The Dana Center Welcomes Afi Y. Wiggins!

The Charles A. Dana Center is excited to welcome Afi Y. Wiggins as our new director of program evaluation and research.

Afi brings a strong background in research, evaluation, and leadership from her years working with urban school districts, such as the Austin Independent School District, and a host of higher education institutions, including Texas State University, Alabama State University, and Piedmont Virginia Community College and the University of Virginia.

“Afi has that rare combination of deep technical acumen in research methodology and a fervent commitment to making technical findings accessible to diverse audiences” said Carolyn Landel, Dana Center managing director. “That is exactly what the Center needs to make our findings actionable for educators, administrators, and policy makers.”

Afi will collaborate with other senior leaders to advance our equity and education goals, in particular by enacting a practical research and evaluation agenda for our work with districts and institutions of higher education.

“Careful and elegant research and evaluation is crucial to the Dana Center’s work to address persistent educational inequities,” said Uri Treisman, Dana Center executive director. “Afi’s ability to develop and translate complex statistical analyses for a wide variety of audiences will enhance our ability to support meaningful change.”

Afi brings experience performing complex statistical analyses, creating and maintaining longitudinally linked datasets, creating accessible reports— and managing literally billions of teacher, student, and workforce records in the Texas Education Research Center. Her experience and vision will support the long-term strategic goals and aspirations of the Dana Center.

Says Afi, “The Dana Center’s approach to education reform enables us to create avenues for student success at every level of the system. I am so excited to join the Dana Center team and follow my passion for researching and communicating findings that will positively affect students’ lives.”