Biographical Sketches of
Committee Members and Staff

JOHN D. BRANSFORD (Cochair) is Centennial professor of psychology and codirector of the Learning Technology Center at George Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. He is also a senior research scientist at the University's John F. Kennedy Center and senior fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Studies. His research has focused primarily on the nature of thinking and learning and their facilitation, with special emphasis on the importance of using technology to enhance learning. His projects have included the videodisc-based Jasper Woodbury Jasper Problem Solving Series, the Little Planet Literacy Series, and other projects that involve uses of technology to enhance thinking and learning in literature, science, history, and other areas. Bransford serves on the editorial board of several journals and has written numerous books and articles in the fields of psychology and education. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. He received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Minnesota.

ANN L. BROWN (Cochair) is currently the Evelyn Lois Corey Chair at the University of California, Berkeley. She has long-term interests in learning and understanding in children at risk for academic failure and is presently focusing her research on students as researchers and teachers within a wider community of learners. She has received many honors and awards in both the United States and England for distinguished contributions to educational research, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Spencer Senior Fellowship, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Educational Research Association, the 1995 American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, and the 1997 American Psychological Society James McKeen Catell Fellow Award for Distinguished Service to Applied Psychology. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and has served as president of the American Educational Research Association. She has been published widely on such topics as memory strategies, reading comprehension, analogical thinking, and metacognition. She received both her B.A. and Ph.D. in psychology at the University of London, England.

JOHN R. ANDERSON is a professor of psychology and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research involves the acquisition of cognitive skills and the understanding of how human cognition is adapted to the information processing demands of the environment. He has developed the ACT-R production system and applied it to various domains of memory, problem solving, and visual information processing. He has published widely on human associative memory, language, memory, cognition, and the adaptive character of thought. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

RODNEY R. COCKING is a senior program officer at the National Research Council and director of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. He was previously a social science analyst in the Office of Special Populations at the National Institute of Mental Health. His research focuses on cognition and cross-cultural issues in memory and learning and the higher order cognitive processes of planful behavior. He is cofounder and coeditor, with Irving E. Sigel, of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Cocking is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (developmental psychology). He received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology and cognition from Cornell University.

ROCHEL GELMAN is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and associate dean in the University of Pennsylvania graduate office of the faculty of arts and sciences. She serves on the editorial boards of several journals and has published widely on learning, from theory to classroom applications. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow, an American Psychological Association (APA) William James Fellow, and a recipient of the APA award for distinguished scientific contribution. She has also served on the National Research Council's U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Psychological Science, Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

ROBERT GLASER is a Distinguished University professor and the founder of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the James S. McDonnell Foundation's Advisory Panel of Cognitive Studies for Educational Practice and is currently serving as a cochair of the National Research Council's Committee on the Foundations of Assessment. Other National Research Council service includes: Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment and the Committee on Research in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education. He is also the editor of the series Advances in Instructional Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in psychological measurement and learning theory from Indiana University.

WILLIAM T. GREENOUGH is Swanlund and Center for Advanced Study professor of psychology, psychiatry, and cell and structural biology in the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently director of the University's interdisciplinary neuroscience Ph.D. program. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a senior fellow for urban education at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Her research interests concern the relationship between culture and schooling, particularly successful teaching and learning for African American students. Her publications include both books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. She is currently the editor of the Teaching, Learning, and Human Development section of the American Educational Research Journal. She received a Ph.D. in curriculum and teacher education from Stanford University.

BARBARA M. MEANS is vice president of the Policy Division of SRI International. Her research activities at SRI have focused on the impact of technology on classroom teaching and learning. She directs the evaluation research component of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program and Silicon Valley Challenge 2000, a public-private partnership to reform schools and promote student learning through active use of multimedia technology. She is also coprincipal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies. Her earlier work included the National Study of Technology and Education Reform. Means has been a visiting researcher at the Rockefeller University Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. She received a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

JOSÉ P. MESTRE is a professor of physics in the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His research interests include cognitive studies of problem solving in physics with a focus on the acquisition and use of knowledge by experts and novices. Most recently, his work has focused on applying research findings to the design of instructional strategies that promote active learning in large physics classes and on developing physics curricula that promote conceptual development through problem solving. He has served as a member of the National Research Council's Mathematical Sciences Education Board; the College Board's Sciences Advisory Committee, SAT Committee, and Council on Academic Affairs; the Educational Testing Service's Visiting Committee; the American Association of Physics Teacher's Research in Physics Education Committee and of the editorial board of The Physics Teacher; and the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology's Expert Panel. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

LINDA NATHAN is the headmaster of newly formed Boston Public School-Boston Arts Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts. Formerly, she served as a codirector and teacher at the Fenway Middle College High School in Boston, Massachusetts, a school recognized for its innovative curriculum that stresses academic preparation and its nationally recognized school-to-career program. She began teaching in Boston as a bilingual mathematics and theater teacher and helped found Boston's first performing arts school. She also cofounded the Center for Collaborative Education and is a senior associate of that organization. Her research interests include new conceptions of curriculum assessment. She received an M.A. in theater arts from Emerson College and an Ed.D. in education from Harvard University.

ROY D. PEA is director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, in Menlo Park, California, and consulting professor in the School of Education at Stanford University. He also directs the multi-institutional Center for Innovative Learning Technologies. Previously, he was a John Evans professor of education and the learning sciences at Northwestern University, where he founded and chaired the learning sciences Ph.D. program and served as dean of the School of Education and Social Policy. He works as a cognitive scientist to integrate theory, research, and the design of effective learning environments using advanced technologies, with particular focus on science, mathematics, and technology. He has been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a fellow of the American Psychological Society. He received his doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Oxford, England, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

PENELOPE L. PETERSON is John Evans professor of education and dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Previously, she served as University Distinguished professor of education at Michigan State University and Sears-Bascom professor of education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a past president of the American Educational Research Association. Her recent books focus on classroom structure and school organization. She received a Ph.D. degree in psychological studies in education from Stanford University.

BARBARA ROGOFF is currently UCSC Foundation professor of psychology and professor of education at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been a professor at the University of Utah, Osher Fellow of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a Kellogg Fellow, and a Spencer Fellow. She is editor of Human Development and received the Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association for her book Apprenticeship in Thinking (1990, Oxford). She is a fellow of the American Psychological Society, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Psychological Association. She received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Harvard University.

THOMAS A. ROMBERG is the Sears Roebuck Foundation-Bascom professor of education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and he directs the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science for the U.S. Department of Education. He is an editorial reviewer for many education and cognition journals and has written extensively on cognitive aspects of learning, assessment, and evaluation. His National Research Council service has included membership in the Mathematical Sciences Education Board and the steering committee for the National Summit on Mathematics Assessment. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics education from Stanford University.

SAMUEL S. WINEBURG is an associate professor of educational psychology and adjunct associate professor of history at the University of Washington. He has been a Spencer Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellow. His publications cover the psychology of learning and teaching history, contextualized thinking in history, historical problem solving, and models of wisdom in the teaching of history. His most recent research is on the nature of expertise in historical interpretation. He received a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University.