Bernard Robert Gifford

Dr. Gifford is the founding Faculty Chair of the University of California/California State University Joint Doctoral Program (JDP) in Leadership for Educational Equity as well as the Director & Chief Instructional Officer of the UC/CSU Consortium on Leadership for Educational Equity. Dr. Gifford is also a professor in the Division of Education in Mathematics, Science, Engineering, and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. His recent research has focused on the development of theories of computer-mediated collaborative learning, and the role these theories might play in guiding the design of location-independent computer-mediated curricular materials and instructional settings. He is particularly interested in how technology can reduce the achievement gap between mainstream students and those who traditionally have not been well served by conventional classroom teaching methods. Much of this research has been conducted in the Distributed Learning Workshop, a not-for-profit educational software development collaborative that Gifford co-founded in 2001. From 1983 to 1989, Gifford served as Chancellor’s Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to this, Gifford served as Vice President and Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Rochester, Resident Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and Deputy Chancellor and Chief Fiscal Officer of the New York City Public Schools. Gifford is widely published in a number of disciplinary areas, ranging from applied physics to public policy.