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Our Team

Christina Tydeman

Christina Tydeman serves as the director of REL Pacific. To this role, Dr. Tydeman brings more than 30 years of experience improving outcomes for K–12 and postsecondary students as a teacher, administrator, and program leader in California and Hawai‘i. As director, Dr. Tydeman works closely with education system leaders across the Pacific region partnering with the REL team on research-based systemic improvement projects. In addition to her expertise in formative learning and large-scale assessments, educational data systems, program evaluations, and professional development, she has served on the development teams for several practitioner guides with the National Forum for Educational Statistics. Dr. Tydeman can be contacted at ctydeman@mcrel.org.

Siomara (Sio) Valladares

Siomara (Sio) Valladares is the deputy director of REL Pacific. Dr. Valladares brings extensive experience in designing collaborative research and evaluation projects, building and maintaining relationships, as well as in writing for public and academic audiences. As deputy director, she provides support and leadership in the coordination, collaboration, and implementation of research, evaluation, and technical assistance across various projects and partnership work. Dr. Valladares can be reached at svalladares@mcrel.org.

Marisa Crowder

Marisa Crowder is REL Pacific’s overall partnership lead, coordinating partnership projects and major activities across the region’s seven jurisdictions. In the 2017–22 REL cycle, she worked in close collaboration with education leaders in Hawai‘i and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to strengthen systemwide capacity to implement social and emotional learning. Dr. Crowder also led two REL Pacific partnerships that aimed to develop math transition course initiatives in the CNMI and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. She currently facilitates the Cross-REL Leadership group on Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. Dr. Crowder can be contacted at mcrowder@mcrel.org.

Meagan Taylor

Meagan Taylor is REL Pacific’s lead for training, coaching, and technical support for evidence use, working with educators and school system leaders across the region. Ms. Taylor has supported educator effectiveness and early learning for REL Pacific since 2019. Ms. Taylor gained knowledge of the research-based skills and strategies that have the highest impact on student learning during her 14 years teaching at the elementary level. Following her years in the classroom, she was a consultant and professional learning facilitator, working with teachers and instructional coaches on how to most effectively help all students learn. Ms. Taylor can be reached at mtaylor@mcrel.org.

Bradley Rentz

Bradley Rentz is the lead for REL Pacific’s applied research and peer-reviewed, research-based development projects. Dr. Rentz has led a variety of REL Pacific applied research studies and technical assistance projects since 2018 on topic areas—such as Indigenous culture and language instruction, education language policy, culturally sustaining instructional models, college and career readiness, teacher preparation, and education research methods. Prior to REL Pacific, he was a middle school teacher on Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Dr. Rentz can be reached at brentz@mcrel.org.

Katie Gao

Katie Gao is REL Pacific’s dissemination lead. Dr. Gao has more than a decade of experience helping to bring complex research findings into practice by developing, editing, and designing publications and materials in numerous fields, including education, linguistics, and information systems. Since 2017, she has worked with REL Pacific, supporting and leading projects across all tasks, with a particular focus on multilingual education and culturally responsive teaching and learning. Dr. Gao can be contacted at kgao@mcrel.org.

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