As Senior Research Associate for the Health & Human Development Program at WestEd, June Bayha leads the statewide evaluation of California's Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathways Initiative.

Funded by the California Community College Chancellor's Office and California Department of Education, the CTE Pathways Initiative, also called the Governor's CTE Initiative, aims to improve linkages and career technical education pathways between high schools and community colleges for the benefit of students in both education systems. As lead Evaluator for the initiative, Bayha oversees site visits, interviews, and focus groups with key stakeholders, and data collection and analyses.

In 2010, the Career Technical Education Pathways Initiative 2009/10 Annual Report, in which Bayha was a key author, was released to the California Legislature, Governor, and Director of Finance. The report includes findings and recommendations of how "CTE Pathways Initiative grants can assist in helping the State achieve its broad and bold vision for an integrated and coherent CTE system and in creating a well-educated workforce."

Bayha also serves as Evaluator of federal grants awarded to local educational agencies addressing safe schools/healthy students, alcohol reduction programs, character education, and elementary counseling.

She coauthored Ensuring that No Child is Left Behind: How are Student Health Risks and Resilience Related to the Academic Progress of Schools? Based on data from WestEd's California Healthy Kids Survey, this report underscores the importance to academic achievement of key risk and youth development factors. According to this report, policies and practices that focus exclusively on raising test scores, while ignoring the comprehensive health needs of students, are likely to leave many children behind.

Previously at WestEd, Bayha worked on statewide high-stakes assessments, school-to-career projects, and various evaluations with the agency's Assessment and Standards Development Services program. She helped the California Department of Education and the California Community College Chancellor's Office develop adult learning content standards for adult education and community colleges; managed the development and organization of the Curriculum Guide for Career Development and Occupational Studies, funded by the New York State Education Department; worked with the National Skill Standards Board to develop a crosswalk between academic standards and occupational skill standards; and developed surveys and conducted data analysis for school-to-work and other evaluation projects.

While a member of WestEd’s Policy Center, Bayha hired and managed consultants, organized meetings with clients, and oversaw data analysis, research projects, and budgets. She also managed and coordinated the study of La Frontera school districts funded by the school board associations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Her responsibilities included data collection, analysis, and a final report, Voices from La Frontera: Study of School Districts Along the United States/Mexico Border. Cowritten by Bayha, this report offers a broad sketch of what life is like for school districts in the region within 100 miles of the United States/Mexico border, referred to as La Frontera. Findings from the La Frontera study were presented to various audiences, including participants at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

She also researched, developed, and wrote several WestEd Policy Briefs: Using School-Community Partnerships to Bolster Student Learning; Making Sure Exit Exams Get a Passing Grade; and Teacher Supply and Quality: The Changing Role of Community Colleges.

Before joining WestEd in 1998, Bayha worked as a Research Associate at the University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA's) National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. She worked closely with staff, principals, and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to implement the Comprehensive Student Assessment project, developed by UCLA and funded by LAUSD. Bayha recruited and contacted teachers to participate with UCLA in designing and developing performance-based assessment tasks for students, and evaluated quantitative data for standards-setting issues related to performance-based assessment tasks.

She also evaluated parent involvement programs in LAUSD, and researched and identified indicators of success for the district's online report card, a project funded by then Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

Bayha has presented her research at numerous annual conferences, including the American Educational Research Association, Educating for Careers, and the California Community College Association for Occupational Education.

In 2009, she was selected to participate in Leadership California, “a network of accomplished women, dedicated to advancing the leadership role women play in impacting business, social issues and public policy. In 2008, she received recognition from colleagues for Exceptional Contribution to the WestEd Community.

She received a BA in history and government from Claremont McKenna College and an MA in public policy from the Johns Hopkins University.