Eric Heilman is Mission & Data’s Institutional Research Consultant, bringing over 15 years of experience in the field of education and mission-driven data analysis.

Eric’s expertise is in developing quantitative measures of success across multiple dimensions of a school’s mission, developing overall institutional data strategy, marketing and strategic communications analysis, and facilitating professional development around quantitative literacy and data culture. 

Joining Mission & Data part-time, Eric will continue his roles as the Executive Director of the Center for Institutional Research in Independent Schools (CIRIS) and as the Director of Institutional Research at Maret School in Washington, DC where he develops and implements data-driven models supporting enrollment management, faculty development, DEIJ initiatives, and student wellness. Over the last fifteen years, Eric has worked in a variety of capacities in independent schools including middle and upper school math teacher, upper school grade dean, and institutional researcher. 

A winner of an E.E. Ford Foundation Educational Leadership grant in 2020, Maret’s Center for Institutional Research in Independent Schools (CIRIS) supports the professional development of institutional researchers in independent schools by supplying resources, technical training, and mentorship to data analysts and school leaders across the country.  In addition to hosting CIRIS’s regular online roundtable discussions, Eric is the facilitator of CIRIS’s Summer Fellows Lab, an annual professional development workshop for institutional researchers. Tackling complex data modeling challenges like “quantifying holistic student experience” and “measuring equity and inclusion in school communities,” the Summer Lab brings together innovators in the field of mission-driven data applications. Eric has also presented work on geographic and psychometric analysis of admissions data at the AISAP summer conference.

After finishing an undergraduate degree in International Economics at Georgetown University, Eric went on to graduate school in Economics at the University of Chicago where he earned a Master’s degree. While at the University of Chicago, Eric worked on the research team of Nobel Prize winner James Heckman, focusing on microeconomic models of educational attainment.