Our Team

Our Team

David Houston
Director
Assistant Professor

David M. Houston is an Assistant Professor of Education in the College of Education and Human Development and the academic program coordinator of the Education Policy Program at George Mason University. He is also the director of EdPolicyForward: The Center for Education Policy, a university affiliate faculty in the Schar School of Policy and Government, and the survey director of the Education Next Poll at Harvard University.

Prof. Houston studies education politics, governance, and public opinion. His research has appeared in academic outlets such as the American Journal of Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Educational Researcher. It has also been featured in media outlets such as Vox, Chalkbeat, and Education Week. This work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the W. T. Grant Foundation.

Prior to his position at Mason, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He earned his PhD in Politics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before pursuing his doctorate, he taught first and second grade in New York City.

Anne Holton
Senior Fellow
Visiting Professor

Anne Holton is a Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government and at the College of Education and Human Development and served as Interim President of George Mason University from 2019-20. She is a life-long advocate for children and families in Virginia. With an A.B. from Princeton and a Harvard law degree, Holton has worked as a legal aid lawyer serving low-income families, a juvenile and domestic relations district court judge, a child welfare reformer, and Virginia’s Secretary of Education. Holton helped integrate the inner-city schools of Richmond, Virginia, as a child when her father was Virginia's governor in the early 1970's. As Virginia’s First Lady when her husband was Governor in 2006-2010, Holton championed foster care system reform. As Virginia’s Secretary of Education in 2014-2016, Holton worked to increase Virginia’s investment in public education, to promote innovation and the joy of teaching and learning in our schools, and to ensure every student has a successful pathway to the future, especially those in high-poverty communities. Her life’s work has focused on children and families at the margin, and the crucial role education must play in helping young people escape poverty. Holton currently serves on the Virginia Board of Education. She and her husband, now a U.S. Senator, live in Richmond, VA. They have three adult children, all of whom attended Richmond Public Schools.

Seth Hunter
Senior Fellow
Associate Professor

Dr. Seth B Hunter is an Associate Professor of Education Leadership with Mason affiliations in Research Methods and Education Policy. He is also a Fellow with the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, a partnership among Vanderbilt University, the Tennessee Department of Education, and other researchers. His research interests concern educator and organizational effectiveness; he applies various methods and draws on multiple disciplines to explore these topics. More specifically, Dr. Hunter’s work has explored instructional coaching labor markets, teacher and principal professional development and evaluation, and data use by leaders to manage human resources. Dr. Hunter’s work appears in several elite education, education policy, and education leadership journals, including Educational Researcher, Education Administration Quarterly, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. He has received several grants from education agencies and philanthropies to support his research. Due to his expertise, Dr. Hunter advises multiple local and state policymaking bodies and education agencies across the United States.

Samantha Viano
Senior Fellow
Associate Professor

Samantha Viano is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. Dr. Viano earned her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College after an MSEd from Northwestern University. Her research critically examines endemic challenges in PreK-12 schools and evaluates the effects of the chosen solutions on traditionally marginalized and racially minoritized students and their teachers. Specific research strands that fall within this agenda include school improvement, school safety and security, and high school graduation policies in addition to researching how to better integrate critical theory into quantitative analysis in educational research. Her research has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, and Review of Research in Education. This research has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Viano received the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award.

Elizabeth Davis
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Beth Davis is a Postdoctoral Fellow at EdPolicyForward: The Center for Education Policy at George Mason University. Her research background includes conducting research for national nonprofits and foundations, evaluating programs to advance racial and gender diversity in computer science, co-designing a community-based participatory action study with immigrant families on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and building the first national dataset on newcomer schools using a range of publicly available data sources. Her research is informed by past experiences working with Emerging Bilingual students and their families as a school-based family and community outreach liaison. Through this work, Dr. Davis launched efforts to coordinate services across the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia for recently arrived youth, and identify recommendations for shifts in policy and practice driven by youth leaders. Previously, Dr. Davis worked in Guatemala with indigenous women's cooperatives and led an educational program in El Salvador. She received her PhD from George Mason University, where she completed her AERA-funded dissertation, “The National Emergence of Newcomer Schools: Their Growth, Characteristics and Outcomes.”

Affiliated Faculty

Affiliated Doctoral Students

• Katherine Bowser