Areas of Expertise: performance analytics, data equity, strategic planning

“Having worked with college students for a long time, what fascinates me is cultivating a more comprehensive view of a person’s life path and the trigger points that lead each person toward one direction or another. I am fortunate to have the conviction and motivation to continue broadening my realm of possibility. I wish the same for each and every child out there.”

Rolando Fernando is passionate about improving education with a focus on equity, specifically on how data and analytics can be used to foreground insights and stories that can help transform learning for historically marginalized populations. He helps develop the frameworks and infrastructures of impact assessment and continuous quality improvement for scaling personalized, competency-based learning through state-lift efforts. His experience and expertise contribute substantively to the core work of impact and improvement, partnering with an extensive network of stakeholders in the field, identifying gaps in the evidence base and expanding efforts to prioritize equity in research and implementation.

In his previous position as Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation with StrivePartnership, Rolando led efforts to mainstream a data-informed culture among key partners within the Greater Cincinnati urban core, using data analytics to provide robust evidence base for cradle-to-career outcomes. Rolando came to KnowledgeWorks most recently via Los Angeles and the Philippines, where he held positions as Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines, Diliman and as Research Fellow with the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies for more than 20 years. He taught courses in political philosophy, globalization theory, development, and quantitative/qualitative research methods. His research and advocacy activities focused on climate change resilience, Indigenous peoples’ rights and disaster/risk reduction management.

Rolando obtained his master’s in socio-cultural anthropology and development studies from Brown University and his bachelor’s in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University.