Webinar Description: Dr Leventhal-Weiner will share her professional journey to state service and the application of her training to the government context.

Speaker Biography: Rachel Leventhal-Weiner is the Director of Research and Evaluation, a unit of the Data and Policy Analytics Division in Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM). The Research and Evaluation team supports interagency data sharing and research to inform policy-making. Dr. Leventhal-Weiner comes to the Office of Policy and Management from the Office of Early Childhood (OEC), where she served as the first Chief Research and Planning Officer. While at the OEC, she leveraged her experience as an advocate and applied researcher to help the agency tell its story with data. She has led the digital transformation of OEC and has improved agency data capacity. Prior to working at OEC, she was the Assistant Director and Data Engagement Specialist for the Connecticut Data Collaborative, an Education Policy Fellow for Connecticut Voices for Children and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity College in Educational Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Connecticut, an MA in Higher and Postsecondary Education from the Teachers College of Columbia University, and a BA in Economics from Rutgers University. She lives with her husband and daughters in West Hartford.