SEL Center Leadership
Natalie Walrond
Director
nwalron@wested.org
Christina Pate
Deputy Director & Collaboratives Co-Lead
cpate@wested.org
Team
Shaun Ali
Technical Assistance
sali@wested.org
Jenny Betz
Technical Assistance
jbetz@wested.org-
Erin Browder
Technical Assistance
ebrowde@wested.org
Laura Buckner
Technical Assistance
lbuckne@wested.org
Steve Canavero
Collaboratives Co-Lead & Technical Assistance
scanave@wested.org
Ruthie Caparas
Technical Assistance
rcapara@wested.org
Leslie Fox
Collaboratives Co-Lead & Technical Assistance
lfox2@wested.org
Erin Freschi
Technical Assistance
efresch@wested.org-
Shazia Hashmi
Technical Assistance
shashmi@wested.org
Joe McKenna
Technical Assistance
jmckenn@wested.org
Meg Nelson
Technical Assistance
mnelson@wested.org
LA Nix
Project Coordinator
lnix@wested.org
Bradley Quarles
Technical Assistance
bquarle@wested.org
Natalie Romer
Collaboratives Co-Lead & Technical Assistance
nromer@wested.org
Lauren Trout
Technical Assistance
ltrout@wested.org
Amber Valdez
Technical Assistance
avaldez@wested.org
Lorelle Wien
Project Manager
lwien@wested.org
Deborah Sigman
Director Emeritus
dsigman@wested.org
Advisory Board
Center Partners
The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions for public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier, and more prosperous. RAND brings significant experience in conducting reviews of evidence and primary research on school and afterschool-based SEL and safety initiatives. RAND will advise on evidence-based programs and practices for SEL and school safety and will serve as the Center’s evaluator.
The center will be led by WestEd, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency, working nationally to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning and other outcomes for children, youth, and adults. Across all content-specific areas of WestEd’s education and human development work, the agency offers a range of research, evaluation, consulting, technical assistance, professional learning, tools and measures, and policy analysis. WestEd will provide overall vision and leadership for the center, subject-matter expertise, project administration, and stakeholder coordination.