Brendon Krall, MPP’23, is a Research Project Manager for the Research Partnerships for Professional Learning (RPPL) at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University in Providence, RI. In his role, Krall is building the evidence for effective professional teacher learning. “The downstream impact,” Krall said, “is that it improves students’ classroom experiences—a value that has informed much of my academic and professional trajectory.”
A native of Marysville, Washington, Krall said he saw and experienced the differences that race and socioeconomic status have on a student’s educational experiences. “I grew up in a town with a lot of socioeconomic and racial diversity,” he said. “I attended a diverse public school and saw health, social, and education issues for people with limited resources.”
Determined to better understand—and gain the tools to change—the inequities he’d seen, Krall went to University of Washington Seattle and earned two degrees: one in business administration with a concentration in finance and one in public health. “Growing up, my parents’ idea of success was for me to become ‘lawyer, doctor, engineer, businessperson,’” said Krall. “After earning my bachelors, my eyes were opened to a lot of different options, which is one reason why I decided to pursue Teach for America.”
Krall taught English to eighth graders in Houston, Texas. “My teaching experience with TFA reinforced what I had experienced with my own education growing up, and I started to more clearly connect how political and social issues impact students in potentially unforeseen ways. A student and their family may be dealing with a natural disaster, or a student may be falling behind because they are busy taking care of siblings. Public policy can assuage the struggles of individuals and families, yet often identity markers and zip code determine one’s access to such resources and social support systems.”
While Krall said he originally considered an MBA or JD for graduate study, he changed his mind after speaking to the dean of his college as well as a former professor.
“An MPP seemed like the best pathway to build the skill set necessary to improve the lives of vulnerable and historically oppressed populations at scale. I wanted to dissect how public policy shapes their lived experiences and develop evidence-based solutions to address these disparities.”
While exploring graduate programs, Krall said the Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy stood out. “Harris’ emphasis on leveraging quantitative data to support policy recommendations was a clear ideological fit for my professional intentions,” he said. “One of the factors that especially drew me to the Harris MPP was the ability to gain and use hard skills I can apply to any area, so I was pretty purposeful in my engagement with those skills during my time at Harris. And now, I frequently use Python and coding to run RCTs [Randomized Control Trials] with districts and professional learning providers to help them learn the best instructional methods.”
As someone who was seeking to change career paths, Krall said the extracurricular opportunities at Harris were especially valuable. “I was a Research Assistant for the Behavior Insights and Parenting Lab, and that really helped me see the connections between my skills as a former teacher and education research—as well as what pathways were possible.”
Krall said his work at the Annenberg Institute is making a tangible difference in an area important to him. “My position dovetails perfectly with my long-term interest in improving educational outcomes—it’s incredibly rewarding.”
