Suzanne Bouffard
Senior Vice President, Communications & Publications
Suzanne Bouffard is senior vice president of communications and publications at Learning Forward. She is the editor of The Learning Professional, Learning Forward’s flagship publication. She also contributes to the Learning Forward blog and webinars. With a background in child development, she has a passion for making research and best practices accessible to educators, policymakers, and families. She has written for many national publications including The New York Times and the Atlantic, and previously worked as a writer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Duke University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. She loves working with authors to help them develop their ideas and voices for publication.
All Articles
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Charting a course through turbulence
Educators often feel pulled in multiple directions, but for many, that feeling is especially acute right now. Navigating schools’ competing priorities, students’ increasing needs, and intense public pressures can feel like trying to travel across the cover of this issue — on winding roads, with confusing signs and no clear […] -
Educators value social and emotional skills. Here’s how to build them
Most educators believe that social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are a fundamental part of good teaching and learning (Education Week, n.d.; Hamilton et al., 2019) because they help children and adults set and reach goals, navigate their environments, and thrive in community. SEL includes skills such as paying attention, […] -
Here's what The Learning Professional will focus on in 2023
Each year, The Learning Professional team announces a slate of themes for the following year’s issues. We consider the field’s pressing needs, members’ roles and interests, and emerging research. We also look for areas where our staff and readers have unique insights to share. The Learning Professional themes speak to […] -
Don’t just prepare new teachers, nurture them
Throughout the production of this issue, I have heard outstanding educators lament their first years of teaching. Pointing to their past shortcomings, they blame themselves, saying things like: “I had no idea what I was doing,” “My students deserved better,” or “I wish I could go back and apologize to […] -
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Do alternatively certified teachers need different supports?
With teacher shortages plaguing schools across the country, districts and states are trying a range of approaches to fill the gaps. Many are looking to alternative certification programs, hiring teachers with bachelor’s degrees in fields outside education who are simultaneously enrolled in teacher education coursework and preparing for licensure exams. […] -
What do YOU need to learn from ME?
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa is an expert in neuroscience and the science of learning, and the founder of Connections: The Learning Sciences Platform, which provides evidence-based support for educators in over 40 countries. She will be a keynote speaker at the 2022 Learning Forward Annual Conference Dec. 4-7 in Nashville, Tennessee. Hers […] -
The 2022 standards are here – and we’ve got a lot to tell you
Standards for Professional Learning drive everything we do at Learning Forward and in this journal. But this issue is special because it is entirely devoted to the recently revised 2022 iteration of the standards. It peeks under the hood of the standards revision process that took place over more than […] -
Coaches, we see you
It’s difficult to find reliable data about the number of educators employed as instructional coaches. Part of the challenge is that coaches have a wide variety of job titles and responsibilities. Learning Forward members list more than 125 coaching-related job titles, and coaches have so many diverse responsibilities that defining […] -
Where coaches learn to coach
Most of today’s instructional coaches didn’t start their careers planning to work one-on-one supporting other educators. Most of them started out as excellent teachers, focused on the learning needs of young people. And although the best coaching programs select coaches based on their listening, reflection, and facilitation skills, new coaches […] -
Professional learning can lead us to common ground
If I did a search of the most frequent words used in Learning Forward’s resources, “community” and “collaboration” would surely appear in the top five. Collaborative relationships are at the core of learning. When learning partners respect, trust, and care about one another, they are more likely to listen to […]
