My name is Christopher Ozuna and welcome to my website! I’m interested in many areas of K-12 and postsecondary education, data systems & strategy, and broader conversations around the purpose of schooling for our students, communities and society. I’m very grateful to be currently working for the ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence: a partnership between Arizona State University and the Helios Education Foundation.
I recently completed my PhD at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, part of the University of California, Santa Barbara. I was part of the Policy, Leadership and Research Methods group and my interests include policy areas that are tied to K-12 classrooms such as transportation, absenteeism, school health and teacher education. My dissertation largely focused on a study in teacher education through a Fulbright grant where I was able to visit and study with the Danish School of Education in Aarhus, Denmark.
In terms of theories and philosophy, I was trained as a classroom teacher and mainly exposed to constructivism, social justice/teacher activism and critical race theory as lenses to view public education and teaching, all whilst spending my working years in schools well entrenched in the current accountability and assessment wave. In grad school, I’ve been trained in quantitative methods, data strategy & management with a dash of philosophy of science and GIS for good measure.
I’m interested in understanding how schools and communities interact with each other, how we can accurately measure these interactions and how we can apply our findings in ways that make schools more equitable in order to deliver on the promise of public education in America.
Outside of work, I’m interested in a wide variety of topics, hobbies and areas. I love to cook, travel, discuss politics, hang out with my niblings and I’m usually dabbling in some kind of new hobby (currently candlemaking, but past pursuits include creating my own board game, geocaching and, during the first pandemic summer, carefully constructing a megalopolis on Cities Skylines). I also love all aspects of languages. Contáctame si quiere charlar en español porque necesito la práctica, 私も日本語で話すと練習したい、jeg kan snakker på lille dansk men du skal til tage føringen. Diné bizaad bíhoosh’aah, but it is incredibly difficult.
I hope this website serves as a portfolio of the things I have learned, the work I have done and the interests that continue to capture my attention. Thanks for visiting.
-Chris
Christopher Salem Ozuna, PhD 