Halley Maza serves as Director of Learning Innovation and Research at CRTWC and is an adjunct faculty member at the University at Buffalo (UB). With over 15 years of experience across school counseling, mental health services, curriculum design, and teacher education, Dr. Maza brings a grounded research perspective to designing and researching practices that integrate social, emotional, and cultural learning into educator development. Halley earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning from UB, where her research focused on embedding social-emotional learning (SEL) into teacher education. This work laid the foundation for her postdoctoral role with UB’s Teacher Residency Program, where she collaborated with Virginia Commonwealth University and UB principal investigators on a longitudinal study of teacher development, self-efficacy, motivation, retention, and SEL. She led the development, implementation, and evaluation of SEL-focused protocols and coaching models supporting adult SEL and holistic teacher growth. In her role at CRTWC, Dr. Maza focuses on research, learning design, and strategic initiatives that advance the center’s mission to build educators’ capacity to foster equitable, inclusive, and supportive learning environments where both teachers and students can thrive. She has applied the Anchor Competencies Framework across teacher preparation contexts including coursework, mentoring, video reflection, and professional learning, while supporting research-to-practice innovation. She is founding director of InterconnectED Education Consulting and serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for The Urban Review. She holds a B.A. from The New School and an M.S.Ed. from Old Dominion University.