Claire Robertson-Kraft, PhD

Human Capital, Program Evaluation

Claire Robertson-Kraft, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of ImpactED and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has over ten years of experience working as a teacher, evaluator and non-profit leader in the Philadelphia region. She has extensive experience teaching research methods and conducting evaluations in the areas of education, public policy, positive psychology, social impact, and community engagement.

Claire began her career as a third-grade teacher with Teach For America in Houston, which is where she discovered her passion for teaching. Currently, she teaches Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis, Program Evaluation, and Capstone courses at the Fels Institute of Government, and Education Policy Issues at the Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bridging the worlds of research and practice. In 2009, she edited A Grand Bargain for Education Reform (Harvard Education Press), which provided practitioners with research-based strategies for implementing new teacher policies in urban schools. Since then, she has worked with numerous organizations in the Philadelphia region to evaluate their impact and use data to inform organizational improvement.

Claire is also very active in the Philadelphia civic community, serving as the Co-Founder and President of PhillyCORE Leaders, former Board Chair of Young Involved Philadelphia and on the board of Leadership Philadelphia. She was recognized as one of the New Faces of Philly in 2011, an Emerging Leader with the Forum for Executive Women, and a Leadership Philadelphia Connector and Keeper in 2014.

Claire holds a BA in Urban Studies and Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Education Policy, both from the University of Pennsylvania. When she’s not teaching or helping organizations measure their impact, you can probably find her biking on Kelly Drive or eating out at one of the many delicious restaurants in her South Philly neighborhood.