Kimberly Sterin believes that education policy should seek to ensure equitable educational opportunities for all students. This belief drove her work as a middle and high school English teacher in two Title I public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland for seven years. Over the course of her career, she experienced how policy has sought to uphold her philosophy of education but has often fallen short. Motivated by these understandings, she decided to bridge her professional classroom experience with research at Drexel University’s School of Education’s Ph.D. program in Education Leadership and Policy.

Sterin’s research focuses on equitable school funding and resource accountability. She explores the power of funding policies to impact the quality of a student’s educational opportunities and outcomes. With the goal of becoming an advocate for effective education policy, Kimberly hopes to better connect research and real-world experiences of educators and communities to the process of educational policy making.

Prior to entering the program, Sterin earned undergraduate degrees in English Language & Literature and Spanish Language & Literature, as well as a minor in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry, from the University of Maryland, College Park. She earned a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education as part of their School Immersion Master of Arts in Teaching (SIMAT) program. Sterin was awarded the Johns Hopkins Dr. Diane Tobin Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2017.