Home > About CEEP > Staff >Key Research Staff

Courtney L. Brown, Ph.D.
Send e-mail to Dr. Courtney Brown
Vita (PDF)

Dr. Courtney Brown's past evaluations and research bring a wide-range of experience and expertise to CEEP. Dr. Brown has directed evaluations for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Education, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, community service organizations, and colleges and universities. Her areas of interest are in education, community organizations, science and technology.

Dr. Brown holds degrees from James Madison University (B.A. in International Affairs and Spanish) and the University of Virginia (M.A. in Linguistics and Ph.D. in Educational Evaluation).

Mindy Hightower King, Ph.D.
Send e-mail to Dr. Mindy King
Vita (PDF)

Dr. Mindy King's past research experience has given her tools that benefit CEEP on a daily basis. She has served as research coordinator at the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University, where she managed research activities related to adolescent health behavior. Dr. King then served as the director of research for the Indiana Youth Institute, designing and directing evaluation projects with school corporations and other youth-serving non-profit organizations.

Dr. King completed her Ph.D. in health psychology at the University of California, under a graduate fellowship with the American Heart Association California Affiliate. Her research interests include health behaviors and building organizational capacity for internal evaluation efforts.

Robert S. Michael, Ph.D.
Send e-mail to Dr. Robert Michael
Vita (PDF)

Dr. Robert Michael is a research scientist with strong experience in policy analysis and statistics. He is particularly known for his leadership and research skills in the areas of school-funding formulas and finance. Dr. Michael meets regularly with members of the Indiana General Assembly and the State of Indiana School Finance Issues Group to discuss his research findings.

Dr. Michael holds degrees from Goshen College (B.A. in English), Western Illinois University (M.S. in experimental psychology), and Indiana University (Ph.D. in educational psychology). His areas of specialization are learning and cognition, measurement, research methods, and statistics.

Marcey A. Moss, Ph.D.
Send e-mail to Dr. Marcey Moss
Vita (PDF)

Dr. Marcey Moss brings to the Center solid experience in demographic research and analysis as well as in character education. In her work as a Research Analyst she was the first to conduct a three-year longitudinal study of a character education program. As the Assistant Director of the New Community Project she contributed to the understanding of diminishing population trends in rural areas and changes in farm types and/or sizes throughout the state and surrounding regions. Dr. Moss has also acquired extensive experience in demographic analysis as a Lead Research Assistant at the Census Data Center at South Dakota State University providing regional support to researchers with a wide range of social and economic indicators.

Dr. Moss has a Master of Science in Rural Sociology and a Ph.D. in Sociology from South Dakota State University with an emphasis in Demography and Human Ecology.

Terri Akey, Ph.D.
Send e-mail to Dr. Terri Akey
Vita (PDF)

Dr. Akey’s research background and interests are in the areas of youth development, school reform, arts education and programming, and community development—all viewed from a systems perspective. She is particularly interested in policy and practice related to providing adequate and equitable supports and opportunities for children and youth to develop healthy lives, and the role that communities and larger social structures play in providing those opportunities. This interest has led her to focus heavily on youth development organizations, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Youth Volunteer Corps, 21st Century CCLCs, camping organizations, and many other community initiatives. She has also been PI for several large scale urban school reform efforts, and more recently with urban neighborhood revitalization efforts.

Terri received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research, with emphases on developmental psychology and quantitative research methods from the University of Kansas in 1995. Since then, her work has included a research director for a large urban school district, an assistant professor at Auburn University, and as a research scientist for several educational and community research groups. Her undergraduate background is in sociology and community development.

Shana Ritter
Send e-mail to Shana Ritter
Vita (PDF)

Shana Ritter works with Dr. Skiba on CEEP’s Initiative on Opportunity and Equity program. She has a wide array of experience in educational settings including classroom teaching, school reform, curriculum development, teacher education, and family involvement. Ritter has worked with urban and rural schools in the areas of innovative programming, school-wide planning, inclusivity, and diversity.

Aside from her work at CEEP, Ritter teaches courses on diversity at Indiana University. She holds degrees from the University of Buffalo.