Research Affiliate - Policy

Audrey Peek is the Senior Government Policy and Data Analyst at the American Council on Education (ACE) division of Government Relations. Her research focuses on federal higher education policy, financial aid, and student outcomes. Prior to joining ACE, she was the Assistant Director of the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab (SSTAR Lab) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and part of the higher education team at the American Institutes for Research. She is a managing editor of the Journal of Student Financial Aid. She has a BA from Concordia University in Quebec, an MPA from University of Washington, and an EdD in higher education administration from George Washington University.

D. Sunshine Hillygus is professor of political science and public policy and director of the Initiative on Survey Methodology at Duke University. Professor Hillygus has published widely on the topics of American political behavior, campaigns and elections, public opinion, survey methods, and information technology and politics. She is co-author of Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Actions (Cambridge University Press, 2020), The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Political Campaigns (Princeton University Press, 2008), and The Hard Count: The Social and Political Challenges of the 2000 Census (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006). She is associate PI of the 2020 American National Election Study, associate editor of Political Analysis, and formerly served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the U.S. Census Bureau. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.

John Schoof is a research associate and project coordinator in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, where he focuses on policy analysis and research related to K-12 education freedom, federal education policy, and innovation in K-12 education.

Prior to joining The Heritage Foundation, John worked on the COVID-19 School Response Dashboard and the COVID-19 School Data Hub, the central databases for educators, researchers, and policymakers to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped students’ access to learning.

He received a master’s degree in public health and epidemiology from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance at American University.

Jennifer A. Delaney is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is also the Director of the Forum on the Future of Public Education and Director of the Higher Education Program. In addition, Dr. Delaney is a member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Dr. Delaney’s research focuses on higher education policy, with an emphasis on finance. Previously, she worked for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and served as a consultant for the Commission on the Future of Higher Education. She was also an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Stanford University, an Ed.M. in Higher Education from Harvard University, and a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan.