Ellen Mandinach is a Senior Research Scientist at WestEd and a leading expert in the area of data-driven decision-making at the classroom, district, and state levels. Her work over the past 20 years has focused on understanding how educators are using data to inform practice. She has served on several technical working groups and advisory boards on data use, including the expert committee for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards on teacher assessment and data literacy. Dr. Mandinach developed the constructs and theoretical frameworks for data literacy for teachers and culturally responsive data literacy.  Most recently, her focus has been on the ethics of data use.  She is helping to build the data infrastructure at the Nevada Department of Education, in districts throughout Vermont, and is developing materials on data privacy and data ethics for educator preparation.

Dr. Mandinach has authored many publications for academic journals, technical reports, and eight books. The most recent book which is forthcoming in 2024 is Culturally Responsive Data Literacy:  An Important Construct for All Educators.  Other data-related books, Data Literacy for Educators:  Making it Count in Teacher Preparation and Practice and Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Data-Driven Decision Making, are volumes that help educators to make better use of data. Her most recent book, The Ethical Use of Data in Education:  Promoting Responsible Policies and Practice, focuses on data ethics in education.  She received the 2015 Paul D. Hood Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field from WestEd. She has served as the President of the American Psychological Association’s Division of Educational Psychology. She created the Data-Driven Decision Making in Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association and is serving as its first chair.  She is a Fellow of APA and AERA.  She received an AB in psychology from Smith College and a Ph.D. in educational psychology, with an emphasis on educational measurement, from Stanford University.

Dr. Donnald Addison II is a practitioner-scholar with over 25 years of experience in organizational development and change management. His applied and research-focused expertise ranges from qualitative and quantitative studies to on-site interventions. His research has gained recognition from institutions like the Academy of Management and Treasury Management International. For 15 years, he managed large-scale projects, including acquisition integrations and enterprise-wide technological deployments. 

Dr. Addison is an organizational development professional focused on driving strategic change and improving organizational health and performance. He is currently employed as a Lecturer within the Institute of Leadership Advancement in the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. Prior to coming to UGA, Don was a Senior Vice President for Bank of America Merrill Lynch working in Leadership Development. Additional roles within the bank included a client-facing role as a Change Management Executive where he offered counsel to bank clients related to organization development and change management. 

Concurrently Don worked in academia as an adjunct professor at Queens University of Charlotte and University of South Florida where he taught a variety of graduate and doctoral courses including Executive Leadership, Negotiating Agreement and Conflict Resolution and Organization Development. Don was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Member award by Queens University of Charlotte in recognition of his teaching efforts. Don has contributed research to multiple organizations including the Academy of Management, the American Marketing Association, and the Association of Finance Professionals. Before entering the financial sector, Don held senior-level roles for a technical consulting and staffing firm where his skills and knowledge in sales management, project/program management, organizational development, and transformational change were applied to several enterprise-wide projects focused on acquisition integration, customer relationship management solutions, and changes to operating models and sales strategy.

Don earned his doctorate in Management from Case Western Reserve University School of Management where he investigated dynamics associated with advancing buyer-seller relations. He received the prestigious Practitioner Scholar Award in recognition of his research. Don holds a master’s degree in Management with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.

Taji Marie Torrilhon is a business coach, story mentor, neuroscience nerd, mom, and champion for ethical businesses. She provides trauma-informed business and story coaching to entrepreneurs, executives, creatives, and change-makers. Taji holds a BA in Journalism, is a certified Mindset Coach, a trained trauma-informed space holder, and a two-time Moth Story winner. 

After two decades in the food industry, Taji pivoted into coaching and brought together her experience as an entrepreneur with her organizational and marketing expertise. Nowadays, she spends most of her time helping founders grow burnout-proof businesses and sharing storytelling tools with individuals and organizations that allow them to connect with the people they aim to serve.