Bronwyn Bevan has been selected as The Wallace Foundation's new Director of Research, effective August 19, 2019, the foundation announced today. Currently a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washington Seattle, College of Education, Bevan succeeds Edward Pauly, who retired at the end of June.
As Wallace's Director of Research, Bevan will contribute significantly to the design of initiatives in the foundation's program areas, integrate research in all areas of work and, as a member of the senior management team, share responsibility for strategic planning, public policy engagement, and organizational policy and development.
"We are delighted to have Bronwyn Bevan joining our team at The Wallace Foundation," said
Will Miller, President of The Wallace Foundation. "She brings a wealth of experience as one of the nation's leading researchers in informal learning and a keen interest in making research results useful to practitioners to drive meaningful improvements in the field. Her range of experience across our program areas uniquely qualifies her to lead our research efforts."
"I am honored to have the opportunity to join an organization with such a strong history of serving and learning from educators, policy and cultural leaders and youth," said Bevan. "I look forward to working with new colleagues at The Wallace Foundation to strengthen the dialogue between research and practice. An integrated knowledge-building approach is critical at a time of rapid social change, when the expectations and possibilities for young people both in and out of school and for arts organizations can be positively reimagined for the future."
At the University of Washington Seattle, College of Education, Bevan has directed since 2015 several multi-institutional collaborations on educational improvement and professional learning, coordinating the work of academics, educators and policymakers. Prior to that, from 1991 to 2015, she worked at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where she served as Director of the Institute for Research and Learning, Associate Director of Program and Director of the Center for Informal Learning and Schools, among other positions.
Bevan helped form and serves as principal investigator of the Research+Practice Collaboratory, a multi-institutional effort to advance research and practice relationships. The Collaboratory project includes original research, field-building and policy work, and an innovative communications approach that benefits from partnerships with professional associations and networks.
In addition, Bevan has served as principal investigator on federally and privately funded research projects focused on educational improvement and professional learning in STEM or arts fields. She has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed journals and publications, such as the Journal of Educational Change, Afterschool Matters, Journal of Museum Education, International Journal of Technology Management and The New Educator. She is co-editor of two books, Connecting research and practice for educational improvement: Ethical and equitable approaches (New York: Routledge, 2018) and LOST learning opportunities: Learning about out-of-school-time learning opportunities (Kluwer, Netherlands: Springer, 2012).
Bevan currently serves on several advisory boards, including the National AfterSchool Association's Bridging Research, Practice, and Policy Committee; Association of Afterschool Task Force on Research and Practice; and is a member of the American Educational Research Association and the International Society of the Learning Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the Graduate Center, City University of New York; and a B.A. in U.S. History from Barnard College, Columbia University.
Edward Pauly, who first joined The Wallace Foundation in 1996 as its second Director of Evaluation (now Research), retired at the end of June 2019. In that time, Pauly was instrumental in ensuring that knowledge-more than money-was the essential currency to help advance the foundation's mission to help disadvantaged children and bring the arts to everyone. During his tenure, Pauly played a major role in conceptualizing the foundation's strategic approach to grantmaking and initiative design across all the foundation's areas of focus - education leadership, the arts, arts education, after-school and summer learning, and social and emotional learning-as well as to the foundation's role in public policy. He worked with the Center for Effective Philanthropy on the use of the Grantee Perception Report, creating opportunities for grant recipients to provide feedback to help foundations continuously improve how they manage relationships with funded partners in strengthening the work. Pauly has been a leader in transforming the role of research and evaluation in the philanthropic sector. He was particularly innovative in his consistent use of implementation studies for learning and answering field leaders' questions to help them make progress.
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