People deserve to know how the policies and practices shaping their lives actually affect them, and too often that information is hard to find, hard to understand, or doesn’t exist.
Leigh serves as associate director of state policy and advocacy, where they work with state leaders, agencies, and advocacy organizations to advance policies that get people access to the education and workforce data they need.
Leigh joined the Data Quality Campaign in May 2026, drawn by its mission to make data work for students, families, and communities rather than serve as a tool of compliance. Before that, they spent seven years on Capitol Hill in the office of Congressman David E. Price, starting as a staff assistant and rising to legislative director. Upon leaving the Hill, they taught as a Montessori early childhood educator and, most recently, served as deputy director of policy at The Hunt Institute.
Their commitment to this work started earlier, as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina Asheville, in Dr. Dwight Mullen’s State of Black Asheville course. Researching health and education outcomes across Buncombe County, they found the results troubling but the missing data just as revealing. So much was incomplete or scattered across agencies that it was nearly impossible to understand why disparities had persisted for decades. That experience showed Leigh how easily policymakers can operate without the full picture, and it set the course for everything they’ve done since.
Leigh earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina Asheville, and is a true product of North Carolina public schools from kindergarten through college. They are proud to still call the Tarheel State home, and live in Durham with their partner, dog, and two beehives.
Why do you do this work? Because people deserve decisions made with the full picture, not a best guess. I’ve seen what happens when the data isn’t there, and it’s the people counting on those systems who bear the cost.
Who are your education heroes? My collegiate academic advisor, Dr. Dwight Mullen. He wove historical context into the world I was watching unfold as a young adult, and that helped me see the fuller political and social picture behind what I was studying. He shaped how I think and how I write, and I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.
Tell us a data use story that you love. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library mails a free book every month to kids from birth to age five, more than 332 million books across five countries so far. What I love is that it’s not just a nice idea, it’s one rooted in evidence! A large international study found that children who participated were significantly more likely to be ready for kindergarten than kids who weren’t in the program. Having spent time as an early childhood educator myself, I know how much those first years shape everything after. This is data making the case, in plain terms, that investing in the very youngest kids can change the trajectory of their lives.
