Evidence Use Spotlight: Marshall Ogier

"Speed matters when policy windows open."

What is your job title? Economic Development & Workforce Systems Manager

What is the organization you work for? Seeding Success (Memphis, TN)

Tell us about a policy or practice that was informed by research.
Using Raj Chetty's Opportunity Atlas as our primary evidence base, Seeding Success and partners are finalizing the South Memphis implementation plan - a coordinated set of early childhood, K-12 community-school, and workforce strategies targeted to the three lowest mobility census tracts in ZIP codes 38126, 38106, and parts of 38109/38114. The Atlas maps helped to focus investment where predicted lifetime earnings gaps are largest. Implementation will launch this fall.

What types of structures do you have in place when you work with researchers?
We don't maintain standing contracts or RPPs with researchers. Instead...

An internal policy team scans publicly available studies and tools (e.g., Opportunity Atlas, Urban Institute briefs) during planning cycles.

When a technical question arises, we set up one-off office hours calls or email exchanges with the relevant research teams.

Draft strategies go through a rapid evidence check before partners commit to implementation.

This flexible model lets us leverage high quality research without formal, ongoing researcher engagements.

What resources are valuable to you and your work?

• Public dashboards and working papers from Opportunity Insights
• AEFP, APPAM, and Brookings Policy Briefs
• State and local administrative datasets integrated by our data team
• Occasional direct outreach to authors for clarifications or unpublished tables

From your perspective, what do you wish we knew more about as a field?
We need stronger methods and practical guidance for estimating the impact of stacked interventions. When neighborhoods receive simultaneous boosts in early-childhood seats, literacy supports, and workforce pathways, it's hard to disentangle which component (or combination) drives mobility gains. Clearer quasi-experimental or simulation frameworks that parse the marginal and joint effects of layered investments would help local coalitions sequence resources and scale what works fastest.

What advice do you have for researchers who want their work to benefit educational agencies?

• Publish a concise, practioner-friendly brief and map with every technical paper
• Offer short, on-demand consults rather than mutli-year MOUs - speed matters when policy windows open
• Co-design indicators that double as day-to-day management metrics, not just summative evaluation points