Q&A with Heather Boughton, Cohort 4 SDP Fellow Alumna

This Q&A is part of an SDP Blog series profiling members of the 2023 – 2025 SDP Alumni Advisory Board. All posts from this series may be found here. 

Heather Boughton, the Director of Education Policy Implementation at Results for America (RFA), is a Cohort 4 (2012-2014) alumna of the Strategic Data Project (SDP) Fellowship. Heather was nominated into the fellowship by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, where she was already working at the time, to tackle the following questions: What are the indicators of college readiness? What strategies can districts and schools use to leverage these data for school improvement and preparing students to be college ready? How can state agencies encourage and support this data use by school districts? 

Heather spent over a decade working for the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, supporting the state’s efforts to use data and research to inform education policymaking. Heather’s last and favorite role at the Department was as the Director of Research, Evaluation and Advanced Analytics. In this role, Heather was responsible for leading the development and implementation of the Department’s Learning Agendas, as well as Ohio’s efforts to encourage and support the use of evidence-based strategies in Ohio’s schools. 

In her current role at RFA, Heather leads RFA's State Education Fellowship and the development of RFA's new Education Evidence-Based Spending resources and technical assistance for state education agencies. Heather is committed to supporting data use for the purpose of dismantling inequities and gets particularly excited about using actionable research in continuous improvement and working collaboratively to create cultures of learning. Heather received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The Ohio State University, where she studied inequality and education. She is an alumna of the Aspen Institute’s Coherence Lab Fellowship and Results for America’s State Education Fellowship. 

What drew you to the Strategic Data Project Fellowship?  

 At the time, I was working at the Ohio Department of Education and the idea behind the Strategic Data Project was compelling for me based on the challenges I was seeing in my own agency—we had so much data but struggled with pulling insights from that data. I saw SDP as a direct opportunity to deal with that struggle.  

I could not have imagined how the Strategic Data Project network would remain a significant part of my life even after I finished the two-year program. I value the relationships I built through the Strategic Data Project Fellowship, the conversations and opportunities I've had as a result of those relationships, and everything I continue to learn through the SDP network. 

How did you get started in the education data / education policy industry? 

My public education was hugely consequential for my life, so I knew I wanted to work in education. I never considered myself "a math person" until one day I realized that all the numbers we use in statistics represent real people, with real stories and experiences. Suddenly, I understood what a powerful language data could be and got excited about using it to help shape a more equitable education system. 

Tell us about your current job! 

In my role at Results for America, I help support government leaders build capacity for using data and evidence in their decision-making processes, specifically in education. A typical day might include designing new learning opportunities focused on evidence-based policymaking for education leaders, producing public resources for education leaders who what to learn more about evidence-based spending strategies, providing "just-in-time" coaching, support and feedback for state leaders and/or contributing to the work that RFA does at the federal level to encourage the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies to provide the support state and local education leaders need to invest in evidence and build capacity for evidence use. Given my background in state government, I love when I hear from state education leaders that I've helped them make a connection, understand new ideas, or move forward on a challenging project. 

What changes do you anticipate in your field in the next year? 

I remain hopeful that one impact of ESSER will be that more and more government leaders are held—or hold themselves—accountable for telling transparent, compelling stories about the impact of their investments. And, relatedly, I am hopeful that this means government leaders will be more attentive to planning for return-on-investment (ROI) studies. 

What skills did you gain from your time as an SDP Fellow that you find helpful in your current role? 

I always felt like the most valuable thing I learned through the SDP Fellowship was how to talk to people with different backgrounds, in different roles, about data. Specifically, I learned that it is so important to understand that other person's perspectives and needs—and then help them see how the work you are trying to do with data will help them meet those needs. When I first became a fellow, I had less experience applying my data translation skills to conversations with busy government leaders—and learning how to do this still helps me today. 

What advice would you give to current or prospective SDP Fellows? 

You can use SDP to learn technical skills and you can use it to strengthen your soft skills—the latter is just as important as the former and sometimes harder to learn. The value of the Strategic Data Project will last long beyond your two years as a fellow, as long as you continue to foster an ongoing relationship with SDP and SDP Fellows. 

What is something that you would tell your younger self about your career? 

Be confident; realize your special powers as an introvert; and relationships are #1. 

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

An astronaut :) 

What is something you enjoy in your free time? 

Backpacking, gardening, and running! 

What are you currently binge-watching? Or reading? 

I recently rediscovered my love for speculative fiction, especially anything that involves the concept of alternate lives or parallel universes. I love how it causes you to think about what could be—and inspires you to entertain the possibility that life can be different (in good ways or bad) from what it is right now.