Jessica V. Forrester

Jessica Forrester is a RPE Postdoctoral Fellow working directly with Youth-Nex and the Youth Action Lab in the School of Education and Human Development. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, Jessica earned a Ph.D. in STEM Education from the University of Minnesota as well as a Bachelors and Masters degree in biomedical engineering. Her dissertation research combined her interest in STEM engagement with justice-oriented practices in education to create culturally responsive mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program in North Minneapolis. Specifically, qualitative and community-based approaches were utilized to acknowledge community assets and in turn value those assets during mathematical learning to influence students’ identity development, skills development, criticality, and joy.