Alumni Profile: Chantal Hinds, DPSS’25

“I’m inspired by seeing what happens when a child with a learning disability gets access to the specific program, or type of teacher, that teaches in the way the child best learns,” said Chantal Hinds, DPSS’25 and an education policy researcher at the think tank, The Century Foundation. “These are not problems we can't solve—we just need people who are dedicated to solving them.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Hinds spent most of her professional career as a lawyer, working at the intersection of the foster and education systems in New York. “I would represent children and families who needed educational support they weren't receiving from their school district.”

Now, Hinds amplifies her mission at The Century Foundation, advocating for educational equity for historically underserved and marginalized students—especially those students in the foster system. In this role, however, Hinds realized she needed access to better analytics tools.

“I had been talking to my supervisor about a substantial report I had released. My data was largely qualitative research I had extracted from focus groups and interviews, and I taught myself how to code the data in Excel while assembling the report—I didn't have any other tools under my belt. I knew some colleagues used R, so I mentioned to my supervisor that some R training could vastly streamline and improve future quantitative data analysis. She was supportive, so I started doing some research.”

When Hinds came across the Harris School of Public Policy Data and Policy Summer Scholars (DPSS) program, she said, “My first thought was: ‘this looks pretty intense!’ I wouldn’t quite be coming into the program at zero experience, but I was very close to it. However, after digging deeper and having some conversations with the credential program staff, I felt confident that I could do it.”

One of the most appealing features of DPSS, Hinds said, was the program’s structure. “As a parent who also works full time, I wanted something I wasn’t going to just ‘squeeze into’ my schedule—because that means it could just as easily get ‘squeezed out.’ The expectations and workload were clear, and I liked that there were homework assignments that someone was not only grading, but giving me feedback on.”

Although Hinds said there was a learning curve ("data analytics was all new to me”), support from the teaching assistants brought her up to speed. “When we began tackling the R coursework, attending TA office hours was invaluable. I went to at least two or three office hours with Ayusha Aryal, and she was incredibly helpful—unlocking things that are simple but, because you're new to R, you don't know, like, Oh, I shouldn't have put a parenthesis there…”

Hinds also praised Jose Macias’s webinars on preparing for the Capstone Project. “The webinars were super detailed: I would have been very lost had I not watched them.”

After completing DPSS, Hinds said she sees a world of difference in her work. “Through DPSS, I gained tools that I'm not sure how I would have gained otherwise. Since I'm not in a position to go back to school, DPSS was the best way for me to focus on a specific skill, learn it, and get to a place where I feel I can expand my learning. Now, I’m cleaning data and putting my datasets together to load and analyze in R: before DPSS, I would have been working exclusively in Excel.

Hinds added that the timing of DPSS could not have been better for her. “I'm planning on doing a series of reports, but this time with a larger quantitative data set covering more counties and cities—ones we don’t usually get to see data from. I’m looking forward to being able to use the skills I’ve gained to really paint the picture of what additional supports these young people need in order to succeed.”