Debora Southwell is a federal program officer on the Innovation and Early Learning team within the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). Prior to joining the EIRi3 team, she worked for four years in the Department’s Office of Non-Pubic Education. Before coming to the Department, Debora served as a mathematics specialist striving to improve the caliber of teachers’ mathematics knowledge and pedagogy.  She taught for over twenty years in private, public, international and charter schools in pre-kindergarten through high school.  Debora earned two undergraduate degrees from Boston College and a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.