The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has named Johns Hopkins’ Annette Anderson as its 2023 Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award recipient. Anderson cofounded the eSchool+ Initiative that offers tools for K–12 schools to track vaccine policies, disease recovery, and school-reopening plans.
AERA hailed Anderson’s prioritization of children’s health and safety through her leadership working against and with knowledge gaps and misinformation about the coronavirus and their impact on schools through her multidisciplinary and applied research projects and messaging targeted at parents, schools, and the public.
Between October 2020 and October 2022, AERA said those skills turned Anderson into a trusted source for national media, booking over 3,000 media appearances and reaching an estimated 12.5 million people over that period.
According to the AERA, the award honors Anderson for her “exemplary” ability to communicate the importance of education research to the broad public. AERA went on to say that Anderson “excelled in conveying important findings and research to wide audiences” and had deepened understanding and appreciation of education research in the public forum.
“Annette Anderson’s work has reshaped the way millions of Americans view the work of teachers and school leaders and the community function of public schools,” says Dean Christopher Morphew while congratulating Anderson on her award.
