Meet Our Team

Denise Airola directs the Office of Innovation for Education at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Airola's work focuses on enabling and accelerating innovation to address barriers to educational progress, building capacity for improving instruction and leadership practices, and informing policy at the school, district and state levels. She has consulted with several state education agencies on the use of educational data to drive instructional systems change. Prior to her work as an educational statistician and research methodologist, Dr. Airola worked for 18 years in the K-12 public education system. Her education experience includes classroom teaching at the elementary, middle and secondary levels, designing and conducting professional development, curriculum, instruction and assessment alignment, as well as implementing and evaluating K-12 reform efforts. 

Outside of work you will find her working out, gardening, or hanging out with family. 

Carolyn has experience as a teacher and instructional facilitator in K-12.  She enjoys reading, travel and gardening.

Prior to joining OIE, Chrissy worked as an elementary teacher in the Oklahoma public school system. When she is not calling the Hogs, Chrissy can be found with her family fishing,  traveling, and creating their own adventures.

Combining 20 years of experience in a variety of educational settings, Crystal Beshears draws on her diverse experiences to serve as an Innovation Team Project Lead for the Office of Innovation for Education at the University of Arkansas. Crystal is a former high school teacher, proud mom and grandmom, yoga instructor, and world traveler!

Deena previously worked with financial data after receiving her M.S. in Finance from the University of Tulsa.  She currently enjoys working with educational data.  When not at work, she loves hiking and spending time with family.

Feng is a former high school physics teacher and has a Ph.D in science education. When not working on educational data, he loves watching movies and spending time with family.

James previously taught high school mathematics and has a Ph.D. in Educational Statistics and Research Methods from the University of Arkansas. When he is not in the office, he enjoys spending time with his family and watching sports.

Jennifer is the first point of contact for the office. She enjoys travelling and spending time with her family. 

Marsha has worked as a former teacher, special education director, and elementary principal. Her best day is working with Schools of Innovation and seeing kids succeed. You will find Marsha rooting for the Razorbacks and finding anything fun to do outdoors. 

Natalie is a former elementary educator turned project guru. In her free time, she enjoys indulging in good food, vacationing at the beach, and spending time with her husband and daughter.

Mr. Anand is responsible for developing web based solutions to fulfill the terms and deliverables described in the contract with the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE).

He will serve as a liaison with the ADE's Research and Technology personnel communicating with web developers and database managers at ADE to assist in building its data systems' capacities to meet the needs of educators and administrators in Arkansas's public school systems.

He will model processes and procedure, develop prototypes, and research potential solutions. Mr. Anand has a Masters' degree in Computer Science from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Bangalore University, India.

Mr. Anand enjoys reading, traveling and spending time with family.

Thad has over 20 years working in higher education setting.  He worked with higher education data prior to joining OIE.  When not at work, he enjoys spending time with family and reading.