Ashley Boal is a Senior Research Associate in WestEd’s Health & Justice Program. Her work spans diverse content areas and while at WestEd she has contributed to evaluations focused on college and career readiness, arts integration, teacher preparation, school reform, career and technical education, charter and magnet schools, and parent engagement.
Currently Boal oversees a quasi-experimental evaluation of California’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) initiative, which provides schools with services to ultimately increase the number of students from low-income families who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. In addition, Boal directs an evaluation of Mind Meets Music, a music-based early literacy intervention, and co-directs an evaluation of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Art Integration across the Curriculum program, which focuses on preparing teachers to use art to teach academic content within a network of charter schools in the Los Angeles area.
Across her projects, Boal brings expertise in mixed-methods evaluation and is skilled in weaving together varied types of data to describe the progress and impact of programs.
Prior to joining WestEd, Boal conducted research and evaluation in the areas of intimate partner violence, smoking cessation, and assessment psychometrics. Her work has been published in prominent academic journals including Psychological Assessment, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, American Journal of Community Psychology, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, and Violence and Victims.
Boal received a BA in psychology from the University of California, Irvine, and a MS and PhD in applied psychology from Portland State University.