We are pleased to announce a new addition to our MNA team—Ms. Dia Adams. Dia brings with her about 10 years of education finance and policy and research and evaluation experience. She has worked at all levels of the education system including the federal, state, local, and foundations levels. Highlights from her career include working at the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). While at NASBE, she was responsible for organizing and facilitating learning study groups (or policymaker trainings) on a variety of education issues including high school dropout prevention, STEM education, school health, and the Common Core. Dia was responsible for making sure state policymakers remained up to date on the latest educational research, and worked directly with policymakers to review, strengthen, and revise their state education policies accordingly. Her career also includes time working at the Anne E. Casey Foundation on the KidsCount initiative and the Academy for Educational Development (AED now FHI360) as a research associate. During her time at AED, she worked on multiple U.S. Department of Education funded evaluations as a data analyst and co-authored studies on common planning time and smaller learning communities (SLCs). Dia also has experience working at a state education agency. While employed by the Maryland Department of Education, she was responsible for analyzing data for the state’s college readiness data initiative and providing research reports to policymakers across the state on student performance. Dia has a B.A. in Economics from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in Sociology the George Washington University. She is a mixed methodologist and adept in SAS. At MNA, Dia will be working on several grant evaluations in the areas of teacher preparation, STEM education, after school programs, and arts integration. Welcome, Dia!
