Jennifer Engle

Dr. Jennifer Engle serves as director of Data for the U.S. Program, where she leads a team that works to improve the quality and use of data across the education-to-workforce pipeline. Her team aims to empower practitioners and policymakers with the critical information they need to implement evidence-based reforms that equitably improve educational outcomes. They focus on scaling up national postsecondary-to-workforce data systems, building exemplar state systems that track data from early learning to the workforce, creating a common framework of education-to-workforce indicators, and supporting data innovation in the field.

A noted national expert and leader in the field, Jennifer has focused throughout her career on improving college access, affordability, completion, and value for underserved students. Her professional passion comes from her personal experience as the first in her family to go to college.

As a researcher and advocate, Jennifer has focused on using data and evidence to call attention to and close equity disparities in education. At the Pell Institute, she led research studies to identify barriers to college access and completion experienced by low-income, first-generation college students as well as effective support to help them succeed. At the Education Trust, she managed the College Results Online web tool and led data collection, analysis, and use for postsecondary leaders in the Access to Success Initiative. At the Institute for Higher Education Policy, she launched the Postsecondary Data Collaborative, a coalition that works to improve the quality of national data systems so they reflect the experiences of today’s diverse students.

Jennifer received her M.A. and Ph.D. in education from American University and lives and works in Washington, D.C.