Victoria McDougald is the chief of staff at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she manages external partnerships, leads strategic initiatives and projects, and oversees Fordham’s outreach and messaging to outside audiences, including policymakers, educators, the media, and others in the education-policy world. In collaboration with the American Enterprise Institute, Victoria also manages Fordham's Emerging Education Policy Scholar (EEPS) program that seeks to counter the long-standing divide between research and policy in education. She previously served as Research Manager on Fordham's research team, where she helped develop and conduct research on academic standards, accountability, curriculum, and instruction.
A Washington, D.C. native, Victoria holds a master's degree in public policy from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and a bachelor's degree in Government from Cornell University. Prior to joining Fordham, she worked at the Tennessee Department of Education, Vanderbilt University's National Center for Scaling Up Effective Schools, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. She lives with her family in Orange County, California.
