erika
Education research can produce valuable insights, but its influence depends on what happens after the research is completed. Turning findings into useful programs, tools, and learning experiences requires professionals who understand both scientific inquiry and the demands of education. Brandi Biscoe Kenner has built much of her career around this connection, working across research, philanthropy, product development, and educational strategy to help move evidence into practice.
Kenner's professional experience has allowed her to work across multiple parts of the education ecosystem, from early childhood learning and literacy to research strategy, product development, and organizational leadership. Her academic background in psychology and education provided a foundation for understanding how children learn, while her professional work has given her opportunities to consider how that knowledge can inform educational decisions, practices and tools.
Her doctoral research at Emory University focused on cognition and development, with particular attention to phonemic awareness in young children and pre-literacy assessment. She also completed doctoral coursework at Georgia State University in areas including education policy studies, research, measurement, statistics, educational psychology, and special education. This combination of research and educational training has informed much of her subsequent work.
Kenner's experience at the Atlanta Speech School and The Rollins Center for Language and Literacy was an important part of her development as a research and education leader. She served as Director of Research & Innovation and later as Chief of Research, Innovation & Learning, contributing to research, evaluation, organizational learning, and professional capacity building. As Head of Product, she also worked on efforts to translate knowledge about language and literacy development into resources and learning experiences that could be applied in educational settings.
Her work with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) from 2019 to 2022 further expanded this research-to-practice perspective. Kenner served as Director of Research and as a Senior Advisor and Consultant within the organization's education work, contributing across research, product development, organizational strategy, and education transformation. The role brought her into work where learning science findings had to be considered alongside product decisions, organizational priorities, and the broader needs of education systems.
Kenner's work continued to involve the relationship between research and educational implementation. In 2025 and 2026, she served as a Senior Consultant to Learning Commons (launched by CZI), contributing to strategy and authorship related to literacy foundational skills knowledge graphs and learning component frameworks. The work reflects an interest in organizing research and educational knowledge in ways that can support learning design, technology development, and evidence-informed decision-making to build AI infrastructure that better connects the way students learn to the tools they learn with.
This led Kenner to further develop her technical expertise in artificial intelligence and data analytics. She earned a Master of Science in Applied Data Intelligence and Machine Learning from Mercer University. Her concentration included Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning, Human Computer Interaction, Data Visualization, Computer Vision, Big Data and Computationally Intensive Unsupervised Machine Learning, as well as Supervised Learning. The additional technical training complements her background in cognitive and developmental science and expands her ability to work across research, data, and emerging technologies.
Her broader research interests include cognitive and language development, early literacy and foundational skills, social-emotional development and literacy, self-directed learning, research-to-practice translation, and education systems transformation. Across these areas, her work has focused on understanding how research can be translated into approaches that are useful beyond academic settings.
Kenner's connection to research also extends through her role as an Affiliated Research Scientist at Haskins Laboratories at Yale University. At the same time, her professional work has continued to include educational leadership and organizational strategy, allowing her to approach learning from both scientific and implementation perspectives.
Today, Kenner serves as Chief Learning Officer at Bezos Academy, a philanthropic early childhood education organization founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Her current role brings together several of the areas that have shaped her career, including learning science, educational strategy, research-informed practice, and organizational development.
From philanthropic education initiatives and research organizations to schools, technology-focused projects, and early childhood education, Kenner's career has centered on connecting knowledge with application. Her work illustrates the role that research can play when it is translated into practices, products, and systems that respond to the realities of education.
Rather than treating research and practice as separate areas, Kenner's professional path has brought them into conversation with one another. Her experience across cognitive science, education, data intelligence, machine learning, product development, and organizational strategy continues to inform how she approaches the challenges facing learners and educational systems.