Amaya Garcia is the Director of PreK–12 Research and Practice with the Education Policy program at New America.
Garcia is a national expert on Grow Your Own (GYO) educator programs and policies. She leads New America’s Grow Your Own Educators National Network, a professional learning community for GYO programs across the country. She also conducts research and analysis on English learner policy, bilingual teacher preparation and career pathways, bilingual education, and early education.
Prior to joining New America, Garcia was a policy analyst at the DC State Board of Education and a research associate at the American Institutes of Research. She has worked in a variety of research labs, conducting studies on school finance, reading comprehension, infant learning and memory, and early language development. She has authored numerous blog posts, policy reports, and academic articles. Garcia’s work and commentary have been featured in a variety of publications, including Education Week, U.S. News and World Report, Kappan magazine, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chalkbeat, Journal of Career Development, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers.
Garcia holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland–College Park, a master’s degree in cognitive studies in education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from the University of Iowa.
