UW–Madison’s Courtney Bell, a professor of learning sciences in the School of Education’s top-ranked Department of Educational Psychology, has been appointed chair of the Governing Council of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

ICPSR is an international consortium of more than 800 academic and research organizations and is home to the world’s largest archive of social science data. The organization provides leadership in data access, curation, and analytical methods, supporting a wide range of research across disciplines.

The 12-person Governing Council is elected for four-year terms and provides oversight on administrative, budgetary, and organizational matters on behalf of the consortium’s membership.

Bell’s research focuses on understanding and improving teaching, particularly for historically underserved students. Her interdisciplinary and collaborative work sits at the intersection of research, policy, and practice and spans issues including parental choice, performance assessments of teaching, international comparisons of teaching methods, teaching quality, teacher learning, teacher education, and the measurement of teaching.