Former W.T. Grant Foundation President Robert Granger to speak at VCU

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education

Robert Granger, Ed.D., president of the William T. Grant Foundation (WTGF) from 2003 until his retirement in September 2013, will present the VCU School of Education’s John and Mary Sue Oehler Lecture for Educational Leadership on Oct. 30 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the VCU Sports Medicine Building, Parlors Room, 1300 W. Broad St. The respondent will be VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D.

The title of Granger’s lecture is “Improving the Yield from Program Evaluations for Theory and Practice: Envisioning Community Engaged Research.” Granger will explore limits in the design of evaluation studies that consistently yield null results in education, social work, community partnerships and criminal justice and discuss important new areas for practitioner-researcher collaboration. The lecture is free and open to all.

Before joining the WTGF in 2000 as senior vice president of program, Granger served as senior vice president of the MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor, and as executive vice president at Bank Street College of Education.

Granger also recently chaired the National Board for Education Sciences. This presidentially appointed advisory panel of the Institute of Education Sciences in the United States Department of Education oversees federal activities regarding educational research. Granger also serves on the editorial board for several professional journals. He received his Doctor of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts.

WTGF funds research designed to improve the lives of children and youth between the ages of 8 and 25 years. Under Granger’s leadership, the WTGF shifted its funding focus from individual differences to the study of settings that influence growth and development. He is a leading proponent of studies that address the reciprocal relationship between practice and research to advance evidence-based policy and practice, a theme that will resonate with VCU’s emphasis on community engaged research.