HESA

Higher Education Strategy Associates

Our People

Alex Usher

Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates and Editor-in-Chief of Global Higher Education Strategy Monitor. An internationally recognized expert in student financial aid and quality measurement in post-secondary education, Mr. Usher has authored numerous ground-breaking studies in higher education. In addition to his years of work on higher education in Canada, his recent work spans Asia, Europe and Africa as well.

In his former role as Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada (EPI Canada), Mr. Usher managed the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid Project for the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, a 4-year $4 million research project to investigate the long-term effects of student aid and is the author of the project’s Final Report, appearing in early 2010. In 2002 and 2004, Mr. Usher co-authored (with Sean Junor) the Price of Knowledge, a volume considered the standard reference on student finance in Canada. More recently, he has written the theme document for UNESCO Europe’s decennial meeting on higher education, Ten Years Back and Ten Years Forward: Developments and Trends in Higher Education in Europe Region. He sits on a variety of advisory, supervisory and editorial boards in Canada, Europe and Asia.

Prior to joining the Educational Policy Institute in 2003 and founding the Higher Education Strategy Associates Mr. Usher served as the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Usher served as a researcher and lobbyist for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and before that was the first national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University.

Lori McElroy

Dr. Lori McElroy is HESA’s Senior Scientist, with over 25 years of experience conducting research and managing research projects, with a special focus on educational policy issues. Lori has expertise in the areas of program evaluation, performance measurement, and policy analysis. She holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Toronto, and a minor specialization in statistics.

Since completing her Ph.D. Lori has taught at the University of Toronto, worked as a consultant, managed her own consulting firm, and worked as a researcher and manager in the BC public sector. Lori has directed a wide range of research projects for a variety of clients, the BC public sector and federal departments and agencies.

Dr. McElroy was the lead researcher and author for a study on the factors that influence how high school graduates make decisions about whether and when to pursue PSE. The report, In Pursuit of Postsecondary Education: Whether and When to Go On, which can be found here http://www.millenniumscholarships.ca/images/Publications/081125_IPPSE_EN.pdf

One of Dr. McElroy’s areas of focus is the study of the impact of student financial assistance especially on persistence. Relevant publications include:

  • Examination of the Impact of the Provincial Needs Assessment Process for Student Financial Assistance (2009)
  • Student Aid and University Persistence: Does Debt Matter? (2005)
  • The Millennium Bursary in New Brunswick: Impact on Debt and Persistence (2008)
  • The Millennium Bursary in Manitoba: Exploring its Impact (2005)
  • The Millennium Bursary in British Columbia: Exploring its Impact (2004)

Ryan Dunn

Ryan Dunn is the outgoing Director of Business Development at HESA. Prior to his role as Business Development Manager, Ryan was a Research Associate at EPI Canada. Ryan earned a B.A. in History from the University of Western Ontario in 2006.

Mr. Dunn is an expert in survey development, and database management using Excel spreadsheet. From 2006-2009 Mr. Dunn managed the database for the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid (MESA) project. Mr. Dunn is a versatile and capable researcher who has managed many evaluations of access and persistence programming in Ontario universities in conjunction with other research partners at the University of Toronto and HEQCO. Mr. Dunn also led the Life After High School study, a comparative outcomes study that tested the impact of online information on information seeking about student financial aid by high school students.

Mr. Dunn is knowledgeable about the construction trades and skilled trades training. Mr. Dunn played a lead role in a 2007 environmental scan of apprenticeship supports and technical training curriculum for the Canadian Council for Directors of Apprenticeship. He conducted key informant interviews for that project to investigate attitudes towards changes in governmental supports of apprenticeship.

Currently, Ryan is responsible for liaising with clients and stakeholders, as well as finding new business opportunities for the firm.

Edyta Kaznowska

Edyta Kaznowska is a Policy Research Associate at HESA. Ms. Kaznowska brings strong analytical, research and writing capabilities to the team, as well as experience in interview techniques.

Recently, Ms. Kaznowska managed the implementation of the Canadian Student Survey, where she worked with participating post-secondary institutions to receive ethics clearance for the survey. She is also involved in collecting data for the gender and diversity analysis of the Canadian Research Chairs program.

Ms. Kaznowska holds a Master’s Degree in Political Theory from the University of Essex, UK. She has taken courses in qualitative and quantitative methods, research design, interview techniques and participant and non-participant interview techniques.

Ms. Kaznowska previously worked as a Research Associate for a small non-profit organization called Samara where she assisted with research design protocols, focus group and phone interviews.

