Colleen Narlock

• MPP, Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
• BS, Human Biology and Society, University of California, Los Angeles
  

Colleen leads a team supporting Indiana’s Department of Education and Commission for Higher Education in building a competency-based education system aimed at expanding access to diverse postsecondary pathways. A cornerstone of this work involves updating the State’s graduation requirements, set to go into effect in 2028. Colleen's team is driving the necessary cross-agency planning, implementation, and policy efforts to ensure a successful transition and long-term impact. 

Colleen also has significant experience supporting large-scale, philanthrop-funded programs, including the design and launch of the Community Funding Accelerator, which aims to uplift community organizations, education agencies, researchers, and coalitions to unlock the transformative power of federal funding, and a major sustainability initiative in which she worked alongside four U.S cities to implement policies and programs to support achieving their ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. 

She also worked with U.S. cities on their COVID-19 response and recovery plans by helping them access new data sources to improve data analysis and visualizations, and by working with public health experts to develop a vaccination toolkit for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Prior to joining DA, Colleen worked with U.S. local and state governments on equitable emergency management and response policies. She partnered with the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) to publish a report on how to scale community-based flood early warning systems in the Himalayas. This work was anchored in findings from community-based interviews with residents in Nepal, Pakistan, and India to better understand the most consequential barriers to early flood warnings in the region.