Staff

Contact information for the RP Group staff.

Kathy Booth

Executive Director

510-527-8500 | email

Kathy Booth is the executive director of the RP Group. Her work in the California community college system has included producing the Strengthening Student Success conference, managing a fellowship program that enabled faculty to conduct research in their own classrooms, and developing multi-day trainings on the use of technology to improve student success. Prior to this, Ms. Booth spent a decade working in the nonprofit sector including overseeing the nation’s largest management and technology training program for nonprofits, conducting research on successful collaborations between artists and community development organizations, facilitating community planning processes, and leading organizational assessments. She is the author of two handbooks on building collaborations to further social change.

Priyadarshini Chaplot

Director of Professional Development & Senior Researcher

213-447-7463 | email

Priyadarshini Chaplot currently oversees the organization's professional development activities and serves as a Senior Researcher on a few of its projects. Prior to this capacity, she served as the project coordinator for the RP Group's Bridging Research, Information, and Culture (BRIC) Initiative. She has worked in the California community college system for five years and in the field of education for over a decade. She provided research and training support for outcomes assessment (e.g. student learning outcomes, general education outcomes, and administrative unit objectives) and program review as an educational research assessment analyst at Mt. San Antonio College. At the same time, she also served as an instructor teaching math and English in the Adult Diploma Program. Before joining Mt. SAC, she spent five years at ITT Technical Institute as a Senior Recruitment Representative providing individualized and ongoing support to students and their families. Ms. Chaplot holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Business Administration degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Dr Darla Cooper

Director of Research and Evaluation

805-351-5974 | email

Dr. Darla M. Cooper has worked in the California community college system for the past 10 years having held institutional research director positions at Santa Barbara City College, Oxnard College, and Ohlone College. Prior to joining the RP Group full-time, Dr. Cooper served as a consultant to the organization for a decade, researching topics such as foster youth, CTE transfer, and classroom action research. Dr. Cooper also has direct experience assisting students achieve their educational goals in her previous work at the University of Southern California as a director of research and information, student services counselor, and ombudsperson. Dr. Cooper served on the board of the RP Group and the National Community College Council for Research and Planning (NCCCRP) as the regional director for California (Region 11). In these roles, she was instrumental in the design, administration and analysis of surveys to assess the current research capacity in the state and identify good practices related to the intersection between institutional research and career technical education.

Dr Robert Gabriner

Director, Center for Student Success, emeritus
415-405-4101 | email
 
Dr. Gabriner, who has worked in the California community college system for more than 35 years, has been a key figure in the RP Group since its inception, serving on its board of directors for many terms and contributing to the establishment of new initiatives and priorities. As such, Dr. Gabriner conceived of the Center for Student Success in 2000 as a research and evaluation division of the RP Group. Over the course of ten years, he spearheaded its transition from an ad-hoc project into a major statewide resource for community college research and evaluation. More than 70 community college practitioners have participated in an RP Group research team, emerging from the experience as leaders--better connected to the community college system and able to add a system-wide perspective to their own community college research experience. Dr. Gabriner is now the board's Leadership Chair, where he oversees the RP Group's leadership development activities.

Dr Robert Johnstone

Senior Research Fellow
650-740-1796 | email
 
Dr. Johnstone is Project Director for the Bridging Research, Information and Culture (BRIC) Initiative, which is working to evolve the use of research and evidence at the practitioner level on California community college campuses. He was lead author of the “Economics of Innovation” section and a contributing author for the literature review section of "Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges" (aka “The Poppy Copy”), which is the product of Phase I of the California community colleges' Basic Skills Initiative. Dr. Johnstone served as a strategic consultant in industry prior to his work in higher education, where he specialized in working with companies on how to utilize information and analytics to more purposefully manage customer relationships. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and the Law from the University of Oregon, a M.A. in Psychology from San Jose State University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.

Kelley Karandjeff

Senior Researcher & Communications Coordinator

415-566-9843| email

Kelley Karandjeff serves as a senior researcher with a particular focus on communications and dissemination.  Ms. Karandjeff draws on over a decade of work focused on improving student success in career and technical education—designing and directing programs for both community college and high school students in San Francisco including dual enrollment, work-based learning and basic skills initiatives.  She has led RP Group projects focused on contextualized teaching and learning and currently works on issues of CTE and transfer. Ms. Karandjeff holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University and is an alumnus of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. 

Eva Schiorring

Senior Researcher & Resource Development Coordinator

510-559-9154 | email

Ms. Schiorring’s background combines over a decade of community college research and evaluation experience with hands-on CTE project design and coordination. As senior researcher, she has led a dozen RP Group projects over the past decade, including two multi-year studies of transfer. One of these is a comprehensive study of how to facilitate and increase transfer to high-demand career majors; the other was grounded in site visits to colleges with high transfer rates. Ms. Schiorring recently led a three-year evaluation of Reading Apprenticeship in the CA community colleges, and participated in the RP Group’s collaboration with UC Berkeley to conduct an observational study of basic skills in community college classrooms. She co-authored a publication on effective diversity practices in the community colleges and designed and implemented several evaluative studies on nursing and other health occupation programs and initiatives. Ms. Schiorring holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Terrence Willett

Senior Researcher

831-461-4586 | email

Mr. Willett has an extensive background in the California community colleges, including serving as the director of research for Cal-PASS, director of research for Gavilan Community College, and research technician for Cabrillo Community College, where he also worked as a math and science tutor. He has been involved in numerous research projects including quantitative analyses of basic skills improvement, transfer, and the impact of programs such as EOPS. He also has led projects on how to use GIS to support college-related research. Mr. Willett holds a BA in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MS in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University.

Administrative Staff

Kitty Keenan, Finance Director, 510-527-8500

Adore Davidson Rodriguez, Contracts Manager, 415-971-2799

Loann Solem, Administrative Support, 510-527-8500

Project Staff

In addition to the staff, research projects, technical assistance programs, and professional development opportunities are led by institutional researchers, faculty, and administrators from the California community college sytem.