Jodi Davenport

Overview

Jodi Davenport, PhD, is Vice President of Learning Sciences and Technology at WestEd and Deputy Director of the Regional Educational Laboratory, Northwest. A cognitive scientist trained at MIT, she brings a distinctive research-grounded perspective on how people think, learn, and solve problems to her work supporting education leaders navigating AI adoption and technology-enabled change.  

Davenport leads cross-agency strategy and initiatives that help educators and systems thoughtfully integrate digital tools, especially GenAI, to improve teaching, learning, and operational efficiency. She directs large-scale research and development grants and contracts, manages a more than $14 million portfolio and a team of more than 50 staff and has secured more than $50 million in federal funding throughout her career. Her work spans AI literacy and professional learning, digital innovation, educational technology, and research-to-practice implementation across K–12 and postsecondary contexts.  

As Deputy Director of REL Northwest, Davenport helps guide partnerships in multiple states focused on evidence-based instructional practices, technology integration, and systems improvement. She has advised state education leaders, served on national technical working groups, and chaired federal grant review panels for the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation.  

Earlier in her career, as Director of Research for the IES-funded National Center on Cognition and Mathematics Instruction, she led interdisciplinary teams across six institutions to revise middle school mathematics curricula using cognitive principles and evaluate their effectiveness. Her publications in learning science, educational effectiveness, educational technology, and cognitive psychology have been cited more than 1,500 times.  

Across her work, Davenport champions approaches to AI and digital learning that support curiosity, creativity, belonging, and meaningful engagement while ensuring human learning remains at the center of technological innovation. 

Education

• PhD in cognitive science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
• BS in cognitive science, University of California, Los Angeles

Select Publications

Davenport, J. L., Kao, Y. S., Johannes, K. N., Hornburg, C. B., & McNeil, N. M. (2023). Improving children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence: An efficacy study. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 16(4), 615–642. 

McCormick, S., Davenport, J. L., Rafferty, A. N., Raysor, S., Yani, J., & Yaron, D. (2023). ChemVLab+: Integrating Next Generation Science Standards practices with chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 100(6), 2116–2131.  

Davenport, J. L., Kao, Y. S., Matlen, B. J., & Schneider, S. A. (2020). Cognition research in practice: Engineering and evaluating a middle school math curriculum. The Journal of Experimental Education, 88(4), 516–535. 

Davenport, J. L., Rafferty, A. N., & Yaron, D. J. (2018). Whether and how authentic contexts using a virtual chemistry lab support learning. Journal of Chemical Education, 95(8), 1250–1259. *Selected as American Chemical Society’s Editors’ Choice 

Davenport, J. L., & Quellmalz, E. S. (2017). Assessing science inquiry and reasoning using dynamic visualizations and interactive simulations. In R. Lowe & R. Ploetzner (Eds.), Learning from dynamic visualizations: Innovations in research and application (pp. 203–232). Springer. 

Honors and Awards

Grant review chair and panelist—Chair of Basic Processes Scientific Review Panel for the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, serving second 5-year term as Principal Reviewer; grant panelist for multiple NSF programs 

Invited expert for National Center for Education Research’s technical working groups on Neuroeducation: Neuromyths, Neurotruths, Student Learning, and Teachers’ Understanding and NAEP Mathematics Data for Students With Disabilities 

Program Co-Chair of the Annual Principal Investigators Meeting of the Institute of Education Sciences, with the theme “Relevance & Rigor: Creating the Future of Educational Research,” held January 9–10, 2018, in Arlington, VA