University Trustee Chair Professor of Education and Social Policy, Emeritus
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

Rebecca Maynard is a leading expert in the design and conduct of randomized controlled trials in the areas of education and social policy. She has conducted influential methodological research, including co-developing PowerUP! to support efficient sample designs for causal inference studies, and she has been influential in advancing the application of research synthesis methods in education and social policy. She designed and directed the University’s Predoctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Education Research, which served more than 75 Ph.D. students from Arts and Sciences, Business, and Education between 2004 and 2016. From 2010 through 2012, she served as Commissioner of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), where she oversaw the Institute’s evaluation initiatives, the What Works Clearinghouse, the Regional Education Laboratories, and the National Library of Education.

She is a Fellow of the American Education Research Association, an elected member of the Society for Research Synthesis Methodology, and recipient of the Peter H. Rossi Award for Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Program Evaluation (2009) and the Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Best Book Award for Kids Having Kids (1998). She also is past President of both the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1993, she was Senior Vice President at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.