Hello! My name is Courtney Lee and I’m interested in crafting stories with and from data. I enjoy drawing from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives to show impacts for broad audiences. My most frequently used methods are statistical data analysis (descriptive and regressions) and historical research for context, which I then carefully weave together to form a narrative.
Most days of the week, I am a research associate at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Higher Education Center. I study the topics of affordability, access, and completion to and through higher education very closely. Some of my published work includes bits on California’s financial aid, state level strategies to reduce student debt, and non-tuition fees.
Prior to becoming a policy researcher, I worked in evaluation and operations at ScholarMatch, a college access nonprofit based in San Francisco, dabbled in computer vision at an applied mathematics summer program, and interned at the Los Angeles Times’ Data Desk. I hold a BS in mathematics with a minor in statistics from UCLA.