Tamara Vitolo has more than 10 years of experience in K–12 education leadership policy analysis, program evaluation, proposal development, and using qualitative and mixed methods to examine the effectiveness of government-initiated principal development programs. She has examined how principals’ professional identities develop in the era of intense policy borrowing and landing. As an education researcher, her passion is studying effective practices and policies that create opportunities for low-income, immigrant, and ELL students to have access to quality education and instruction.

Tamara is part of the team working on U.S. History Through Young People’s Eyes: An Efficacy Study on Mission US. Funded by IES, it is a collaborative cross-agency project among the Center for Children and Technology, WNET/THIRTEEN, Electric Funstuff, and the American Social History Project investigating the impact of the award-wining Mission US games on middle-school students’ history content knowledge, motivation to study the subject, and historical perspective taking. Tamara provides support to multiple complex quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods investigation efforts, including performing, coordinating, and supervising fieldwork and data collection activities, drafting and revising research plans, and assisting PIs with tracking and completing key deliverables.

Tamara holds a PhD in Education Policy, Research and Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an MA in Education Leadership and Technology from Adelphi University. Prior to pursuing research and development, Tamara taught STEM subjects to high school students and international test prep courses to ESL students. She has volunteered to design and run after-school chess clubs in several low-income districts for elementary and middle-school students in Upstate New York. She is fluent in English, Georgian, and Russian languages.