Mary Rauner, Ph.D.

Mary Rauner’s portfolio of work focuses on improving postsecondary access, persistence, and completion for historically marginalized populations, with an emphasis on cross-sector collaboration. As the Director for the College Promise Project at WestEd, Mary studies, evaluates, and coaches College Promise and scholarship programs. Her commitment to equitable strategies and practices led her to convene a cross-agency team to develop WestEd’s Anti-Racist Evaluation Strategies Guide and a related webinar series for WestEd staff to learn how colleagues are using the Guide in their work. Mary has more than 25 years of research, evaluation, strategic planning, and teaching/coaching experience in a wide range of organizational settings, including local and federal government and the nonprofit, academic, and private sectors. She holds an MA in Sociology, and MA in International Educational Development, and a PhD in Education from Stanford University.