Dr. Kenn Dela Cruz is the Data Strategy Fellow at A+ Education Partnership since September 2025, where he leads efforts in analyzing early childhood assessment data in partnership with the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education and the Harvard Strategic Data Project.
Kenn’s interest and passion around early childhood education began when he was an infant and toddler teacher at Loyola Marymount University Children’s Center. He then expanded to the policy domain through his time as the Mixed Methods Research Manager in the Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research, where he gained valuable firsthand experience in the application of developmental theory to design family interventions and assessing the efficacy of these interventions with the overarching goal to shape child and family policies.
Kenn earned his B.A. in Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles and a M.A. in Developmental Psychology from San Francisco State University. Kenn then completed his Ph.D. in Psychology from University of Virginia, where he was awarded fellowships from the U.S. Department of Education—Institute of Education Sciences, Jefferson Scholars Foundation, Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science Policy, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In his free time, Kenn enjoys photography and watching movies.
