Our Team
Ron Ferguson and Rob Ramsdell lead the Tripod Project. In addition to Ron and Rob’s leadership, a small core staff supports and operates the project. The Tripod Project is also able to tap its broad network of education professionals when additional resources are required.
Ronald F. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Ron Ferguson is an economist and Senior Research Associate at Harvard’s Weiner Center for Social Policy and has taught at Harvard since 1983. His teaching and publications cover a variety of issues related to education and economic development. Much of his research since the mid-1990s has focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in publications of the National Research Council, the Brookings Institution, and the U.S. Department of Education, in addition to various books and scholarly journals. He participates in a variety of consulting and policy advisory activities, including work with school districts on closing achievement gaps. He is the founder and director of the Tripod Project for School Improvement and is also the Faculty Co-Chair and Director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. Ron earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from MIT, both in economics.
Rob Ramsdell, M.Ed.
Rob founded FreshPond Education in 1996 and has spent the past 11 years developing innovative professional development programs for K-12 educators. Rob served from 2002-2005 as Senior Director of PBS TeacherLine, an online professional development initiative funded by the US Department of Education (http://www.pbs.org/teacherline). Rob began his career as a social studies teacher. He holds a B.A. from Brown University, an M.A. in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an M.Ed. in educational technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Sarah Enterline, Ph.D.
Having recently graduated from Boston College with a Ph.D. in Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation, Sarah is just beginning what she hopes will be a long career in educational research. She is a Research Fellow at Boston College, working on the Teachers for a New Era (TNE) grant. Her work includes designing, implementing, and reporting on several quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies aimed at creating a data-rich environment for policy and programmatic decisions. In addition to her work with TNE, Sarah consults regularly with educational research organizations in the Boston area on topics including research design, survey development and administration, and data analysis.
David Jacobson, Ph.D.
A former professor of public and nonprofit management at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, David leads FreshPond’s support services for K-12 educators. The founder of the Team Learning Network, David has extensive experience working with schools and community colleges to develop professional learning communities. David holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.
Sarah M. Kern, Ph.D.
Sarah Kern holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and currently teaches Child and Adolescent Development and Studies in Urban Education at The College of New Jersey. She is an assistant professor in the School of Education and works extensively with schools in Trenton NJ and Ewing Township in NJ. She started her career teaching elementary school in Maryland and North Carolina and received her M.Ed. in Educational Administration from Johns Hopkins University. She has extensive research experience with whole school reform initiatives and professional development for teachers and principals through her work at the Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University in Philadelphia PA.
Chip Morrison, Ed.D.
Chip has more than 30 years of experience in education—as a teacher, curriculum and software developer, researcher, and teacher trainer. A founding member of the Co-nect design team in 1992, he was the principal architect of Co-nect’s school improvement model and developer of Co-nect’s Critical Friends school visitation program. As a Senior Scientist at Bolt Beranek & Newman, Chip worked on a number of government-funded research projects, including a study of classroom “science talk.” Chip has a B.A. in Drama from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Hong Kong, and an Ed.D. in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Renee Chandonnet, B.A.
Renee spent five years as an elementary school teacher with the Teach for America Corps. In addition to classroom teaching, she created thematic curriculum for the Houston public schools and the state of Texas. Renee created curriculum and provided professional development for a wide variety of after-school programs before coming to FreshPond Education. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, with a B.A. in Architecture and American Studies.