Angel co-designs collaborative research projects with schools, districts, states, and communities using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. 

Angel is a research scientist at NORC where she uses participatory qualitative and mixed methods approaches to center practitioner and community wisdom throughout the research process. Angel uses organizational theories to study the design and implementation of education policy and initiatives across multiple topics, including research-practice partnerships, educational leadership, and instructional improvement. Angel’s approach is informed by her joint role as a research fellow at Chicago Public Schools, where she works with parent leaders and other groups to make research more relevant and responsive to communities under inquiry.

At NORC, Angel recently served as principal investigator (PI) for the Tools for Democratizing Research Use Project. In this project, the NORC team partnered with Chicago Public Schools to design and facilitate multiple participatory sessions to better understand what different district staff value and want in research. Angel also served as PI of the Maryland Governor’s Office Blueprint Evidence Review. In this role, she led a team to conduct a rapid review of the latest research evidence underlying key initiatives (e.g., community schools, teacher shortages) outlined in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future and synthesize high-level takeaways about impact and implementation.

Prior to joining NORC, Angel participated in and studied continuous improvement and research-practice partnerships at Carnegie Foundation and Northwestern University.