Diana C. Outlaw is the Program Manager of the (TPR)^2 project and an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University. Her biology research career over the last 20 years has focused on the evolutionary history of New and Old World birds and on diversification in avian malaria parasites. Diana’s interest in education began as a personal journey, trying to navigate the world of Special Education in order to help her daughter, now 12. As she became acutely aware of the inequity in educational resources between students with and without disabilities, her biology research began to focus on training university students with disabilities in both field and laboratory techniques. She quickly realized that she needed to reach students with disabilities before they went to college, and is reforming her research to focus on bridging achievement gaps for elementary and middle school children. Diana joined the (TPR)^2 project in September, 2021, and is working on a number of projects involving rural education policies.