Marcia “Gail” Headley, Ph.D. is a Data Scientist at the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware. She earned a doctoral degree in Educational Studies at the University of Cincinnati where she specialized in the development of mixed methods research designs and strategies for integrating quantitative and qualitative research approaches. In 2017, the American Education Research Association (AERA) Mixed Methods SIG honored her with the prestigious Outstanding Dissertation Award. Her work has been published in the Journal of Mixed Method Research.

Dr. Headley uses her methodological expertise to support a variety of CRESP projects. She is involved with a study of food insecurity that employs methods recommended by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. She collaborates with continuing-track faculty members on an NSF-funded study of self-efficacy development among undergraduate engineering majors at UD. Dr. Headley also leads quantitative and statistical analyses of longitudinal administrative data from the Delaware DOE’s State Longitudinal Data System.

Years of volunteering, tutoring, and teaching in public schools—working with students of all ages— inspire her interest in research. Dr. Headley is devoted to designing effective research studies to generate well-justified answers to complex questions about how students learn given variations in their health, homes, classrooms, and schools. Ultimately, her goal as a researcher is to become a more able and influential advocate for others.