Alexander Mayer

Alexander Mayer is the deputy director of the postsecondary education policy area at MDRC and a co-principal investigator of CAPR. He directs research studies; develops new projects; and conducts outreach to policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders. Mayer is the principal investigator for Text Ed, a project to develop, implement, and test a text messaging intervention for clients of Educational Opportunity Centers across the country. He is also the project director of a study of Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success, an initiative to better integrate data and technology in student advising. Mayer was previously the project director of the evaluation of the Achieving the Dream initiative and has been a lead researcher on the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration, Aid Like A Paycheck, and the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency project, among others.

Prior to joining MDRC, Mayer cofounded and led a small nonprofit organization for public schools in San Francisco and worked as a software engineer and consultant. He holds a BS with double majors in physics and mathematics from the College of William and Mary and a PhD in political science from the University of California, Davis.