Christopher Tienken, Ed.D. is an associate professor of education leadership, management, and policy. He worked as a PK-12 assistant superintendent, middle school principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and elementary school assistant principal and started his career as an elementary school teacher. He is the National Research Professor in Residence for the American Association of School Administrators and an External Member of the Faculty at the University of Catania in the Department of Education Sciences, Italy. Tienken’s research interests focus on curriculum and assessment policy and practice at the local, state, national, and international levels. He was appointed to the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes in 2021. In 2019 Tienken was selected as the Principal Investigator for the AASA Decennial Study of the Superintendent and was inducted into the Professors of Curriculum in 2015. The Seton Hall College of Education named him Researcher of the Year in 2020 and 2014 and he received the Truman Kelley Award for Outstanding Scholarship from Kappa Delta Pi in 2013. He has authored over 130 publications and presents papers regularly at public and private venues and consults with public schools on three continents. He has ongoing research collaborations with colleagues at the University of Roma Tre, Italy, the University of Catania, Sicily and was named as a visiting professor at both universities.