Our Experts

Joanne's areas of expertise include:

• International Development 
• Strategy Development 
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning systems
• Stakeholder engagement and partner management 
• Business Development  

Liz's key areas of expertise include:

• Assessment design and development (national and international)
• Literacy assessment
• International Large Scale Assessments

Angela's key areas of expertise include:

• Management of large assessment projects (UK and international)
• Assessment / qualifications (including monitoring and accountability) 
• Assessment advice and conceptualisation 

Ben's areas of expertise include:

• Impact evaluation
• Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
• Quasi-Experimental Designs
• Covid recovery/catch-up including tutoring
• Disadvantage gap 

Katarzyna leads the research and evaluation portfolio of work in international education and development. Before joining NFER, she worked on UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, in 2016-19. There she led the work related to teacher policies and skill development, as well as the conceptual framework for the 2019 GEM Report on Inclusion in Education and a policy paper on addressing the trauma of displacement through social and emotional learning .

Between 2011 and 2016, she worked as Policy Analyst at the OECD’s Education and Skills Directorate, where she was part of the Education and Social Progress project, focusing on how education brings about socio-emotional skills and how these contribute to different measures of wellbeing. 

She also served as Analyst on the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) team, drafting chapters analysing TALIS 2013 results and contributing to the preparatory work for TALIS 2018 and TALIS Video Study. Katarzyna holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Anne's areas of expertise include:

• Reading assessment
• Capacity building: item writing 

Bethan's key areas of expertise include:

• Management of large assessment projects (UK)
• International Large Scale Assessments

Rebecca is responsible for NFER’s International Large Scale Assessment portfolio. She ensures that these high-profile, complex research projects are delivered to strict quality standards and ensures the data is analysed robustly and used to inform international education policy and practice. She is Project Director for PISA 2018 in the UK, and was previously the National Project Manager for the OECD International Early Learning and Child Wellbeing Study in England.

Rebecca has wide experience of managing large-scale international assessment projects and was previously the National Project Manager for PISA 2012 in the UK, PISA 2015 in Scotland and the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) 2011-2012 in England and Northern Ireland. Her background is in test development, with experience of developing assessments for children aged 5-15. She has a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences and an MA in Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment.

Kathryn leads our Survey Operations and has considerable experience in designing and implementing response maximisation and attrition minimisation strategies for evaluations, supported by NFER’s Telephone Unit and specialist survey administration software. With a broad range of education research in the UK and overseas, she has led these aspects for many Education Endowment Foundation RCT evaluations, including: Catch Up Literacy efficacy trial; Literacy Octopus trials; Philosophy for Children trial; Helping Handwriting Shine trial; and the Evaluation of Accelerated Reader. She was the operations lead for NFER’s GEC evaluation in Mozambique and a study of Teacher Attendance in Kenya.

Juliet's areas of expertise include:

• Project Management
• International Development
• International Education
• Programme evaluation 
• Socio-emotional learning
• Equity and inclusion 

Rachel is an assessment expert. She has worked on most of the major International Large Scale Assessment studies (including PISA, IELS, TIMSS and PIRLS) with particular expertise in the translation and cultural adaptation of test items and questionnaires and the marking of constructed response items. Rachel was a co-author for the TIMSS 2015 and PIRLS 2016 National reports for Northern Ireland.

Rachel works closely with the Centre for Assessment on a variety of test development projects, including NFER Key Stage 2 (for children aged 7-11) optional tests for reading, provision of literacy texts and item writing for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and National Curriculum reading tests in England. Rachel has also worked on a UNESCO study reviewing Rwanda’s readiness to implement e-assessment.

Paola's key areas of expertise include:

• International Development
• Teacher Professional Development
• Qualitative and Participatory Research
• Project Management

Jose's areas of expertise include:

• Complex survey analysis
• Impact analysis
• Machine learning 

Geeta is a Researcher and applies her expertise in Teaching and Learning to the development of assessment texts and items, including adapting the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) to the Indian context and cultural adaptations of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) texts. She also contributes to the design of qualitative tools for research and evaluation projects, with recent work including the pilot of the UNESCO SDG 4.7.6 Breadth of Skills Indicator. She is currently working in a team that is generating lessons to inform the scaling of a school inspections programme in Uganda.

Geeta holds a teaching degree (PGCE) and has over 10 years of experience in both Secondary and Primary Education in the UK, including three years as Head of Department (Psychology). She also holds an MA in Education and International Development from the UCL Institute of Education.

Lesley joined NFER in January 2015. She leads the research department which designs and delivers research and evaluations, specialist information and reviews, develops assessments and provides expert advice. The department also manages the Foundation’s bid development function.

Prior experience and professional background

Lesley is an experienced and respected researcher, who has led multi-disciplinary teams in the Home Office, the National Policing Improvement Agency, and the Royal College of Nursing, covering a diverse range of social policy issues. Motivated by improving service users’ experience of public services and committed to helping policy, she has designed and tested survey instruments, developed evidence-based national clinical guidance for government agencies, including the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, and delivered programmes of research and analysis to understand and discover effective ways of responding to issues.

Lesley has a BSc in Psychology from Goldsmiths College, an MA in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Jude's areas of expertise include:

• Systems and Structures
• Accountability
• Future Skills
• Education to employment
• Apprenticeships 

Emily's areas of expertise include:

• Mathematics and science assessment development
• Management of large assessment projects (UK) 

Simon's areas of expertise include:

• Sampling
• Survey Analysis
• Impact Evaluations
• Data Management
• RCT Designs 

Caroline's areas of expertise include:

• Education into employment
• Programme evaluation
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 

Jack's areas of expertise include:

• School Workforce 
• Economist 
• Impact evaluation 

Gustavo's areas of expertise include:

• Qualitative and mixed methods social research and evaluation
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning system strengthening
• Multi-lingual data collection, analysis and reporting
• Research and evaluation management
• Training and workshop facilitation
• Global Development & Education policy and practice
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)
• Political economy analyses

Diana has twenty years of experience within Uganda’s education sector, having previously worked for the Aga Khan Foundation, the European Commission, the Embassy of Ireland, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. 

Diana leads NFER's strategic engagement in Uganda, working with stakeholders and expanding NFER's work to provide insights to support improvements across the education sector.

Maria Jose is responsible for managing the life cycle of research and evaluation projects in education and development.

She has extensive experience in international education across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. With a track record in learning assessments and mixed methods research, Maria Jose’s technical areas include project management, gender and inclusion, strategic planning, international partnership building, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), data collection, analysis and reporting. She has contributed to national and international reports presenting the results of learning assessments (TERCE, ERCE, PISA-D, PIAAC and PIRLS).

Maria Jose holds an MSc in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics and a BA in Journalism from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.

Prior to joining NFER, she held roles at UNESCO, the OECD and Ecuador’s National Institute of Educational Evaluation (INEVAL).