Barbara Means is Co-Director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. Her research focuses on ways in which technology can support students' learning of advanced skills and the revitalization of classrooms and schools. She is regarded as a leader in defining issues and approaches for evaluating the implementation and efficacy of technology-supported educational innovations. Currently, she is involved in research on STEM-focused secondary schools that target under-served populations and do not use selective admissions processes. In addition, she is directing SRI's evaluation of the first cohort of grants awarded under the Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Her published works include the edited volumes Evaluating Educational Technology, Technology and Education Reform, and Teaching Advanced Skills to At-Risk Students as well as the jointly authored volumes Using Technology Evaluation to Advance Student Learning, The Connected School, and Comparative Studies of How People Think. A Fellow of the Arerican Educational Research Association, Dr. Means serves on the boards of the Oracle Education Foundation and CADRE, the Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (the resource network for the National Science Foundation’s DRK-12 program). Previously, she has served as a member of the NRC/BOSE Committee on Highly Successful Schools or Programs for K-12 STEM Education, the NRC Board on Testing and Assessment, and the NRC committee that produced the report, How People Learn. Dr. Means earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.