Dr. Amanda Mayes is the Data Research Manager at the Delaware Department of Education, leading research for DDOE. She is also the founder of Second Act Research, focused on arts impact research. Amanda has over two decades of experience teaching visual arts, public speaking and writing at the K-12 and collegiate level. Amanda is passionate about building inclusive classroom and research environments. Her research interests include academic and intrinsic impacts of arts experiences, impacts of culturally relevant curriculums, program assessment, co-designed research methodologies, and using arts integration techniques in STEM learning.