Marcy Singer-Gabella is a professor of education and Associate Chair in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. Her work has focused on efforts designed to build the capacity of schools, teachers, and leaders to promote ambitious teaching and deeper learning, and to address social and economic barriers to K-12 and postsecondary success.
At Vanderbilt, Marcy has served on the provost’s staff to foster partnerships with K-12 and higher education institutions, and led degree and non-degree programs in curriculum, teacher education, and leadership development. In 2018-19 she served as Chief of Staff of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools while on leave from the university. In this role she guided implementation of District’s strategic agenda, and oversaw the Departments of Communications, Research and Evaluation, Board Relations, and Government Relations. Since returning to Vanderbilt, she has continued to support partnership initiatives between Vanderbilt and local school districts.
Marcy’s current scholarship starts from the assumption that addressing profound disparities in youth outcomes, especially those tied to economic disadvantage and race, will require the collective investment and sustained collaboration of educators, families, researchers, health and social service providers, civic leaders, and policymakers. She thus seeks to design contexts that bring together diverse stakeholders to investigate and act on pressing problems contributing to inequality. As part of this work, she is a co-investigator on the NIJ-funded Nashville Longitudinal Study of Youth Safety and Wellbeing, led by Professor Maury Nation.
