nhan Thai
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2019-22)

Sean Mackay
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2018-21)

Emily Schroder
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2020-21)

Bishakha Updhyaya
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2018-21)

Momin Zahid
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2018-20)

Thu Nguyen
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2019-20)

Trang Tran
Undergraduate Research Assistant
(2018-19)
Dr. Chris Stephenson
Carlos Zavala
Jennifer Rosato
Jennifer Rosato is the director of the Northern Lights Collaborative for Computing Education at the University of Minnesota, leading efforts to create more inclusive computing education opportunities. She has been supporting educators in K-12 and higher education in efforts to broaden participation in computing for over 20 years. She is passionate about collaborating with partners across systems and stakeholders to increase equity. She has led multiple grants and projects that provide curriculum and professional development for teachers and districts, is a CSforAll-MN steering committee member working on educational policy in Minnesota, and previously served as chair of the CSTA Board of Directors.
Tamara Pearson
Evan Trout
Evan Trout is a Grantmaking Manager at Siegel Family Endowment, where he builds trust-based, learning-focused relationships with grantee partners to support more equitable and effective philanthropy. With a background in education and grant writing, Evan brings firsthand insight into the challenges faced by schools, educators, and nonprofit leaders navigating funding systems. His graduate work focused on examining foundation-grantee power dynamics, fueling his commitment to shifting philanthropic practices away from traditional hierarchies and toward collaborative, community-centered change. As an advocate for more just ecosystems of learning, working, and connecting, Evan is passionate about helping people thrive so they can, in turn, uplift others. He holds degrees from Miami University and Baruch College. Outside of work, Evan enjoys cooking, watching sports, and spending time with his daughter, who inspires his vision for a future whose problems can be solved with curiosity and joy.
Jennifer Parham-Mocello
Jennifer Parham-Mocello fell in love with computer science while pursuing an undergraduate degree in secondary math education. Since then, her focus turned to computer science education. Immediately after obtaining her bachelor’s in computer science, she became an adjunct instructor at a community college. She subsequently pursued a master’s in computer science, which sparked her interest in how people learn computer science, the best ways to teach computer science, and the higher-order/logical thinking skills needed for computer science. She returned to school for a doctorate focusing on how people solve problems in computer science. Her mission is to improve computer science education through exploratory research and empirical evidence, best teaching practices, and community efforts supporting computational literacy for all.
pedrito maynard-zhang
pedrito maynard-zhang, phd (he/him), is an Independent Consultant and former Sr. Research Scientist on the Amazon Community Impact team, where he led research & evaluation for programs like Amazon Future Engineer. He previously was a Software Development Engineer for 15+ years at Amazon and Microsoft, specializing in artificial intelligence (AI)-related problems. Preceding his industry career, he held a faculty position at Miami University. He earned his doctorate in computer science (CS) from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering with a minor in mathematics from Walla Walla University. His professional career and lived experience as a child of Jamaican immigrants fuel a passion for promoting equitable access to CS/AI/STEM education and careers for all young people.
Dr. Monica McGill, Ed.D.
Dr. Monica McGill is a leader in computing education research and the founder of the nonprofit Institute for Advancing Computing Education (IACE). Since launching IACE (pronounced eye-ACE), she has helped secure over several million in grants and services from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Google, and Amazon Future Engineer.
With a background spanning industry and academia, Monica brings over a decade of research experience to her work, focused on expanding access to computer science education. She has published dozens of articles and currently serves as a principal investigator on multiple NSF-funded projects.
Monica holds degrees in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Curriculum & Instruction, and has served in leadership roles with ACM-W North America, CSTA, and the Sjögren’s Foundation. She is a senior member of ACM and active in several professional organizations including SIGCSE, IEEE, ASEE, NARST, and AERA.
Dr. Julie Smith
Dr. Julie M. Smith holds degrees in Curriculum & Instruction and Software Development. She also completed a doctoral program in Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas. Her research focus is computer science education, particularly the intersection of learning analytics, learning theory, and disparities in CS education and excellence. She was a research assistant at MIT’s Teaching Systems Lab, working on a program aimed at improving disparities in high school computer science programs; she is also co-editor of the SIGCSE Bulletin.
Dr. Joe Tise
Dr. Joseph Tise is a Senior Education Researcher at the Institute for Advancing Computing Education (IACE). He earned his B.S. in Psychology from Virginia Tech, M.S., and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Penn State, and completed a Postdoctoral appointment at Texas A&M University. He has expertise in self-regulated learning, theories of learning, student motivation, quantitative and mixed-methods research, and is experienced in conducting longitudinal research.
In his free time, Dr. Tise enjoys spending time with his family and friends, getting outdoors, and staying active.
Jessica Rago
Jessica Rago earned her Bachelors in Business Management and Organizational Leadership from St. Petersburg University. Her expertise is in event coordinating, digital marketing, operations and project management.
In her free time, Jessica enjoys spending time with family and friends, being out in nature, traveling, and volunteering in her community.
Megan Souter
Megan Souter is an experienced Grants and Contracts Manager with expertise in post-award administration, compliance oversight, and financial management of large-scale federal and state-funded research programs. She brings over a decade of public sector financial experience, including prior roles in state-level auditing and tax compliance.
Megan holds an MBA and an MS in Finance from Webster University and is a Certified Grant Research Administrator through the University of South Carolina. She is known for her attention to detail, collaborative approach, and commitment to operational excellence.
In her spare time she enjoys traveling with her family, cooking, and reading news articles.
Adrienne Decker
Adrienne Decker, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo. Her areas of scholarship are computing education with a primary focus on how we teach introductory programming and providing tools and support for student learning computing concepts.
Brian McSkimming
Brian McSkimming, Ph.D, is a Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo. He studied the data on evaluation instruments to explore learning heuristics and biases. He also provided support for other parts of the project development.
Emily Thomforde
Dr. Emily Thomforde is a professor at Reach University. She advocates for equity in K-12 Computer Science and supports teachers and districts in building rigorous pathways to deliver the California K-12 CS Standards. Emily is a BAFTA-winning video game developer, and has eight years of experience teaching computer programming, software development and engineering at libraries, prisons, museums, and public schools locally and abroad. Her curriculum development credits include Vidcode, Hopscotch, Code.org, STEM from Dance, Code Combat, and BrainPOP. Emily holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK.
