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  

Susan's areas of expertise include:

• Mathematics assessment
• Secondary level assessments
• Project management 

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 

Stephen's areas of expertise include:

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

Simon Tarr is Chief Financial Officer of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). He joined NFER in June 2024.

Simon is a senior executive with extensive commercial, charitable and not-for-profit experience. At NFER, Simon's focus is to contribute to the organisation's strategy, guide commercial decisions, draw out key insights from complex financial data and oversee the effective management of risk.

Prior experience and professional background

Simon has had exposure to a varied number of customer focused companies and has had responsibility for leading key support functions including finance, human resources, IT, facilities management and the management of corporate risk. Before joining NFER, Simon was part-time CFO of UK Hospitality Industries (hospitality trade association) and CFO of Enable (not for profit organisation working in partnership to deliver health, leisure and community services and events).

His earlier roles included Chief Executive/ CFO of People 1st (performance and management consultancy); Finance and Project Consultant at Diamond Trading Company and Financial Director at Sports.com.

Simon has a BA (Hons) degree (2:1) in Economics at Portsmouth University and is a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW). Simon served as Chair of Governors at Manby Lodge Infant School and is currently a trustee and member of the Social Policy Committee at LHA London - a charity providing young people with affordable, safe and secure accommodation in London.

Simon's areas of expertise include:

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

Sarah's areas of expertise include:

• Reading Assessment
• Writing Assessment 

Sarah’s main area of work currently is on teacher recruitment and retention, which includes research on teacher engagement, teacher retention, and a follow-up project on the retention of headteachers, called Keeping Your Head. She has a key role in the current Nuffield Foundation research, which explores the factors associated with teacher retention. She has also worked with the Greater London Authority, investigating teacher supply in London.

Other projects relate to social mobility and include evaluations of the Sutton Scholars and Summer School programmes for the Sutton Trust, which aim to support highly able disadvantaged students gaining access to university.

Sarah has expertise in a range of qualitative and quantitative research and is a member of NFER's Education Trials Unit.

Sam Macdonald is a partner at Farrer & Co, solicitors. He has a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester and CPE and LPC from the College of Law, Guildford.

Sam began his career in 1995 as a trainee at Farrers, qualified at the firm and was promoted to Partner in 2004. He specialises in charity law and advises charities on governance and regulatory issues, fundraising and tax, and in a range of related fields. He has a special interest in educational charities and advises a number of schools and universities.

He has a particular specialism in the law relating to public benefit. Sam was a governor of Sherborne School from 2002-12 and is now a governor at St John's College School, Cambridge. He is also a trustee of a grant-making charitable trust and sits on the executive committee of the Charities Property Association.

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 

   

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

Since joining NFER in 2002, Rob has worked on a wide range of projects, mainly focusing on the development of test items for the assessment of primary-age children.

Rob is a member of the team which has implemented the PISA study in the UK for each round of the survey since 2006. He has also been part of test development projects ranging from mathematics to reading and grammar to cognitive ability – these were conducted on behalf of commercial publishers as well as local and national governments.

Rob’s academic background is in psychology, including a Master’s degree in Social and Applied Psychology.

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.

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.

Michael is currently a freelance Education Consultant and assumed this role in 2016. After a number of different roles in education, Michael joined the Civil Service holding director roles first at the Teacher Training Agency and then the Training and Development Agency.

Prior to his current role, he worked at the University of Roehampton as Professor and Director of the School of Education. Michael also advises as Council Member for the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) International Council on International Educational Benchmarking.

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 

Phil took-up the role of NFER Interim Chief Digital Officer in June 2024.

Prior experience and professional background

Phil is a very experienced senior finance and IT professional who has undertaken interim roles across a wide range of not-for-profit and private sector organisations. Phil has led IT functions in several of his roles before joining NFER, both locally and internationally, and has been responsible for developing and delivering IT strategy and major platform changes in a variety of contexts. The combination of his senior financial and IT management expertise and extensive executive leadership has led to Phil’s strong record of achievement.

Phil is a fellow Chartered Management Accountant (FCMA).

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  

Paul James is Chief Executive of the River Learning Trust, a Multi Academy Trust in Oxfordshire and Swindon, which also includes a Teaching School Hub and a large School Centred Initial Teacher Training provider. He has a MA (Cantab) in Natural Sciences (Neurophysiology) and a PGCE from the University of Cambridge.

