Vera Michalchik

Stanford University

Biography

Vera Michalchik is currently Director of Evaluation and Research in the office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Stanford University, studying initiatives that better leverage the assets of the research university across its broad educational and outreach mission. Her work is aimed at promoting application of the principles of connected, cross-setting, and actively engaged learning for the campus community and beyond. Before Stanford, she directed the informal learning practice at SRI International’s Center for Technology in Learning for many years, where her research and evaluation of new genres of educational programming was sponsored by funders such as the National Science Foundation, the US Dept. of Education, and the Intel Foundation for projects with diverse educational institutions, including afterschool providers, community-based organizations, corporate entities, and science centers. In addition to her work in higher education, she remains active in many collaborative projects in the areas of youth development, out-of-school learning, and equity, through efforts such as serving as a member of the Connected Learning Research Network. She has also served on several National Research Council committees, including Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-School Settings (NRC, 2015) and Learning Science in Informal Environments (NRC, 2009). She has taught qualitative research methods to Stanford graduate students, instructional design and human development to Micronesian pre- and in-service teachers, and promoting learners’  conceptual understanding to UC Irvine and Stanford undergrads.  She did her doctoral work in educational anthropology and psychology at Stanford, her Ed.M. at Harvard, and her B.A. at UC Berkeley.