Shaun M. Dougherty

Shaun M. Dougherty is a professor of education and policy in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. Dr. Dougherty is currently a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of Education. He was previously an associate professor of public policy and education in Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and an assistant professor of education and public policy in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut; a faculty fellow with Georgia Policy Labs at Georgia State University. He is also the director of the Catholic Education Research Initiative at Boston College and a Strategic Data Project faculty advisor through the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. His research and teaching interests focus on education policy analysis, causal program evaluation and cost analysis, and the economics of education, with an emphasis on career and technical education, educational accountability policies, and the application of regression discontinuity research designs. Across these substantive areas, he emphasizes how education can address human capital development as well as issues of equity related to race, class, gender, and disability. He has conducted applied policy analysis with several states and large districts, as well as the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Manhattan Institute. Dr. Dougherty holds a EdD in quantitative policy analysis of education from and an EdM in education jointly from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an MS in educational administration from Gwynedd Mercy University, and a BS in mathematics/economics from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.

updated 2024