OUR TEAM
Jessica Hunt
Jessica Hunt is a Professor of Special Education and Math Education. Her expertise involves elementary and middle school students with disabilities as well as multidisciplinary educational gaming design/development. She has over 45 publications and over 4 million dollars of external funding at the intersection of game-based learning, design-based research, student learning and engagement. She has led two federally funded grants that center students with disabilities as a function of their design. Jessica contributes to the Hub by leveraging her knowledge of special education and existing district partnerships in the state. She also contributes conceptually to design justice and technology development through expertise of qualitative methods that center the voices of students and teachers.
Krista Glazewski
Krista Glazewski is the Executive Director of the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and the Associate Dean for Translational Research. Her expertise involves complex problem solving with problem-, project-, case- and inquiry-based learning supported by foundational and emergent technologies. She has over 70 publications and over 10 million dollars of external funding programs leveraging STEM, community, and industry partnerships addressing participation, artificial intelligence, and teacher practice. Most notably, she has led two federally-funded grants, PrimaryAI and I-ACT, both of which involved extensive participatory co-design with teachers. Krista contributes to the Hub through her knowledge of technology design and development, leadership in STEM supported by integrated uses of foundational and emergent technologies, and engagement with translational research practices.
Rachel (Ray) Levy
Rachel Levy (Ray) is Executive Director of the NC State Data Science Academy. Her expertise includes teaching and learning with grades 5-12 and adult learners. She provided special education services in higher education and coordinated support services at the middle and high school levels. Her education research has focused on mathematical modeling from kindergarten to industry and inclusive data science education. Her publications include both scholarly articles and textbooks. She has managed $10M portfolio of grants and received over $5M in funding in applied mathematics and education. Ray contributes leadership in interdisciplinary data science education integrated into interest-driven learning and community-based connections, especially with middle school communities.
Amy Walter
Amy Walter is a Research Scholar with the Friday Institute at NC State. Her expertise involves a focus on improving teacher planning, literacy, and AI implementation. Before joining the Friday Institute’s PLLC team, Amy was a special education coordinator and instructional facilitator. Her current work focuses on increasing student engagement, breaking down educational barriers, and designing accessible learning opportunities. Amy is skilled in planning and facilitating professional development experiences for educators. Amy contributes knowledge of design of teaching and learning activities that foster accessibility and inclusion, teacher development, and translational research work.
Taryn Shelton
Taryn Shelton is the K-12 Data Science Program Coordinator at NC State’s Data Science Academy and The Science House. She works to develop cross-curricular student and teacher development programs that promote data science skills and data literacy among NC K-12 students. She was a North Carolina public school educator for 12 years in middle grades science and high school biology and coached high school science teachers through personalized professional plans, co-teaching, and modeling. Taryn contributes partnership efforts for interdisciplinary data science integration and programming for professional learning communities.
Braska Williams Jr
Braska Williams is the Director of the NC-MSEN Program at NC State University. The NC-MSEN program provides enrichment for approximately 400 underserved students and parents throughout the year in a wide range of activities, such as Saturday academy, a math/science competition day, awards programs, and a summer program. Braska provides leadership and oversight for the program as well as supervision of 20 program affiliated teachers. Braska contributes partnership efforts and programming for students and teachers through MSEN in the Raleigh metro area and northeastern North Carolina including Rocky Mount/Edgecombe County.
Student Affiliates
Briana Trager
Adama Washington
Yuru Zhang