Paul began his teaching career in 1994 as a teacher of science and has held various senior leadership roles in a range of secondary education settings. He has also been a primary school governor and Interim Executive Board member. Until 2016 he was Headteacher of The Cherwell School, a comprehensive school of over 1900 students, which is currently a Teaching School Hub. He was accredited as a National Leader of Education in 2013 and is the founding Chief Executive of RLT.

Paul is also a member of a steering group for the Community Impact Zone in Oxford which seeks to tackle inequality and increase social mobility. He also Chairs the Oxford Strategic Partnership which brings together senior representatives from the public, business, community and voluntary sectors to help provide direction for the city's future, respond to local priorities and engage more effectively with local concerns.

With her specialism in Primary maths assessment, Parveen has been involved in maths and numeracy item writing development for clients including The Standards and Testing Agency and The Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA). She has also been involved in a range of international projects, including TIMMS and the Girls’ Education Challenge. Parveen also led the development of NFER’s Year 6 maths autumn and spring assessments.

Prior to joining NFER, Parveen worked for 9 years as a Primary School teacher, primarily focused in key stage 2 and specialising in Primary Maths and EAL. Parveen has completed a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from UCL and a Masters in Education (MEd) from the University of Cambridge, from which she has gained a wide range of both quantitative and qualitative research experience.

Paola's key areas of expertise include:

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

Palak is based in our Education Trials Unit and leads a number of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). These RCTs are evaluating interventions focused on teacher retention and STEM work experience placements in Secondary schools; and classroom and individual support in Primary schools.

Palak is responsible for designing and managing RCTs in partnership with the funders and delivery organisations. She oversees adherence to RCT methodology to ensure that the trials are run, analysed and reported as per the CONSORT guidelines. She writes trial protocols, Statistical Analysis Plans and evaluation reports.

Palak has fourteen years of experience in education research where she has analysed large-scale survey data and administrative pupil data.

Neil Hollister is currently CEO at the Learn Centre. He has an MA from the University of Cambridge in Computer Science. Neil has held a variety of technical, sales and management roles within the IT and business information industries. He was Strategy and Marketing Director at OnCue (2000–2001) and Managing Director at Datamonitor (2001–2005).

Neil also has a broad commercial background, most recently leading a management buy-in of Cryptocard in 2006, and serving as Chairman and CEO until the sale of the business to the industry leader Safenet in 2012. Neil has a keen interest in education – practically, as a father of three children, but also based on his belief that better education leads to a better world. Neil was Vice-Chairman of the governing body and head of the finance and personnel committee of a local school for many years.

Neil has been closely involved with NFER's work in e-assessment and was a trustee between 2007 and 2024.

Neha's key areas of expertise include:

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

Natasha is Head of Impact Strategy at NFER.

Melvyn Keen has an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of the Royal Society of Arts.

Melvyn began his career in finance in 1976. During the 1980s he had various roles in consulting and finance in companies such as Andersen Consulting and Argyll Group. Melvyn was a Senior Manager in the Consulting Division of Price Waterhouse in the 1990s, serving as Deputy EMEA Training Leader and Global Training Operations Leader for the final four years of his time at PW.

In 2000 Melvyn transferred to the Higher Education sector by first joining the University of Cambridge as Interim Finance Director and then Middlesex University as Director of Finance and subsequently Deputy Chief Executive, a post he held until 2014.

He was, until recently, a Trustee of CASE Europe, has been Chair of the Board of Governors at his local primary school, a Governor of Tottenham University Technical College from 2013 to 2014, and recently a Trustee of Chase High School.

Megan is a Research Manager at NFER.

Maureen is a Knowledge Officer at NFER.

Matthew's areas of expertise include:

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

Matthew's key areas of expertise include:

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

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

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).

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

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  

Louise works in the Centre for Assessment on the development of primary level reading and mathematics assessment products, including national clients and NFER’s own set of reading assessment products for key stages 1 and 2. Louise has experience across the primary age range, having worked as an Early Years teacher, overseas EFL teacher and an english and maths tutor. Louise has a particular interest in vocabulary and reading skills acquisition, which was the subject of her MA dissertation (finalist in the British Council MA dissertation award 2017).

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 

Lorna Cocking became Chair in May 2017 and has been a Trustee of NFER since 2015. She has a BA (Hons) in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University.

