Amber Northern was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.  She is vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she helps develop new research initiatives and manages Fordham's research studies. She has more fifteen years of experience in educational evaluation, education policy, and secondary education. She has published in the areas of educational accountability, standardized testing, teacher quality, and educational technology, among others.

Before joining Fordham, she was a senior study director at Westat, where she provided evaluation services for various federal, state, and local education agencies, as well as for educational foundations, textbook publishers, and professional development providers. She has experience directing and overseeing multiple and varied research studies (from small-scale studies to multimillion dollar projects); analyzing and reporting on such topics as performance-based pay for educators, reading instruction, mathematics and science education, and teacher quality; developing research instruments and protocols; assembling advisory panels and communicating with content experts and other scholars; and writing proposals, technical reports, and policy briefs.

Previously, Northern worked with the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Center for Educational Policy Studies, and the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. Northern has researched and published in the areas of educational accountability, standardized testing, and school choice.

Northern holds a PhD in education policy and evaluation from the University of Virginia. She began her career as a high school classroom teacher.