Hillary Hardt Oravec
National Comprehensive Center at Westat
United States

Hillary Oravec is a Summer and Afterschool Project Lead for the National Comprehensive Center, contributing to the National Center's leadership of Communities of Practice and Engage Every Student partnership with the United States Department of Education and five national partner organizations. Hillary is also the President and Managing Partner of The Learning Agenda, providing leadership and oversight of learning community design and faciliation, technical assistance, and evaluation strategies for state departments of education, national and regional foundations, national organizations, and school districts. She served on the project team for The Wallace Foundation's National Summer Learning Project, managing district sustainability planning and the development of the Summer Learning Toolkit. She has also led strategic planning projects for the Birmingham Summer Adventures in Learning (SAIL), Central Texas Summer STEM Investment Hub funding collaboratives, and Newark Thrives! - setting the vision and goals for their governance, program and assessment strategy, and strategic growth.

Hillary previously directed the National Summer Learning Association’s strategic initiatives, research and evaluation, and community system-building initiative portfolios. During her tenure, she led high school program design-focused projects for the MacArthur Foundation, and with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the transition between middle school and high school to improve graduation rates. Earlier in her career, Hillary managed school accreditation and institutional research projects for Johns Hopkins University, and school, community, and university partnerships and initiatives for the P-12 Project at The Ohio State University.

Hillary received a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology from Kent State University and participated in international study programs in Yunnan Province, China, and the University of Leicester in England.

Brenda McLaughlin
National Comprehensive Center at Westat