Allison Rose Socol, Ph.D.

Allison Rose Socol, Ph.D. serves as Ed Trust’s vice president of P-12 policy, practice, and research. In this role, Allison leads the P-12 team to highlight inequities, identify research-based solutions, and work with a wide range of equity advocates to push for change that will expand excellence and equity in the P-12 education system for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.

Allison has been with The Education Trust since 2016. She previously served as Ed Trust’s assistant director of P-12 Policy, where she led the development of the organization’s policy agenda on issues essential to promoting equity in the P-12 system and coordinated data and policy analyses to execute the organization’s growing state-level advocacy efforts. She started her career at Ed Trust as a senior analyst, a role in which she developed and conducted data and policy analyses to highlight gaps in opportunity and achievement in our education system.

Before joining Ed Trust, Allison was a research assistant at the Center for Scaling Up Effective Schools, where she focused on identifying programs, practices, and policies that make high schools in large urban districts effective for low-income students and students of color. She also worked as a literacy coach for kindergarten and first grade teachers in rural public schools in North Carolina and taught fifth and sixth grade at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. She earned her teaching certification through the Inspired Teaching Certification Program.

Allison holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in teaching from Trinity University, and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from UNC.

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Spend time with my two beautiful kids.

What drew you to education?
I loved school. I was fortunate to have many teachers in my public schools who encouraged me to read and write, to ask questions about how things work, and to want to make the world a better place. I wanted to become a teacher who inspired children in that same way.

Why are you passionate about working at Ed Trust?
My goal is to strengthen American public education so that it is truly an equitable system for all students. At Ed Trust, I get to work with smart and passionate colleagues who share the same vision and work hard every day to make it a reality.