Having spent the first 17 years of her career as a classroom teacher in Norway, Canada, Finland and England, Lorna has a wealth of experience in the education sector. She became an Advisor at ILEA's Television and Publishing Centre in 1980, was appointed Publishing Director at The Open College in 1990, and Director of Learning Development Services at the University of Sunderland in 1992. From 1993 to 2010 she worked at Pearson Education, first as UK Publishing Director and then as Director of Education.

Lorna was a member of the Confederation of British Industry Education and Training Council from 2003 to 2007 and of the Board of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust from 2009 to 2012. She has been Chair of the Governors of Amherst School, Hackney (2000-2004), and of the Boards of Middlesex University (2004-2010) and Learning Light (2005-2007). From 2007 to 2014 Lorna was Chair of the Council of the Girls' Day School Trust.

She is currently Chair of the Board of Governors of Kent College, Chair of the Board of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools, and Pro-Chancellor of Middlesex University.

Liz's key areas of expertise include:

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

Lisa is International Communications Manager at NFER.

At NFER, Lisa is specialising in the development of life skills assessment. As such, she is involved in national and international projects assessing well-being and socio-emotional skills with a direct link to policy, research and curriculum development. Further, she is involved in item development for literacy and mathematics assessment projects. Lisa also regularly acts as academic reviewer for NFER’s international peer review journal, Educational Research.

Lisa is an experienced quantitative social science researcher, focusing on socio-emotional and non-cognitive skills across the lifespan and within different cultural contexts. Lisa holds a Masters in Research Methods and a PhD in Psychology from Brunel University. Lisa has applied experience across clinical and educational Psychology settings, such as neuropsychological hospitals or special needs schools. She is also an associate lecturer for MSc Psychology and Mental Health online degrees.

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.

Since joining the NFER in 2004, Kerry’s research has focused primarily on vulnerable children and disadvantaged groups. Kerry has undertaken research in the areas of poverty, safeguarding, school exclusion, alternative provision, crime and antisocial behaviour and Special Educational Needs. She recently managed a national study for Department for Education (DfE) evaluating their Summer Schools Programme for Disadvantaged Pupils as part of the Pupil Premium initiative.

Kerry also led a study for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner looking at the experiences of parents of vulnerable children going through the secondary school admissions process. She has considerable experience of both qualitative and quantitative research methods and been involved in large scale, national surveys as well as more in-depth qualitative research. Kerry has particular expertise in engaging ‘hard to reach’ young people and families in the research process.

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.

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.

Karen Kroger is currently Chief Financial Officer at Queen Mary University of London, where she has responsibility for finance, strategic planning and a project management change function. 

Karen started her career at KPMG, before spending a number of years working in professional education with BPP, where she was both an accountancy tutor and responsibility for the management of the courses for the Scottish qualifying body. 

In 2005 she moved into international development, holding a number of finance and support service roles with global third sector organisations, both in London and overseas.  During her time at Save the Children International, Karen oversaw the financial integration of the in-country operations of 17 global Save the Children member organisations. 

Karen moved into higher education in 2015, initially at the University of London where she held the role of Finance Director, before joining Queen Mary in 2020.

She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and has a BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Warwick.   

Juliet's areas of expertise include:

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

Julia Thompson is Communications Manager at NFER, having joined in October 2020.

Jude's areas of expertise include:

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

Jose's areas of expertise include:

• Complex survey analysis
• Impact analysis
• Machine learning 

Jonathan is the Design Manager at NFER,

Joanne's areas of expertise include:

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

Jo joined NFER in 2012 and is a Senior Research Manager within our Centre of Assessment. She has managed a wide range of item and test development projects, which include both large-scale and international test developments, such as the development and delivery of the National Reading Tests for Wales (2013-2017), item development for the Standards and Testing Agency and item development for use in online adaptive tests for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

Jo also works on international surveys and has been the Mathematics coder training lead on PISA 2012 and 2018 and TIMSS 2015, for countries in the UK.

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.

Specialising in reading test development, Jemma has managed a range of projects, including the development of NFER’s suite of standardised reading assessments for key stage 1 and 2, as well as items for the Standards and Testing Agency and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

Prior to joining NFER, Jemma worked with pupils on the autistic spectrum in both mainstream and special needs schools. She completed a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Warwick and an MSc in Developmental Disorders from the University of Lancaster. During her degrees, she was involved in various projects researching language and literacy development.

