Nancy Flowers is the assistant director of research programs at the Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD). Nancy joined CPRD in 1992. She is responsible for overseeing major projects, funding, and publications. Nancy also manages project teams and teams within CPRD’s day-to-day operations. Nancy contributes to the core leadership of CPRD to build organizational capacity and define the Center’s goals and direction. Nancy also serves as a principal investigator and project director of research and evaluation projects in the area of educational innovation and systems improvement. Nancy has expertise in program evaluation, large-scale data collection, mixed-methods evaluation designs, and the dissemination of results to improve practice, support data-based decision making, and inform policy for youth and adolescents. Her specific research interests are related to middle-grades education and reform. Over the past fifteen years, she has disseminated scholarly publications, reports, and presentations on topics such as middle-grades common planning time, instructional practices, and leadership; youth academic aspirations, expectations, efficacy and behavior; and indicators related to youth academic achievement. Currently, Nancy is leading the evaluations of two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education – the Middle-Grades Leadership Development Project which is focused on improving the skills and behaviors of middlegrades principals and leadership teams, and – the Power of Two: Pairing Literacy and Numeracy Project which provides professional learning for middle-grades math and English teachers to improve their instructional routines. Nancy is a member of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, the Middle Grades Longitudinal Study Technical Review Panel, and serves on numerous advisory groups related to education.