Jessica Milton, is a researcher whose background and area of expertise includes teacher leadership, teacher preparation, and program evaluation. Ms. Milton has worked as a research assistant at Evaluation, Assessment and Policy Connections (EvAP) where she collaborated with key stakeholders to evaluate local and state educational programs. She served as lead evaluator of the Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Awards for Science and Mathematics Teachers and the Foreign Language Assistance Program grant (FLAP) in Orange County Public Schools. In this role, she led and coordinated data collection and analysis efforts and developed external evaluation reports. Ms. Milton also provided technical assistance to educators and school district administrators in the area of evaluation capacity building. During her doctoral study, Jessica instructed undergraduate and graduate level courses at UNC, Wake Forest University and East Carolina University in critical multicultural education aimed at preparing pre-service teachers to work in culturally diverse educational settings. Jessica was also a special education teacher for six years in Washington, D.C. She began her career in education as a DC Teaching Fellow working with vulnerable populations in underserved communities.

Jessica holds a master’s degree in special education and human development from George Washington University. She is pursuing a doctoral degree in social foundations of education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She has presented research papers at national conferences, including American Evaluation Association (AEA), American Education Research Association (AERA), and American Educational Studies Association (AESA). Presently, Jessica is a member of the Editorial Board for the High School Journal and reviews manuscripts for the Urban Review and Journal of Evaluation and Program Planning.

As a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow, Jessica will be working with the American Institutes for Research.