Senior Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Specialist
Fernanda Gándara is a monitoring, measurement, and evaluation specialist with more than a decade of experience implementing international education programs in her native Chile, the U.S., and abroad. She brings her technical expertise in evaluation and psychometric methods to evaluate STS’s international education projects, including a five-year USAID intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Prior to joining STS, Gándara conducted research for the Center of Educational Assessment at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research and practice are oriented towards the improvement of assessment practices in educational contexts, including assessment practices that affect linguistic minorities and students in need. Her work is also oriented towards improving evaluation practice from a technical and sociopolitical perspective. At STS, Gándara conducts monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning activities across Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East for USAID, DFID, and other funders.
She holds a six-year industrial engineering degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She completed her doctorate in psychometric methods, educational statistics, and research methods at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Gándara is a member of the Foro Chileno de Profesionales en Evaluación Educacional and chair of the Latin American Special Interest Group (LASIG) from the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)