Our Team

Jude's areas of expertise include:

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

Ben's areas of expertise include:

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

Jack's areas of expertise include:

• School Workforce 
• Economist 
• Impact evaluation 

Jenna's areas of expertise include:

• Systems and Structures
• School Funding
• Accountability 
• Economist
• Impact evaluation 

Note: Jenna is currently on maternity leave - please contact Jude Hillary via [email protected] if you have any enquiries in her absence.

Joanne's areas of expertise include:

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

Helen's areas of expertise include:

• Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
• Quasi-Experimental Designs
• Implementation and Process Evaluations (IPEs) including surveys and qualitative data collection
• Programme evaluation 
• Project management 

Matthew's areas of expertise include:

• Systems and Structures
• Mixed methods
• Survey design
• Programme evaluation
• Professional development 

Neha's key areas of expertise include:

• Data collection
• Data management and governance
• Research project management 

Louise's areas of expertise include:

• Test development
• Classical Test Theory
• Item Response Theory
• Test equating
• Item banking
• Computer adaptive testing
• Standard setting
• National Curriculum Assessment 

Luke's key areas of expertise include:

• Post-16 education, training and skills 
• Teacher development 
• Quantitative research methods   
• Programme evaluation 
• Survey design
• Research project management  

Bethan's key areas of expertise include:

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

Stephen's areas of expertise include:

• Governance, including policy and process development and revision
• Strategic & technical leadership
• Stakeholder relations 
• Psychometrics (Rasch, IRT, CTT, G-Theory)
• IRT & non-IRT statistical equating, scaling, and linking.
• Judgemental standard setting
• Quantitative methods to support academic integrity
• Test development, delivery, and reporting (including computer-based)
• Educational design & classroom assessment 

Paola's key areas of expertise include:

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

Sarah's areas of expertise include:

• Reading Assessment
• Writing Assessment 

Eren's key areas of expertise include:

• Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) & multistage testing (MST)
• Longitudinal mixed-effects models
• Unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory
• Psychometric programming/software development & Data visualization 

Claire's areas of expertise include:

• Management of large assessment projects (UK)
• Assessment development 

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 

Jenny's key areas of expertise include:

• International and comparative Education
• Global South assessments
• System-level assessment strategy/policy development and consultation 
• Large-scale field operation design and management 
• Capacity building programme design and delivery  

Emily's areas of expertise include:

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

Anne's areas of expertise include:

• Reading assessment
• Capacity building: item writing 

Charalambos' areas of expertise include:

• Standard Setting
• Alignment Studies
• (Language) Assessment
• Rasch Measurement Theory (RMT)
• Multi-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) Theory
• Differential Functioning (DIF, DGF, DRF, DMF, etc.)
• Test Equating
• Educational Measurement
• Assessment Research 

Juliet's areas of expertise include:

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

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.

Jose's areas of expertise include:

• Complex survey analysis
• Impact analysis
• Machine learning 

Pippa's key areas of expertise include:

• Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
• Implementation and Process Evaluations (IPEs)
• Covid-recovery/catch-up including tutoring
• Evaluation of interventions to support pupils’ progress/reduce disadvantage gaps 

Matthew's key areas of expertise include:

• Bid Management Operations
• Bid Resource Development
• Project Management
• Building business portfolio
• Business development 

Susan's areas of expertise include:

• Mathematics assessment
• Secondary level assessments
• Project management 

Simon's areas of expertise include:

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

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.

David's areas of expertise include:

• Literacy assessment development
• Management of large assessment projects (UK)
• Project management 

Ruth's areas of expertise include:

• Design and analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) 
• Sample size/statistical power calculations 
• Regression analyses – linear, nonlinear, mixed effects, generalised 
• R programming 

   

Suzanne's areas of expertise include:

• T Levels
• Apprenticeships
• Teacher and leader professional development
• Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
• Social mobility
• Programme evaluation 
• Mixed methods  

Amanda's areas of expertise include:

• Knowledge management
• Literature search
• Education policy
• UK & international education systems 

David's areas of expertise include:

• Science assessment
• ILSAs
• Reference tests
• Secondary level assessments
• Project management 

Liz's key areas of expertise include:

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

Stephen's areas of expertise include:

• Impact Evaluations
• RCT design
• Statistical methods
• Cognitive Science
• EdTech
• Quasi-Experimental Designs 

Maddie is Director of Communications and leads the Sales, Marketing and Impact (SMI) teams at NFER.

Dan is Head of Communications at NFER.

Natasha is Head of Impact Strategy at NFER.

Matt Bezzant is the Policy Communications Manager for NFER and joined in September 2019.

Lisa is International Communications Manager at NFER.

Ruth Williams is the Head of Product Delivery and E-Assessment Solutions at NFER.

Emily is an Associate Manager at NFER.

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.

Ceril Ketteley is the Head of Data Management, Product and Service Operations at NFER.