Kristen Malzahn

Kristen Malzahn is a senior researcher at Horizon Research, Inc. in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she serves as a co–principal investigator for Project AIM, a professional development initiative focused on strengthening mathematical discourse in elementary classrooms. She began her career as an elementary school teacher and later earned an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Over more than two decades, Malzahn has worked on multiple mathematics education research and evaluation projects and has authored journal articles and book chapters, many of which center on mathematics professional development for elementary and middle grades teachers.

Malzahn is a coauthor of Activating Math Talk: 11 Purposeful Techniques for Your Elementary Students, part of the Corwin Mathematics Series, written with Paola Sztajn and Daniel Heck. The book draws on insights and materials from Project AIM to help teachers promote high‑quality mathematics discourse through research‑based, student‑centered talk techniques.