Rafi Santo, PhD

Rafi Santo, principal researcher at Telos Learning, is a learning scientist focused on the intersection of digital culture, education, and institutional change. Centering his work within research-practice partnerships, he has studied, collaborated with, and facilitated a range of organizational networks related to digital learning, computing, and technology in education. Within informal education, he has focused on the design of innovation networks as co-founder of Hive Research Lab, a partnership with the Hive NYC Learning Network collective of over 70 informal learning organizations. In K12 schooling, he’s partnered with CSforALL to support and study school districts as they develop equitable and sustainable computing education initiatives. His scholarship spans multiple levels of activity—from understanding youth learning pathways across settings to investigating policy implementation and organizational network design—in order to develop practical insights that come from a holistic perspective. His work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, the Susan Crown Exchange, and Google. Rafi holds a PhD in Learning and Developmental Sciences from Indiana University.