Sarah Birkeland, Founder

Sarah is Helix Learning Partners' founder and principal consultant. She is a seasoned educator with expertise in learning and development, program evaluation, school leadership, and coaching. A former classroom teacher and school change coach, Sarah brings a nuanced understanding of teaching, learning and the complexities of school change. She is a strategic thinker skilled at uncovering program theory, identifying key assumptions, and helping clients gather useful data to improve practice. Sarah holds a B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University, an M.A. in Education Psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver, and an Ed.D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy with a concentration in Research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. 

​Candice Bocala, Consulting Researcher

Candice is a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Through her work on the Data Wise Project and the Internal Coherence Project, her research focuses on the connections between educator learning and organizational conditions that support collaborative work. Candice began her career as an elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C. She was also a senior research associate at WestEd, where she served as a researcher and technical assistance provider for federally funded national centers such as the Regional Educational Laboratory, Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI). As a program evaluator, she has worked on numerous formative and developmental evaluation projects that used a collaborative, participatory approach. Candice holds a bachelors degree in Government from Cornell University,  Masters degrees in Education from American University and Stanford, and an Ed.D. in Policy, Leadership and Instructional Practice from Harvard.