Ana León
Senior Analyst, Program Evaluation

Ana has spent her career conducting various research and evaluation projects in collaboration with government agencies and non-profit organizations as well as teaching policy and politics courses at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She holds a bachelor's degree in International Affairs from Georgetown University, a master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Denver, and a doctoral degree in Public Policy and American Politics from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has expertise in multi-year program evaluations and mixed methods research. Her primary research interests are related to multicultural education, student motivation, as well as intersectionality and education.

Brooks Rosenquist
Lead Researcher, Research & Evaluation

Brooks worked for ten years as a classroom teacher in a diverse range of K-12 settings in California, Louisiana, and Taiwan before beginning graduate studies in education. He has a bachelor’s degree in International Economics from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Mathematics Education and doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy, both from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. Brooks has published articles in academic journals including American Educational Research Journal, Educational Administration Quarterly, and the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. Brooks’ research interests include student motivation and engagement, school district policies and practices for instructional improvement at scale, and mixed-methods research.

Kenneth Samir
Senior Analyst, Program Evaluation

Supriyo “Kenneth” Samir is an experienced data analyst and educator who is thrilled to have joined Denver Public School’s Impact Office! He moved to Colorado in fall 2019 after 5 years in Maine where he worked as a Gifted and Talented teacher, and a decade in the Midwest where he served as data and policy analyst and grant evaluator at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

Ken holds a bachelor’s from Middlebury College and a master’s from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, both in International Political Economy.  Before transitioning from graduate studies in IPE to the field of Education, Ken studied the effect of foreign aid flows between countries, voting, and natural resource management within international organizations.  Passionate about empowering members of the education community to be good consumers of data, he is currently writing a book on data analysis for educators titled Sherlock Holmes Meets Dr. Seuss: Using Data to Tell Stories and Using Stories to Understand Data. 

Laura Rech
Senior Analyst, Research & Evaluation

Laura has eight years of experience working as a full-time data analyst and program evaluator, with experience in the federal government and non-profit sector. She earned a bachelor’s of science degree in psychology from Denison University and a master’s of arts degree in child development with specialization in birth through three from Erikson Institute in Chicago. Her primary research interests are related to equity in the classroom and in the school system, student and teacher voice, and integrating research into classroom instruction.

Richard Aviles
Senior Analyst, Program Evaluation

Richard previously worked as a Research Analyst for the Bureau of Performance Management at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and as an editor and technical writer for a nonprofit organization working in the field of labor rights. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Oberlin College, a master’s degree in history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has expertise in quantitative analysis, research design, and performance management. His primary research interests include institutional cultures of public school districts, the barriers facing English language learners, and the political and institutional obstacles to closing the opportunity gap and achieving equity in public education.

Stefanie Pleiss
Manager, Research & Evaluation

Stefanie brings almost ten years of analysis to the Program Evaluation Team.  She most recently was a Senior Analyst on AR&D’s Reporting and Data Support team and prior to that she was an English Language Acquisition analyst. Before life at DPS, Stefanie worked at Regis University as Assistant Director of Student Information Systems and Reporting, managing a team focused on admission and enrollment data and analysis.  Formerly, Stefanie taught English abroad, was an ESL paraprofessional, and has enjoyed volunteer teaching English to refugees in Denver.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Nebraska, a master’s degree in International Relations and a master’s degree in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Creighton University.