Annex A. OECD team members

External experts

MARLENE GRAS is an international consultant in education, public policy and youth development. She specialises in the design and review of education programmes for public policy and corporate social responsibility, as well as in the areas of school management, teacher training, active learning pedagogies and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), among other topics. Marlene has designed several education programmes that have been implemented in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Romania, the United States and Uruguay. She worked as an analyst for the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). She studied education and development at Anahuac University and holds a master’s degree in Comparative International Education from the University of Stockholm, Sweden.

JOSE FRANCISCO SOARES is a Brazilian professor and former president of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research “Anísio Teixeira” (INEP). He graduated in Mathematics from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG); he holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Statistics from the National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. José Francisco also holds a postdoctoral degree in Education from the University of Michigan. He received the “Bunge Foundation Award” for his work in the area of educational evaluation in 2012 in the category “Life and Work”.

OECD analysts

BEATRIZ PONT is a senior education policy analyst at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, with extensive experience in education policy reform internationally. She currently leads the OECD Implementing Education Policies team and recently led the comparative series on education reforms, Education Policy Outlook. She has specialised in various areas of education policy and reform, including equity and quality in education, school leadership, adult learning and adult skills. She has also worked with individual countries such as Greece, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden or the United Kingdom (Wales) in their school improvement reform efforts.

Previously, Beatriz was a researcher on education and social policies in the Economic and Social Council of the Government of Spain and also worked for Andersen Consulting (Accenture). She studied Political Science at Pitzer College, Claremont, California, holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Columbia University and a PhD from the Complutense University, Madrid. She has been a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (Tokyo University) and at the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP, Science Po, Paris). She has an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

JOSE-LUIS ALVAREZ-GALVAN is project co-ordinator and policy analyst in the OECD Implementing Education Policies team. Previously, José-Luis worked as project co-ordinator in the OECD National Skills Strategy team where he was responsible for the projects for Mexico and Peru. José-Luis joined the Directorate for Education and Skills to contribute to the analysis of vocational education and training policies, being the main author of the reports for Costa Rica, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Northern Ireland; co-author of the reports for Canada, Denmark and South Africa; and part of the research team for the reports on England and the Netherlands.

José-Luis has more than 15 years of experience in policy analysis, has written two books, published numerous articles and delivered lectures on a wide range of topics in public policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). José Luis has taught at UNAM, Brunel University (United Kingdom) and LSE.

ROMANE VIENNET is a policy consultant in the OECD Implementing Education Policies team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris. She has worked previously as a social impact analyst in France and as a research assistant in behavioural economics projects with Professor Arnab Basu of the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, New York. Her research interests include education policy implementation and change management (especially with respect to public policies).