Laura E. Hernández is a Senior Researcher and co-leads LPI's Deeper Learning team. A former teacher in both traditional public and charter school settings, her work now focuses on local, state, and federal education policies and their equitable and democratic impact on districts, schools, and communities. Hernández's research has examined the politics of urban district reform, the implementation and impact of teacher evaluation models, and the stakeholder engagement efforts of leaders as they seek to build coalitions in support of their policy initiatives. Hernández is coauthor of the LPI report, Deeper Learning Networks: Taking Student-Centered Learning and Equity to Scale. Hernández holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellow. She received an M.S.T. from Pace University in New York City and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.