Alex Usher, M.A., CanEd Project Senior Scholar and HESA President

Mr. Usher is the President of HESA, Canadian Education Project’s parent company, and the founding president of the Higher Education Strategy Associates. Mr. Usher has extensive experience in research and policy analysis, research and evaluation design, and data collection and analysis to this project. He has managed and coordinated national research programs at both EPI (Canada), where he was the Director of the Canadian Office (2004-09), and the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation, where he served as their Director of Research and Program Development (2000-03). Currently, Mr. Usher is a member of Statistics Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Education Statistics.

Throughout his career, Mr. Usher’s involvements have focused on the context and policy environment of postsecondary education. He was the first national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, served as a researcher and lobbyist for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, worked as a consultant for the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, and was instrumental in the complex intergovernmental negotiations at the birth of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He is the author of the groundbreaking “The Price of Knowledge 2004: Access and Student Finance in Canada” (with Sean Junor), a comprehensive fact book on the key issues surrounding student access to postsecondary studies and financial aid. He is also the author or co-author of a dozen articles and monographs, which are listed in his résumé in Appendix C. Mr. Usher earned a bachelor’s degree in history from McGill University (Montreal, QC) and a master’s degree in political science from Carleton University (Ottawa, ON).