Martha Friend

Martha Friend recently retired from Princeton Public Schools after a 32-year career at Littlebrook Elementary School, for the last 17 years as the K-5 STEAM Lab teacher. After dropping out of college to move to Seattle, she worked at a donut shop, a warehouse and a preschool, and then attended two Seattle community colleges before coming back to NJ and graduating from Rider University with a B.A. in Elementary Education and Marine Ecology. There are many routes to a successful career and happy life! Martha is part of the Next Generation Science Standards Teacher Leader Program run by Princeton University, Rider University and Raritan Valley Community College which provides NGSS professional development to NJ educators. For the last 15 years, she has helped teach in Princeton University's QUEST program and run multiple professional development workshops for educators sharing her expertise in STEAM education. Martha is most proud of being a finalist for the Elementary Science PAEMST as she was nominated by Littlebrook parents. She is a lifelong learner and spent her teaching career encouraging her students to work to improve their worlds.

Patrick C. Kyllonen

Patrick C. Kyllonen is Distinguished Presidential Appointee in the ETS Research Institute, ETS, in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Kyllonen received a B.A. from St. John's University, Ph.D. from Stanford University, and authored Generating Items for Cognitive Tests (with S. Irvine, 2001); Learning and Individual Differences (with P. L. Ackerman & R.D. Roberts, 1999); Extending Intelligence: Enhancement and New Constructs (with R. Roberts and L. Stankov, 2008); and Innovative Assessment of Collaboration (with A. von Davier and M. Zhu, 2017). He is a fellow of American Psychological Association and American Educational Research Association and has coauthored four National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports, Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century (2012), Measuring Human Capabilities (2015), Supporting Students' College Success: The Role of Assessment of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies (2017), and How People Learn: Adult Learning in the Military Context (2024).

Michael Walker, Ph.D.

Michael Walker, Ph.D., is a Principal Scientist at HumRRO (The Human Resources Research Organization). With decades of involvement in the field of testing, Dr. Walker is a recognized expert in all aspects of designing and maintaining testing programs. His published work includes fair test design and use, maintaining and transitioning testing programs; test scaling and equating; test reliability; and essay scoring. Dr. Walker holds a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology and an M.S. in statistics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He holds an M.A. and a B.A. in Psychology, both from Wake Forest University. He was the 2023-2024 President of the National Council on Measurement in Education.