Viki Young

Viki M. Young, Ph.D., serves as chief pathway innovations researcher and co-leads the Center for Learner Pathway Innovations (CLPI). CLPI’s dedicated team brings students, educators, and leaders in K–12 and postsecondary together with industry and community to co-research and codesign innovative pathways that provide opportunity for all learners to develop future forward skills, attain credentials of value, and pursue a path of well-being, agency, and economic mobility. CLPI also researches and advances the implementation, sustainability, scale, and impact of pathway innovations. 

Across national, state, and local systems, Dr. Young leads research featuring mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, with particular focus on teaching and learning within embedded contexts and the system supports, resources, incentives, and disincentives that shape change and unintended consequences. Her work centers questions of access—whom do the intended reforms serve well, what differences arise in who benefits, and whom do unintended consequences affect? Her perspectives are grounded in educators’ work, opportunities for their learning, and an understanding of organizational, political, and resource factors in systems and program improvement, sustainability, and scale.

With over 25 years of experience, she has studied the implementation and impact of K–12 policy and improvement initiatives, including high school reform, inclusive STEM high school models, instructional coaching and educator development, district improvement strategies, and school choice initiatives. At Digital Promise, she collaborated to integrate co-research practices and capacity-building into the Collaborative Innovation R&D 

Before joining Digital Promise, she was director of the Center for Education Policy at SRI International and was honored with the Mimi Award, SRI’s highest recognition for contributing to coworkers’ professional success. She holds a Ph.D. in education administration and policy analysis from Stanford University.