Director, Center for Education Research & Innovation, SRI Education
Leigh Ann DeLyser, PhD, is a director of the Center for Education Research & Innovation comprising more than 55 researchers and revenue of nearly $25 million annually. She has deep expertise in computer science (CS) and STEM education and has focused on broadening participation in those fields as an educator, advocate, and researcher. She uses mixed methods with rigorous statistical approaches to understand the impact of interventions, innovations, and collective community efforts aimed at improving access, equity, and quality of learning opportunities.
DeLyser applies her professional experiences as a K–12 educator, professional development provider, community college and university faculty member, and researcher to study and co-create approaches that support educational improvement and equity. As a former high school and university CS educator, she understands challenges teachers, administrators, and students face in developing their competency in the field and accessing high-quality learning opportunities and resources. Her influential “Running on Empty” report has inspired policies and research that support broadening participation goals in STEM. Before joining SRI, DeLyser was the co-founder and executive director of CSforALL. In her role at CSforALL, she led programmatic and research efforts to connect the national movement for CS education in order to advance the goals of high-quality CS education for all students. DeLyser was named as one of the Women Leading the AI Revolution in Education at the ASU+GSV Air Show in 2024. She received her PhD in computer science and cognitive psychology, with a focus on CS education, from Carnegie Mellon University.
Projects
Publications and Products
- *Wilson, C., DeLyser (publishing as Sudol), L. A., Stephenson, C., & Stehlik, M. (2010). Running on empty: The failure to teach K–12 computer science in the digital age. Association for Computing Machinery. https://runningonempty.acm.org/
- *Santo, R., DeLyser, L. A., & Ahn, J. (2023). Booting the system: Leadership practices for initiating and infrastructuring district-wide computer science instructional programs. Policy Futures in Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231178069
- *McGill, M., Snow, E., Vaval, L., DeLyser, L. A., Wortel-London, S., & Thompson, A. (2022). Practitioner perspectives on COVID-19’s impact on computer science education among high schools serving students from lower and higher income families. ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 23(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1145/3557047
- For a more extensive list of publications, please see Google Scholar
