Dr. Courtney Bell is a Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the Department of Educational Psychology. She previously was a high school science teacher, a teacher educator, a research scientist at Educational Testing Service, and most recently the first female director of the Wisconsin Educational Research Center (WCER). Courtney is passionate about understanding and improving teaching for historically underserved children. She is currently studying how language specialists learn to collaborate with content specialist in mathematics in mixed-reality simulation environments. She recently served as a PI on the OECD-organized Global Teaching InSights study, leading the development of observation systems to measure teaching quality in eight economies. Courtney’s inter-disciplinary, collaborative work, which spans issues of parental choice, international comparisons of teaching, teaching quality, teacher learning, assessment, simulation, and the measurement of teaching, is situated at the intersections of research, policy, and practice. Courtney was a Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, won the AERA Division L Dissertation of the year award, and was awarded research excellence awards from both the University of Connecticut and ETS. She is an AERA Fellow and also co-edited the 5th Edition of the American Educational Research Association’s Handbook of Research on Teaching. Courtney earned her doctorate at Michigan State University in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy and a B.A. in Chemistry at Dartmouth College.