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. She previously served as Research Manager on Fordham's research team, where she helped develop and conduct studies on academic standards, accountability, curriculum, and instruction, and managed Fordham and AEI's Emerging Education Policy Scholar (EEPS) program.
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, and she is a graduate of the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network’s Leadership Institute. Prior to joining the Fordham Institute, 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.