Jack's areas of expertise include:

• School Workforce 
• Economist 
• Impact evaluation 

Helen is an experienced education research professional. She has commissioned and directed a wide range of reviews, research studies and evaluations for clients including the Department for Education, the Education Endowment Foundation and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. She is currently responsible for NFER’s literature review, mapping study, knowledge management and is Director of the Eurydice Unit for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (part of a European network information on and analysis of education systems and policies in 38 countries). She is also responsible for the work of NFER’s Bid Team alongside as well as being our professional lead for methods, ensuring that we offer methodological best practice and innovative design to our partners and clients.

Helen's research interests include evidence-informed education, social mobility and systems leadership. She enjoys supporting others to develop their research capacity, and has delivered training on review and research methods and authored resources to support teachers and young people to conduct research and engage with evidence.

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 

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

Greg Woodcock is Director of Operations

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.

Fiona Capstick is currently Associate Partner at Ernst & Young. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the Open University and an MBA from Manchester Business School. Fiona began her career in IT Operations at Brooke Bond Oxo and Conoco before she joined IBM as a Software Customer Engineer in 1984.

In 1989 she was promoted to Services Sales and Operational Support of Financial Services before she was appointed Executive Assistant to the General Manager of Global Services in 1996. In 1997 Fiona was promoted to CIO Leader for UK & Ireland, Netherlands & MEA and she was subsequently appointed CRM Solutions Leader in 1999 and Learning Services Executive in 2000.

In 2002 she progressed to the role of Director of Service Delivery for the Global Account and was subsequently appointed Director of Business Operations for the Office of the CIO in 2004 and Vice President for the Office of the CIO in 2007. In 2010 Fiona was appointed Chief Executive Officer of South West One before she again served as Vice President for the Office of the CIO in 2012. She assumed her current role in 2014.

Fiona offers project direction across a range of sponsored projects. She has directed work for a broad range of clients including the Department for Education, the Local Government Association, the Education Endowment Foundation, local authorities and small charitable organisations. Fiona manages the Centre for Evaluation and Consultancy, ensuring the team are well supported to manage and deliver the wide variety of work they are commissioned across the year alongside work to secure new income for the Foundation.

Previously Fiona managed community childcare centres for Westminster Children’s Society and a family resource centre for the Family Welfare Association. She also worked as Children’s Fund Programme Manager for Slough Borough Council, commissioning, monitoring and evaluating early intervention and preventative services for children 5-13 years and their families. Whilst working for Slough, Fiona developed her interest in children and young people’s participation, leading on this area for the authority and the wider Children’s Trust. She also supported the introduction of the Common Assessment Framework, working with the children’s services integration officer to roll out an extensive CAF training programme across the Children’s Trust.

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 

Enfys Bosworth is the Communications Officer at NFER.

Emma joined the Classroom Practice and Workforce Team at NFER in October 2022. She has significant experience of leading, designing, conducting and analysing qualitative and quantitative research projects and has a particular interest and expertise in designing and undertaking research with children. She is also interested in the impact of early adversity on child brain development, education and life experiences, and how early intervention supports positive outcomes.

Prior to joining NFER, Emma was a Research and Evaluation Manager at the NSPCC where she led a team of researchers across Glasgow and Grimsby and managed a portfolio of individual and multi-site research projects, as part of the NSPCC’s Together for Childhood initiative. She was also a member of the Together for Childhood Strategic Partnership Board in Glasgow and represented the Research and Evidence team on the NSPCC’s Trauma-Informed Forum.

Emma has a M.Sc. by Research and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh where she used a combination of behavioural and brain-imaging techniques to explore the potential of musical activities to support movement and language learning. This included research into the potential of musical activities to support literacy skills in children with dyslexia. She was also involved in multiple collaborative research projects including with Harvard Medical School/Boston Children’s Hospital and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Emma is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Emily is an Associate Manager at NFER.

Emily's areas of expertise include:

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

Donya is a seasoned financial services executive with global strategy, general management and leadership experience, and a strong track record of delivering results over a 20 year plus career. Most recently, over a 14-year period, she has held senior roles at Deutsche Bank including Global Head of DB’s internal consulting division, COO UK & Ireland, and DB Global Transaction Banking.

