Jessica Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Jessica is an accomplished and passionate leader committed to improving outcomes and opportunities for underserved families, especially kids. She has a track record of excellence in strategy, content knowledge, ground-level execution, and talent cultivation demonstrated through more than 20 years of leading global teams, projects, and organizations.
Before joining Education Northwest, Jessica was Senior Vice President for Policy, Practice, and Systems Change at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). In this role, she oversaw a portfolio of large-scale federal, state, and local projects focused on education systems and human services in the United States and internationally. She was also responsible for the design and leadership of the Illinois Center for School Improvement, a seven-year, $60 million initiative to improve technical assistance to underserved districts statewide.
Prior to its merger with AIR in 2010, Jessica served as Chief Program Officer at Learning Point Associates, where she directed school and district improvement activities including the development of a school turnaround service line to transform teaching and student learning in the most underserved schools. This work contributed to double digit gains in performance at multiple schools. Jessica later won a $10 million contract with the U.S. Department of Education to further this work and testified before the House of Representatives Education Committee on this topic. Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and management from Albion College and a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Allison Crean Davis
Chief Research Officer
With extensive experience in both research and technical assistance, Allison leads Education Northwest’s research and evaluation team to prioritize the practical applications of data and evidence. For more than 25 years, Allison has supported policymakers and practitioners across the K–20 education ecosystem to use evidence to make informed decisions that strengthen systems and improve student outcomes. She has led research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects at the local, state, and national levels, including within U.S. Department of Education-funded Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories.
Before joining Education Northwest, Allison served as Vice President of Education Studies at Westat, where she directed the National Comprehensive Center and the National Summer Learning and Enrichment Study. She also launched and grew the research and evaluation practice at Bellwether and directed research at the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Allison holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Stuart Ferguson
Chief Financial Officer
Stuart has a strong background in financial leadership in the educational professional services industry. Before joining Education Northwest, Stuart served as Assistant Controller for AIR and as Chief Financial Officer for Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, which managed the Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest as well as the Texas and Southeast Comprehensive Centers. Stuart’s experience provides him a command of educational research, Regional Educational Laboratories, Comprehensive Centers, and federal compliance. He also has a strong passion for education and improving educational outcomes. Stuart holds a Master of Science in Accounting and is a certified public accountant.
Catherine Barbour
Senior Program Director
Catherine directs the teams focused on capacity building, training, and learning design and development. Her areas of expertise are leadership training, coaching, and designing and developing products and services to support states, districts, and schools in school turnaround and improvement. She specializes in systems improvement and creating a research-to-practice bridge to help schools identify and use effective practices that are grounded in implementation science. A former principal, Catherine led three successful school turnarounds—in an urban, a rural, and a suburban school district. Catherine is a credentialed school turnaround leader and earned her turnaround specialist certificate from the Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education. She holds a master’s degree in education from The College of William and Mary.
Cortney Rowland
Program Director
Cortney leads a team of technical assistance experts who work closely with states, districts, and schools to strengthen education systems for students and educators alike. She brings more than 20 years of experience connecting research, policy, and practice to this role. With specific expertise in educator workforce systems, Cortney guides project design and implementation to ensure that our projects meet our partners’ needs and contexts while incorporating research evidence and best practices. In addition, Cortney co-directs the Northwest Comprehensive Center, a project that aims to partner with and support state and local education agencies in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington to improve educational outcomes for all students.
Prior to joining Education Northwest, Cortney led technical assistance, policy work, and research with an emphasis on educator quality, recruitment, retention, and support. Most recently, she served as Director of State and Federal Policy at the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) and as Principal Technical Assistance Consultant at AIR. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Loyola University Chicago.
Johnette Burdette
Program Director
An accomplished leader and subject matter expert, Johnette has more than 21 years of experience managing people and organizations to design and develop products and services that support states, districts, and schools in their improvement efforts. She has developed, implemented, and monitored initiatives in the areas of leadership, school improvement, and professional learning communities. As Associate Director of Education at Insight Policy Research, Johnette led large technical assistance projects, ensuring products and services were timely, within scope, and high quality while contributing to strategic planning and direction for Insight’s education group. For eight years she was a Principal Technical Assistance Consultant for AIR, where she led school turnaround and improvement systems to support states, districts, and schools. Johnette also has over a decade of school and district leadership experience in urban, suburban, and rural settings. A doctoral candidate, Johnette holds a master’s degree in educational administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree in political science.
