Mari Strand Cary

Dr. Mari Strand Cary works with early childhood care and service providers, educators, local communities, industry professionals, as well as design and evaluation researchers. Her work is grounded in evidence-based instructional design and evaluation principles, and she is well-versed in qualitative and quantitative evaluation approaches involving a wide array of stakeholders. In her previous role as Senior Research Associate at the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon, she directed multi-million-dollar federal development and evaluation projects. For example, Mari led the development of the KinderTEK® iPad early math program and evaluated its effectiveness for preschool through grade 3 students, their teachers and parents. The U.S. Department of Education-funded KinderTEK program has been used by thousands of students across the nation. She regularly speaks to – and writes for - academic and practitioner audiences. She serves also as a board member on local nonprofit organizations serving children. Mari completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, received her PhD and MA in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota and received her BS in Biology from the University of Puget Sound.