After several years of outstanding leadership as Director of Research and Evaluation at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Dr. Sean Simone has returned to the U.S. Department of Education in a senior position as Branch Chief of the Longitudinal Surveys Branch at the National Center for Education Statistics. In this new role, Sean will help lead research to evaluate the impact of education on students, graduates, and the economy.

Sean’s role at the Heldrich Center included supervising a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research projects funded by federal and state agencies and foundations. He led the Center’s New Jersey Education to Earnings Data System (NJEEDS) in collaboration with government officials in the Departments of Education, Labor, the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, and the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority. In this role, Sean collaborated in the development of cross-state and national strategies to enhance the use of administrative data to improve knowledge about education and workforce development programs. Working with his partners in state government and colleagues at the Heldrich Center, Sean expanded the scope and quality of NJEEDS and earned the respect of his peers who manage similar research enterprises in other states.  

Dr. Carl Van Horn, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Heldrich Center, commented, “Sean made a major impact on the ability of policymakers, students, and workers to understand the value of our state’s investments in education and workforce development. I am confident he will continue to have a major impact at the national level.”

While at the Heldrich Center, Sean also served as Acting Executive Director for several months and taught graduate-level courses on higher education policy and data analysis at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.