Annie Wright
Center on Research and Evaluation

Annie Wright is the executive director for SMU’s Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE). She is a clinical community psychologist and a program evaluator. Her expertise is in the planning, implementation and evaluation of K–12 educational programming. She works with a range of educational ecosystems, including districts, schools and out-of-school time nonprofits. Wright pays particular attention to both community and implementation science principles to inform and advocate for effective and equitable programming. Within educational settings, her content expertise covers expanded learning ecosystems, strategic partnerships, social and emotional learning and STEM, pre-kindergarten and early childhood education, programming within museums and other informal learning settings, college and career readiness, and educator pipeline programs. 

Her responsibilities as the executive director include ensuring the quality and rigor of all CORE projects and facilitating smooth collaboration with program staff, funders and other evaluation partners. Wright is also responsible for developing complex, yet feasible, process and outcome evaluation plans, multiple forms of data collection, management, analysis, report writing and presentations, in addition to coordinating CORE’s evaluation team. Wright co-leads the Consortium on Educational Research and Improvement (CERI), a formal research-practice partnership between SMU and Dallas ISD.