Janet Carlson, PhD, is an Associate Professor (Research) Emerita at Stanford University’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching (CSET). Her work focuses on the bridge between research and practice, and she has supported a diverse portfolio of research, design, and development activities that improve instruction and develop leading educators who emphasize equity in the classroom and positively impact the learning of all students. Janet’s interest in bringing research into practice began when she was a classroom teacher. After earning a BA in Environmental Biology from Carleton College, she taught high school biology and middle school life science teacher and joined NABT. She quickly realized that the mix of curriculum, assessments, and teaching practices she used affected the learning outcomes of her students. 

Briana Pobiner, PhD, is a paleoanthropologist and museum educator whose science research centers on the evolution of Early Stone Age human diets (with a focus on meat-eating) and whose education research centers on the teaching and learning of human evolution in high school biology classrooms. Since joining the Smithsonian in 2005 to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, in addition to continuing her active field, laboratory, and experimental research programs, she has led the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts. Briana is also an Associate Research Professor of Anthropology in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at George Washington University.