Erica Champagne is the Director of the Office of Effective Practices in Turnaround at ESE. In this role, Erica directs the state’s efforts to evaluate and share best practices in school turnaround, oversees accountability and monitoring functions for the state’s turnaround schools, and manages the state’s implementation of the federal SIG program.

Cory has a long history of working with urban youth. In his quest to change the societal narrative around Black and Brown males, Cory spent over a decade coaching and instructing young men to not simply utilize their athletic abilities but to ensure 4-year college placement and graduation. As a critical member of New Mission’s administrative team and Director of School Culture and Climate, Cory’s passion, strategy, and tenacity helped lead the school to its designation as a winner of the 2012 EdVestors’ $100k School on the Move Prize, 2013 National Blue Ribbon School for Improvement, , and the 2017 Title One Distinguished School Award. 

Laura Stein (AIR) is a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). With over 13 years of experience in education policy and research, Laura’s work over the past several years has focused on using mixed methods to understand the impact and implementation of effective school and district turnaround strategies in Massachusetts.

Kendra Winner is the Coordinator of Research and Evaluation at ESE. In her 8 years at ESE, Kendra has managed all external research conducted on the state’s implementation of the federal SIG program, other research on school and district turnaround, and a $7M external evaluation of Race to the Top.