Yamashiro has worked at the intersection of education research and policy and practice for many years. Her work in the applied research field has included managing and conducting research at non-profit research organizations such as WestEd, SRI International, Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). In addition, she has dedicated a large portion of her career to improving systems and programs in large, urban districts, directing evaluation activities in Long Beach Unified School District and overseeing choice and charter school activities in San Diego Unified School District. Her research has focused on choice and charter schools, as well as accountability systems, and helping to define progress and success for schools and programs. Yamashiro received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Social Research Methodology and her M.A. in Educational Policy Analysis and Administration from Stanford University, where she also received her B.A. in English Literature.

Phillips, an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducts research on educational inequality and teaches classes on education policy, statistics, and research methods. Her work focuses on the causes of ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in educational success and how to reduce those disparities. Her current research projects include a qualitative implementation study of the infusion of academic assistance into traditional afterschool programs; a random-assignment study of the efficacy of a relatively low-cost college access intervention; an ethnographic longitudinal study of adolescent culture, families, schools, and academic achievement; and a quantitative study of the role of parenting practices in generating early childhood achievement disparities. Phillips has received funding from, among others, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the William T. Grant Foundation. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and M.A. in Human Development and Social Policy, both from Northwestern University, and her A.B. from Brown University.