THE SIGNAL. THE FIRE.
US-Squared Research Institute exists to protect the brilliance of adolescents — especially Black and Brown young people — by building the justice-centered programs, tools, and systems that ensure they don't have to choose between being themselves and being safe.
We believe that brilliance is not earned through suffering — it is inherent. And we believe that organizations, educators, and communities have a responsibility to build the infrastructure that allows that brilliance to flourish.
Our work is grounded in peer-reviewed research, community accountability, and a relentless commitment to the young people who deserve better than what they've been given.
WHO LEADS US
Dr. Erica L. Tartt, PhD
Dr. Tartt holds a PhD in Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2023), where her research focused on culture, development, and quantitative methods. Her dissertation applied Latent Class Analysis to CDC data from 7,000+ Black adolescents, identifying distinct mental health profiles and directly challenging deficit-based frameworks in youth research.
She is an education researcher, instructional technologist, and AI-in-education strategist with nearly two decades spanning K–12 classrooms, higher education faculty development, and nonprofit innovation. Her specializations include Latent Class Analysis, mixture modeling, and mixed-methods research design — tools she uses to prove what communities already know.
Dr. Tartt does not run programs — she designs the conditions that make them possible. Her work begins where the research ends: identifying the structural gaps between brilliance and economic power, then building the networks across education, publishing, and workforce that close them. She is the architect of ecosystems. The delivery belongs to the people inside them.
She is currently building Atlas ERA — The Education Research Association — a global field-building network that connects education practitioners, funds their work, and credentials the brilliance happening in communities the traditional system cannot see.
BY THE NUMBERS
Columbus, Ohio · executive@us-squared.org
OUR PARTNERS & FUNDERS
Partner and funder logos will appear here. Interested in supporting our work? Get in touch.