Paula is the inaugural Director of NNERPP, a professional learning organization for education RPPs, launched in 2016 at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. In this role, she organizes and coordinates a number of learning opportunities for members across the Network and the RPP field at-large in order to improve both our theoretical understanding of partnerships and how they actually work in practice. Prior to joining NNERPP, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston, as well as an M.S. in economics, a B.A. in Music, and a B.S. in Business, all from Florida State University.