Leigh Parise

With more than two decades in education and social policy, Parise is dedicated to collaborating with her colleagues and partners to build and apply evidence to improve people’s lives. As Director of Program Development, Parise plays a key role in the development of new projects and strategic initiatives across MDRC’s policy areas and centers and oversees MDRC’s grants management and funder relations. Parise is an educational research and policy expert, a mixed-methods researcher, and host of MDRC’s Evidence First podcast. Parise has been a lead on numerous MDRC projects, including large-scale randomized controlled trials, non-experimental studies, and descriptive studies, as well as projects focused on helping practitioners apply evidence to best serve their communities. For example, Parise led the implementation research on MDRC’s Evaluation of the P-TECH 9-14 model, a career pathway model that begins in high schools and extends into postsecondary education and the workforce. Before joining MDRC, Parise began her career as an elementary school teacher and co-founded Classroom Champions, a nonprofit organization that empowers children to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally through the mentorship and mindset of world-class athletes. Parise holds a B.A. in history and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in teaching from Pace University, and a Ph.D. in human development and social policy from Northwestern University.