Amena Sengal

As the deputy director of the Measures for Early Success initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Amena leads a multidisciplinary team of innovators, academic experts, lived experts, and users through an R&D effort to develop user and equity-centered assessment tools for educators and pre-k students. The initiative aims to empower educators, families, and children in their education journey, and to inform policy and practice. She joined MDRC in 2012 with an expertise in site engagement and in finding ways to meet research needs in real-world settings. She was the implementation lead for the Variations in Quality Implementation project funded by the Office of Policy, Research and Evaluation and in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services. She was part of the management team for the Making Pre-K Count and High 5's Project recruitment effort and oversaw the implementation of teacher professional development for Making Pre-K Count- an NYC wide pre-k curriculum initiative. Amena holds a BS in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS in psychology from New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Before MDRC, she led qualitative and quantitative data collection for the National Science Foundation-funded Early Adolescent Cohort project at the Center for Research on Culture, Development and Education in New York University’s Steinhardt School.