Learning Scientist · Founder, Expert IEP
I study what happens to family knowledge when it enters institutional systems.
My research examines how language, documentation, and technology shape whether what families know is simply expressed, meaningfully represented, given decision-making standing, and ultimately able to shape action.
PhD Candidate in Education (Learning & Mind Sciences), UC Davis · Expected 2027
Designated Emphasis in Computational Social Science
PhD Candidate in Education, UC Davis · expected 2027
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4,800+ families served through Expert IEP
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Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow · Echoing Green Fellow · Black Ambition Grand Prize
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$1.6M+ Grants, Prizes & Venture Funding
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Spoken at the United Nations, White House & Harvard
PhD Candidate in Education, UC Davis · expected 2027 〰️ 4,800+ families served through Expert IEP 〰️ Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow · Echoing Green Fellow · Black Ambition Grand Prize 〰️ $1.6M+ Grants, Prizes & Venture Funding 〰️ Spoken at the United Nations, White House & Harvard
Research
Knowledge Entry, Family Mattering, and institutional language, using computational and qualitative methods.
Research to Practice
How Knowledge Entry and Family Mattering inform the design of Expert IEP with families and family-serving organizations.
Design Notes
Essays on systems, cognition, and what AI carries — the public side of the research.
My daughter was diagnosed with severe autism. Doctors said she would never develop full communication or autonomy. Today she is studying engineering in college. I became a scholar and a scientist because of her. And everything I have learned since has confirmed what I knew then: the mind was never the problem. The system was.
- Antoinette Banks
I built an AI platform that 4,200 families trust with their children's education.
Expert IEP translates complex special education documents into language families actually understand — and optimizes goals using the same research I do at UC Davis. It's born from my dissertation, backed by $1.26M in funding, and it's proof that designing for cognitive variability works at scale.
