EDUCATION
| Degree | Area of Study | University |
|---|---|---|
| PhD | Education Policy and Leadership | Vanderbilt University |
| MA | Education Policy | Columbia University |
| BA | Urban Studies | Wellesley College |
AWARDS & HONORS
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2026-27 | Faculty Fellow, Education Policy Center, University of Alabama |
| 2026-27 | SEC Faculty Travel Program Grant, UA Division for Research |
| 2025 | Emerging Education Policy Scholar, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute/American Enterprise Institute |
| 2023 | David L. Clark Scholar, University Council for Educational Administration & Divisions A and L of the American Educational Research Association |
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Educators’ career trajectories
Pathways to the principalship
Pathways to the principalship and educators’ career trajectories
Education policy
GRANT & RESEARCH PROJECTS
Funded Research
- “Family-Friendly” For Whom? How Parenthood, Paid Leave, and Childcare Benefits Shape Educators’ Career Trajectories (Co-PI & Co-Director, Spencer Foundation)
- Evaluation of the Alabama Standards for School Leadership (PI, Alabama State Department of Education)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Moyer, A., & Goldring, E. (2023). Match or mismatch? Assistant principals’ roles and their perceptions of the evaluation system. Educational Administration Quarterly, 59(1), 40-71. [Link]
- Moyer, A. (2022). Has “who comes back” changed? Teacher reentry 2000-2019. Educational Researcher, 51(8), 544-546. [Link]
- Neumerski, C. M., Goldring, E. B., Cox, A. M., Rogers, L. K., Moyer, A., & Rubin, M. (2025). Instructional leadership plus: Central office leaders rethink the principalship. Educational Administration Quarterly, 61(5), 809-842- [Link]
- Goldring, E., Rubin, M., Rogers, L., Neumerski, C., Moyer, A., & Cox, A. (2023). Planning and developing leadership pipelines: Approaches, opportunities, and challenges. The Wallace Foundation. [Link]
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Prior Professional Experience
- Middle school teacher
Research Affiliations & Partnerships
- Education Policy Center (University of Alabama)
- Alabama Department of Education
- Texas Education Research Center (University of Houston)
- Michigan Education Research Institute
- Tennessee Education Research Alliance
Professional Affiliations
- American Educational Research Association, Divisions A & L (AERA)
- Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP)
- Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE)
- University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Anna Moyer is a quantitative and mixed-methods researcher working at the intersection of education policy and leadership. She is primarily interested in how educational organizations recruit, retain, and develop teachers and school leaders. She uses statewide administrative data, survey data, and interview data to conduct policy-relevant research on the pathway to the principalship, assistant principals, and educators’ career trajectories. Her work has appeared in journals such as Educational Administration Quarterly and Educational Researcher and has been funded by the Spencer Foundation and the Alabama State Department of Education.
She holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy and Leadership from Vanderbilt University and an M.A. in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to graduate school, she was a middle school social studies and literacy teacher in rural Louisiana and Nashville, Tennessee.