Jason Rogers

Jason Rogers is a Research Associate at HESA. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics with a second concentration in Economics from McGill University.

Jason’s primary responsibility at HESA is data analysis. He has served as the primary analyst on the Globe and Mail’s Canadian University Report, and has overseen data preparation and analysis for HESA’s student panel surveys. He has completed research reports and data products for government, university, and private-sector clients.

Paul Jarvey

Paul Jarvey is a Research Analyst at HESA. Mr. Jarvey holds an M.A. from the University of Toronto in International Political Economy of Development(joint economics and political science) and an Honours B.A. with high distinction from the University of Calgary in Political Science (Major) and Economics (Minor). His current research interests are bibliometric analysis, the impact of university rankings, strategic administration of higher education, and regional economic development.

Mr. Jarvey has worked with a HESA on a wide variety of projects, managing and contributing to both quantitative and qualitative research projects. Over the course of his career he has managed focus groups and call centers, supervised the development of new web applications and databases, and written many analytical research reports. Mr. Jarvey is highly skilled in data collection, survey development, policy analysis, and database management and development.

Prior to joining HESA, Paul worked in the Privy Council Office, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. He has a broad range of professional experience in the private sector, government, and academia.

Pamela Marcucci

Pamela Marcucci is the Director of Global Policy Studies and Initiatives and Managing Editor of the Global Higher Education Strategy Monitor, HESA’s quarterly policy journal. An internationally recognized expert in student financial aid and comparative higher education research, Ms. Marcucci has authored numerous articles and technical papers and most recently co-authored a book with D. Bruce Johnstone, Financing Higher Education Worldwide: Who Pays? Who Should Pay? published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

In her previous role as Project Manager for the International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility project at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY), Ms. Marcucci conducted international comparative research on higher education funding systems around the world.

In addition to her work at SUNY, Ms. Marcucci served as a consultant to the World Bank’s Human Development Group. Ms. Marcucci has written technical papers on a variety of topics (means testing in student financial assistance, the mobilization of private capital for student loan programs, etc.) and provided technical assistance on higher education finance to Ministries of Education in Jordan, Kenya, and Romania.

Ms. Marcucci has a Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and a Masters in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Joseph Berger

Prior to joining the Higher Education Strategy Associates, Joseph Berger served as a senior planning analyst at McGill University. He spent several years at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation as both a policy and research officer and a communications officer. At the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, Joseph authored and co-authored a number of publications, notably two editions of the organization’s flagship publication, The Price of Knowledge, generally considered to be the standard reference on issues of access to post-secondary education and student finance in Canada. Joseph pursued studies at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels in journalism and public policy and administration at Concordia University in Montreal.

Mr. Berger is currently the Director of Business Development and Communications at HESA.

Miriam Kramer, M.Sc.

Miriam Kramer is the founding Director of the Canadian Education Project, an independent company committed to access and quality at all levels of the education spectrum for diverse student groups in Canada. She is the company’s lead qualitative researcher, conducting focus groups and interviews across the country as well as spearheading the development of mixed methods for research and managing projects for a number of different clients, including governments and post-secondary institutions. Between 2006 and 2009, she was a Senior Researcher/Policy Analyst at the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), conducting similar research and managing a wide range of projects for a diverse number of clients.

Between October 2000 and August 2006, Ms. Kramer was the government policy analyst for higher education for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). There she coordinated and trained students and community members in lobbying, media and other advocacy efforts. In that capacity, she produced policy-oriented documents on higher education policy, including Shifting the Burden (2002) and Overburdened (2004), which look at affordability issues in post-secondary education. She was also responsible for budget analysis of the New York State budget and for writing fact sheets and briefs for public consumption based on these analyses. She has also published in the area, including Ten Years in the Making: the Pataki Administration Record in Higher Education (2005). While at NYPIRG, Ms. Kramer appeared regularly in the media and was quoted in hundreds of newspaper articles including the New York Times, guest lectured at dozens of colleges and universities, and participated in panel discussions, forums and coalition meetings.

Ms. Kramer lived in Jerusalem and worked at Kol Ha-Isha, the Jerusalem Women’s Center, through a fellowship with the New Israel Fund (1998-2000). There, she helped establish the country’s first institute for women’s education and empowerment and taught at and was involved in curriculum development for the Kedma School, an experimental community high school for low-income students.

Ms. Kramer earned a Masters in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1998) and a B.A. in English Literature from Queens College, with minors in economics and Business and Liberal Arts (1997).