In addition to her banking experience, she has a combination of general management as well as classical management consulting and entrepreneurial/start-up experience. Prior to relocating to London from New York, she was Chief Market Strategy and Innovation Officer of Carver Federal Savings Bank, a NASDAQ listed New York-based. In addition, she held a number of senior general management and management consulting roles, including at American Express Company and Accenture.

She was also a founding partner of RLP, a management consulting firm that provided strategy and operations counsel to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as divisions of large corporations. As the author of white papers including “Big Data Turning Data into Insight” and “Delighting Customers & Democratising Finance: Digitalisation & the Future of Commercial Banking”, Donya is recognized as a thought leader and innovator. She continues to maintain a keen interest in the intersection of banking and technology and fosters close ties to the fintech industry.

Donya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

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:

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

David Madoc-Jones is a former KPMG Partner and retired from the firm in 2020. He holds a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from Durham University. In a 17 year banking career, David had a number of roles in retail and corporate banking.

He left Bank of America in 1999 to join KPMG’s Debt Advisory business. Over the next 20 years, he advised a wide range of public and private companies and not for profit organisations, including charities and universities, on all aspects of their debt financing. David is also a Governor at the University of Portsmouth.

David's areas of expertise include:

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

Dan is Head of Communications at NFER.

Conor Ryan is the former Director of External Relations at the Office for Students. He has a BA and an MA in Political Science from University College Dublin. Conor started as a Communications Officer for the British Youth Council in 1984.

He then worked for the Inner London Education Authority as a Schools Press Officer. In 1993 he joined the office of David Blunkett as Senior Press and Research Officer and was his Senior Special Adviser, when David Blunkett served as Secretary of State for Education and Employment.

In 2005 Conor became senior education policy adviser to Tony Blair. In 2012 he assumed the role as Director of Research and Communications at the Sutton Trust which he held for six years before joining the Office for Students in 2018.

He has also been an adviser to many senior education leaders and written and edited several education policy books as well as writing for many newspapers. Since 2002 Conor has been a governor at Wellsway School in Keynsham, and he is also a Director of the Wellsway Multi-Academy Trust.

Claire's areas of expertise include:

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

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 

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

Carole Willis is Chief Executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). She joined NFER in December 2013.

Widely respected across the education sector and social science community, Carole has extensive experience of leading research and analysis in both the public and private sectors. Her focus is on raising NFER’s profile and increasing our impact, ensuring that our robust research and assessments actively inform education policy and practice. She is passionate about promoting quantitative analysis in education, and making better use of the rich administrative data sets available to understand how to improve education outcomes.

Prior experience and professional background

Before joining NFER, Carole was Director of Research and Analysis at the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser. She had responsibility for leading DfE’s community of analysts, setting direction for the Department’s research activity, and building capability to use analysis and evidence effectively to drive education policy reform.

Her earlier roles included leading analysis of immigration and crime at the Home Office, research into productivity and growth at the Department of Trade and Industry (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), and delivering pension reform at the Department for Work and Pensions. She worked as an Economic Consultant on competition and transport policy at National Economic Research Associates (NERA) and undertook research on poverty, equity and growth at the World Bank.

Carole has a BA (Hons) degree (first class) in Economics from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Bethan's key areas of expertise include:

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

Ben's areas of expertise include:

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

Anne's areas of expertise include:

• Reading assessment
• Capacity building: item writing 

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 

Amanda's areas of expertise include:

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

Alison Shaw is currently leading the establishment of a new University Technical College in Newcastle. She graduated from Leeds University with an Honours Degree in Modern Foreign Languages. Alison is an experienced school leader, having spent nearly 2 decades in Senior Leadership in three different North East schools, eleven of those as Principal. She started her career in France, where she lived for two years lecturing in English to student teachers at the École Normale in Montpellier; and then to undergraduates in English at the University of Lyon.

After completing her PGCE and MA with Distinction, she taught Modern Foreign Languages in a number of schools in Yorkshire.

Alison was until this year a founding Director of North Tyneside Learning Trust - a Leading Practice Federation of 46 schools, 15 employers and two universities established under Trust Schools Legislation. Alison believes that educators even now still tend to base decision making too little on research evidence; and that the system relies too heavily on a superficial analysis of limited datasets.

She believes that NFER makes a crucial contribution to the robust and principled development of policy and practice in the UK and beyond. She joined the NFER Board of Trustees in 2007.