Nicky Martin
Program Director
Nicky leads a team of instructional designers and multimedia developers who create customized virtual, in-person, and blended training and professional development for adult learners. She also serves as the director of Education Northwest’s VISTA Training and Support Services contract and supports proposal development across the organization. Since joining Education Northwest in 2000, she has led national training and technical assistance projects funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service (now AmeriCorps), the U.S. Department of Education, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Nicky has extensive experience providing training and technical assistance at the national, regional, and local levels and developing products and tools to assist programs that engage communities in schools. Before joining Education Northwest, she worked with immigrant and refugee youth and adults in both community-based and higher education settings. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Arts in comparative literature from the University of Washington.
Jennifer Esswein
Program Director
Jennifer oversees the research and evaluation team that makes data and analysis accessible and actionable for partners across the country. During her time at Education Northwest, Jennifer has built close partnerships with education leaders at the federal, regional, and state levels, helping them harness the power of research to improve education for students across their communities. Jennifer also directs the Northwest Comprehensive Center, which provides training and technical assistance to build the capacity of state and local education agencies in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. She specializes in state-level policies, including school rating systems, accountability, and assessment.
Before joining Education Northwest, Jennifer served as a Harvard Strategic Data Project Fellow with the Tennessee Department of Education, where she oversaw accountability ratings and supported research and data use. She also helped classroom educators improve their practice by teaching physics to pre-service and in-service K–12 teachers. Jennifer holds a doctorate in quantitative research, evaluation, and measurement in education from The Ohio State University.
Michelle Hodara
Program Director
Michelle leads the research and evaluation team in conducting projects that empower our partners to improve systems, practices, and policies for students, families, and communities. Michelle supports her colleagues to accomplish their individual project goals by creating and maintaining systems and resources that contribute to high-quality and actionable research and evaluation. She directs projects related to postsecondary access and success and supports quasi-experimental and experimental evaluations of educational initiatives. Michelle is a What Works Clearinghouse certified reviewer with training in advanced quantitative methods.
Michelle earned her doctorate in economics and education from Columbia University. Before joining Education Northwest, Michelle was a researcher at the Community College Research Center. She also taught special education in Zuni, New Mexico, and developmental reading and writing at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, a two-year college.
Steve Klein
Senior Expert
Steve is a nationally recognized expert with over 30 years of experience in career and technical education and workforce development. He contributes to and directs projects across the organization in addition to developing business and relationships with potential funders and leaders of federal and state education agencies. Steve specializes in the creation of education accountability and finance systems; policy analysis, research, and evaluation; and the delivery of technical assistance to help states and local providers align their secondary and postsecondary career education and workforce development systems. He has extensive experience managing large-scale federal research and evaluation studies designed to strengthen youth and adult education and training to improve transitions to college and careers. Steve holds a doctorate in educational policy from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a master’s degree in educational leadership and baccalaureate degree in the biological basis of behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gloria Cruz
Human Resources Director
Gloria leads efforts to grow a highly skilled team and a welcoming culture at Education Northwest. As Director of Human Resources, Gloria focuses on building the systems that support our staff while we help our partners improve educational opportunities and experiences for all students. In their role, Gloria aims to elevate psychological safety, promote resilience, and create professional learning opportunities that allow staff members to connect to the purpose of their work. Gloria approaches their work with self-awareness and curiosity—both are necessary to help people achieve their best.
Before joining Education Northwest, Gloria worked at David Douglas School District in Oregon, where they helped improve the work environment through trust, compassion, and respect. In their spare time, they serve on the board of a nonprofit that broadens access to bicycling. They hold a bachelor’s degree in human resources management.
Ilona Wall
Communications Director
Ilona oversees all communications activities, including content development; video, animation, and infographic production; events; and social media outreach. Collaborative, strategic, and passionate about education and communication, Ilona brings two decades of experience and a deep expertise in branding and design to her role. She has developed integrated brand systems for several organizations and designed everything from award-winning websites to infographics to annual reports.
Ilona centers the audience in her approach to communications, taking the time to understand our partners’ needs and collaborates closely with them to deliver products that have maximum impact for a wide range of audiences. She specializes in translating complex research findings into accessible, visually dynamic formats that engage audiences and inform practice. Prior to joining Education Northwest, Ilona taught design at Portland State University and worked with education, health care, and hospitality brands across the country. She was also a founding designer of Colaboratory, a multidisciplinary internship program for communications, design, and marketing students. Ilona attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and earned a Bachelor of Science from The Art Institutes International Minnesota.
