Heather Mattson is a Senior Research Associate with the Quality Schools and Districts team at WestEd. She provides technical assistance to increase the capacity of state and local education agencies to support equitable and positive outcomes for all learners.
Much of Mattson’s portfolio is within the Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC), a federally funded technical assistance center charged with building the capacity of the state education agencies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.
As Deputy Director of the R15CC, she provides strategic and conceptual leadership on the center’s research and technical assistance projects that amplify state capacity to use effective and evidence-based practices and improve outcomes. Mattson’s specific content areas of focus include continuous improvement processes, equitable access to highly effective teachers and leaders, professional learning systems, supporting the lowest-performing schools and districts, and college and career readiness.
Previously, Mattson was a middle school humanities teacher and a teacher on special assignment focused on meeting the needs of underserved students. She also served in and worked at an AmeriCorps program. Mattson holds an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.