About Us

Marguerite Roza

Marguerite Roza, Ph.D., is Director of the Edunomics Lab and Research Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, where she leads the Certificate in Eucation Finance program.

Dr. Roza’s research focuses on quantitative policy analysis, largely in the education finance arena. She has led projects including the Institute for Education Sciences multi-year study of weighted student funding, the Finance and Productivity Initiative at the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the Schools in Crisis Rapid Response Paper Series. Her recent research traces the effects of fiscal policies at the federal, state, and district levels for their implications on resources at the school and classroom levels. Her calculations of dollar implications and cost-equivalent trade-offs have prompted changes in education finance policy at all levels in the education system. As part of her groundbreaking work on weighted student funding, Dr. Roza devised a “%SBA metric,” enabling an apples-to-apples comparison of total district funds in a WSF formula. This metric is now commonly recognized as the foundational measurement of WSF formulas nationwide.

Dr. Roza has written extensively on financial transparency and the opportunity toward equity and productivity. Her work has been published by the Brookings Institution, Public Budgeting and Finance, Education Next, Governing, The Hill, and the Peabody Journal of Education. She is author of the highly regarded education finance book, Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go?

Dr. Roza served as a Senior Economic Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy teaching thermodynamics at the Naval Nuclear Power School. She earned a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Washington and a B.S. from Duke University, and has studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Amsterdam.

Laura Anderson

Laura Anderson is the Associate Director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously, Laura was an Associate Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation working closely with US Program Advocacy team members on grant development, grants management and project management. She has also worked as Capital Campaign Director for Overlake Hospital managing a $15million campaign and served more than twelve years executing national fundraising campaigns for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She earned her B.A. in Communications from Washington State University.

Debra Britt

Debra Britt is the Strategic Communications Manager at Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously she was the Communications Director at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, where she led the development and execution of branding, outreach, media relations, web and social media strategy, and publications. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and a Certificate in Editing, both from the University of Washington, and a Certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University.

Jessica Fuentes-Diaz

Jessica is Financial Analyst with Edunomics Lab. Previously she worked at the Institute for Educational Leadership where she served as a Program Associate. She is a graduate of George Mason University, where she majored in International Affairs and studied abroad in Cuba and Morocco.

Lucy Hadley

Lucy Hadley is a Research Fellow at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously, Lucy served as an Academic Assistant at a middle school in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a Campaigns and Communications Assistant at Sojourners in Washington, D.C. Lucy has a B.A. in English Literature from Colby College, and holds her MPP from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Hannah Jarmolowski

Hannah Jarmolowski is a Research Associate at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously, Hannah was a Policy Analyst at the National Council on Teacher Quality where she worked on district and state-level human capital policy. She also taught 7th grade Reading at a Houston charter school as a Teach For America corps member. Hannah earned her B.A. in Public Policy from Vanderbilt University and her M.Ed in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

David Mendez

David is a Graduate Research Assistant at Edunomics Lab. He is studying education policy at the University of Washington where he also serves as a staff assistant in the Graduate Opportunity and Minority Achievement Program supporting graduate students of color at the UW. Previously, David worked as an Outreach Director at Educators for Excellence-Boston. He is a former bilingual education teacher and Teach for America (TFA) alum. David has earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching at Relay Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. from Dominican University of California.

Elizabeth Ross

Elizabeth (Liz) Ross is a Research Associate at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University where she manages the center’s state policy research and technical assistance work. Previously, she served as the Director of K-12 State Policy at HCM Strategists, where she managed the K-12 state policy portfolio and supported client initiatives. Throughout her tenure, she’s worked with state and local policymakers, educators, and business and advocacy leaders on issues spanning financial transparency, college and career ready standards, aligned assessments, accountability, and school improvement. Prior to her work at HCM Strategists, Ross worked at American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and National Association of State Boards of Education. She received her M.Ed and B.S. from James Madison University.

Katie Silberstein

Katie Silberstein is a Research Fellow at Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously, Katie taught kindergarten at The Dalton School, and first grade at The Brearley School, both in New York City. She serves on the board for Cascade Public Schools | Midway Academy in Des Moines, WA. Katie earned her B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics from Bates College, and her M.Ed in Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Washington.

Jordan Tollefson

Jordan Tollefson is the Education Director at Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. She previously worked for BNSF Railway’s Federal Government Affairs team in Washington, DC and relocated back to Seattle in 2018 to assist with Public Affairs for the Northwest Division. Jordan also has experience as a political fundraiser at both the state and national level.  She earned her B.A. in History from Washington State University.

Crystal Wang

Crystal Wang is a Graduate Research Assistant at Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Previously she has served as the research and teaching assistant of Wake Forest University where she earned her B.A in Economics. Following her passion in education research, she is pursuing a Masters in Education Policy at the University of Washington.