Mariana Haynes joined the Alliance in March 2010 as a senior fellow. Prior to joining the Alliance, she served as the director of research for the National Association of State Boards of Education where she led policy research, directed state projects to scale improvement initiatives, and published numerous articles and reports. She directed national study groups on assessment, adolescent literacy, early childhood education, and turning around low-performing schools.

Previously, Dr. Haynes was the senior monitoring official at the Rhode Island State Department of Education and was responsible for ensuring statewide implementation of special education and school support policies to advance systemic reform in special and general education. Dr. Haynes received her doctorate in special education from the University of Washington.