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Our Team
We are Higher Education Strategy Associates.
Higher Education Strategy Associates (HESA) provides strategic insight and guidance to governments, post-secondary institutions, and agencies through excellence and expertise in policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic consulting services. Through these activities HESA strives to improve the quality, efficacy, and fairness of higher education systems in Canada and worldwide.
Alex Usher (He/Him)
President
Alex Usher (He/Him)
President
Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates. He is an internationally recognized expert on a range of fields within higher education, including student financial aid, quality measurement, rankings and public financing. He also has wide experience in strategic planning at both the institutional and system level.Alex is the lead author of the annual higher education almanac The State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada and the co-author of the premier statistical handbook on global tertiary education: World Higher Education: Institutions, Students and Funding His internationally read (and free) daily intelligence e-mail, One Thought to Start Your Day, has over 17,000 subscribers. He also regularly engages with fans and critics alike on Bluesky (@alexusherhesa.bsky.social).Prior to founding Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2009, Mr. Usher served as the Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada and prior to that he was the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University.When Alex is not thinking about post-secondary systems and outcomes, he can be found raiding used bookstores for their most eccentric titles, cheering for Toronto FC, or obsessing about sumo.
Alexandria Petit-Thorne (They/Them)
Senior Associate and Project Lead, Strategy Development
Alexandria Petit-Thorne (They/Them)
Senior Associate and Project Lead, Strategy Development
Alex Petit-Thorne is a Research Associate at Higher Education Strategy Associates. They are also a doctoral candidate at York University, where they specialized in cultural anthropology with a focus on gender, sexuality, and digital media. Alex also holds an MSc from the University of Edinburgh. They have worked on several large-scale research projects, including an award-winning digital ethnography of online 2SLGBTQIA+ community organizing in Toronto during the coronavirus pandemic. They have also developed extensive knowledge of gender-based and sexual violence prevention and response, gender equity, transgender and gender-diverse inclusivity, and disability and accessibility. Alex is trained in qualitative research methods, including using innovative online techniques in data collection. Before joining HESA, they served in a variety of equity- and inclusion-related roles, including as a union steward and as a board member at the Society for Cultural Anthropology and Teaching and Learning Anthropology Journal. They currently serve as a member of the American Anthropological Association Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Policy Working Group. They are fluent in French and English.
Iain Wilson (He/Him)
Senior Research Associate
Iain Wilson (He/Him)
Senior Research Associate
Iain Wilson has several years’ postdoctoral research experience, most recently working as Principal Investigator/Senior Researcher at CCI Research where he led data collection and analysis for a range of research projects on behalf of higher education institutions and municipal, provincial and federal governments. He has published a book and a number of academic journal articles on higher education and governance issues.
Janet Balfour (She/Her)
Senior Associate and Project Lead, Partnerships & Engagement
Janet Balfour (She/Her)
Senior Associate and Project Lead, Partnerships & Engagement
Janet Balfour has recently joined HESA following more than 13 years as an Instructor in Social Work at Toronto Metropolitan University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and York University. She was an active member of the TMU Program Advisory Committee for almost 20 years and engaged in supporting university re-accreditation processes, curriculum reviews, fostering student field placements, promoting university/community partnerships, conference planning/presenting, and promoting student engagement. Janet has worked across the full spectrum or life-cycle of education – from middle school (as an Education Welfare Officer) through graduate school and all the mentoring, preparation, counselling and transitions along the way. She has experience with a wide range of approaches to research and has been a member of the Lone Parents: Building Social Inclusion Project (CURA) project and evaluated the development of the City of Toronto Drug Strategy for Toronto Public Health.Janet holds a PhD in Social Work, for which she analyzed power dynamics within the community-based research sector, an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics, a professional degree in Social Work from Toronto Metropolitan University and a BA from Western University.
Jiwoo Jeon (She/Her)
Research Analyst
Maïca Poirier Murphy (She/Her)
Manager, Strategy & Governance
Maïca Poirier Murphy (She/Her)
Manager, Strategy & Governance
Maïca Murphy is a writer and project manager with over 10 years of experience in higher education and publishing. She joins HESA from St Francis Xavier University where she worked with diverse teams to achieve project objectives and had a successful track record in grant proposal writing, having led or helped develop multiple multi-million-dollar plans for program and infrastructural projects at universities in the Maritimes. She previously spent four years with Oxford University Press.Maïca graduated from the University of Alberta in 2010 with a Master’s Degree in English Literature and Cultural Theory. She also has over 10 years of experience in professional translation and editing, helping clients grow their reach through effective communication content in both English and French.At HESA, Maïca takes on a leading role in many projects involving university governance and the development of strategic plans.
Samantha Pufek (She/Her)
Graphic Designer
Samantha Pufek (She/Her)
Graphic Designer
Samantha Pufek holds a degree and two diplomas from Sheridan College, the University of Toronto and George Brown College. She has several years’ design experience and has won awards for her drawing skills, which she has also donated freely to a local charity for several years. At HESA, she creates eye-catching visuals and is responsible for the graphic design of our reports, briefing papers and research proposals, including this website.
Tiffany MacLennan (She/Her)
Senior Associate and Project Lead
Tiffany MacLennan (She/Her)
Senior Associate and Project Lead
Tiffany MacLennan was a recipient of the Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership Fellowship for 2020-21, having held a range of student leadership positions before joining HESA. These included overseeing a range of sexual violence prevention initiatives and conducting research on drivers of student attendance and quality of life. She has experience with university governance and institutional planning, having served on both the Board and Senate of St. Francis Xavier University where she was a member of both the Senate Steering Committee and the Board Governance and Nominating Committee.Tiffany holds an Honours degree in Chemistry and is comfortable navigating large and complex datasets and has a talent for extracting meaning from statistics, as well as talking through complex policy issues with experts.Currently, Tiffany is pursuing a Master’s of Education at Harvard University and continues to co-produce The World of Higher Education Podcast.
