Lam Pham is a Ph.D. candidate in K-12 Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, specializing in quantitative methods. His experiences as a student, teacher, and leader in schools primarily serving low-income students and students of color motivate his research interests in chronically low-performing schools. He is particularly interested in capacity-building policies that facilitate continuous school improvement, especially the recruitment, retention, and development of teachers and principals. Lam’s dissertation is partly funded by a Russell G. Hamilton grant, which he used in partnership with parents, teachers, and leaders across Tennessee to better understand turnaround implementation in the state’s lowest-performing schools. Lam works with Drs. Gary Henry, Ron Zimmer, Matt Springer, and Xiu Cravens.
His teaching experience includes both face-to-face and online courses on research design, causal inference, education policy, and school improvement. Lam has been recognized as a Diversity and Inclusion fellow through the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), a summer associate at the RAND corporation, a Barbara L. Jackson Scholar through the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), and a fellow for the Blended and Online Learning Design program at Vanderbilt where he examines how school leaders learn in online settings. He currently serves as chair of the Student Advisory Committee for APPAM and holds a position on the Graduate Student Council for UCEA.
Prior to his doctoral studies, Lam worked as a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam, taught math in a turnaround high school in Oklahoma City, and served as an instructional coach for Oklahoma City Public Schools. He received a B.A. in chemistry from Harvard University.
Research Interests
School Turnaround and Reform, School Personnel Policy, Teacher and Principal Labor Markets, Teacher Development, Online Teaching and Learning
___