Heather Boughton, Ph.D., is the Director of Research, Evaluation & Advanced Analytics at the Ohio Department of Education.  In this role, Heather is responsible for leading the development and execution of the department's Learning Agendas, as well as the state's Empowered by Evidence Initiative.  Heather's efforts as the research director are intended to make research and data use more accessible for policymakers and educators in Ohio.  She is particularly interested in building Ohio's capacity to use data and research to identify and address equity issues. Heather currently represents Ohio in the Results for America State Education Fellowship and is an alumnae of the Strategic Data Project at Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research.  She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The Ohio State University, where she studied the intersection of inequality and education.