Susan Bush-Mecenas

Susan Bush-Mecenas, PhD is an assistant professor of evaluation in education at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. Her research examines the implementation of education policies and programs within organizational systems. Through large-scale qualitative and mixed-methods evaluation studies, she explores topics such as evaluation methods and continuous improvement, capacity and capacity building in state and local educational agencies, and the alignment, sustainability, and scaling of instructional reform.

At present, she manages a portfolio of evaluation studies, including serving as co-PI on the Networks for School Improvement Summative Evaluation, a large-scale evaluation of the Gates Foundation’s investment in networked continuous improvement.

Recent publications include: “‘The business of teaching and learning’: Institutionalizing equity in educational organizations through continuous improvement” for the American Educational Research Journal, which received the AERA Districts in Research and Reform SIG 2025 Best Paper Award; and “Research, Interrupted: Addressing Practical and Methodological Considerations under Turbulent Conditions,” for Educational Policy Analysis Archives. Her work has been featured as a methodological exemplar in Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña’s (2020) Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook, 4th Edition.

Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Bush-Mecenas was a policy researcher at RAND, faculty member at the RAND School of Policy, and senior research fellow and adjunct faculty at Claremont Graduate University. She completed her postdoctoral research fellowship at the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy. She earned her PhD in urban education policy at USC; her MA in policy, organization and leadership studies at Stanford; and her BM in music education at USC. Professor Bush-Mecenas began her career as a K-12 teacher in public schools.