Connie Yowell

Director of Education, MacArthur Foundation

Connie Yowell, the director of education for the MacArthur Foundation, oversees one of the first philanthropic efforts in the country to systematically explore the impact of digital media on young people and the implications for the future of learning. Previously, Dr. Yowell was an associate professor at the University of Illinois, publishing scholarly work that examined the complex interplay among young people’s emerging identity, their social context, and achievement. She was the recipient of the Distinguished Fellows Award from the William T. Grant Foundation, an award to support scholars seeking to bridge research and practice, and she worked with the National Writing Project to develop approaches that integrate web 2.0 technologies into the social practices of teachers. Dr. Yowell holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a PhD from Stanford University.