Sakshee Chawla joined the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) as a Senior Policy Analyst in 2023, overseeing key projects and initiatives under academic affairs and student success. She has worked across a broad portfolio, including CUNY ASAP replication, direct admissions, student mental health and wellness, and digital credentials. Sakshee collaborates with state higher education leaders to replicate and expand the City University of New York’s nationally acclaimed Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) model across five states to boost college completion. Through the Pursuing Alignment for Student Success Across Higher Education Institutions & State Agencies (PASS) project, she brings an institutional and state policy lens to build a networked approach to advancing student success across states, systems, and institutions. Recognizing the inextricable link between student wellness and academic achievement, Sakshee champions comprehensive mental health policies that support student well-being through statewide and systemwide strategies. Her current work on holistic advising, work-based learning, higher education in prison programs, and basic needs advances SHEEO’s mission to elevate the value of higher education.

 

Before SHEEO, Sakshee served as a Research Analyst and Project Manager for the Workforce of the Future initiative at the Brookings Institution, where she analyzed demographic shifts in labor unions and examined how union membership relates to worker well-being and productivity. For her graduate capstone, she partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to assess the impact of test-optional admissions on college access for underserved students. Her insights on community colleges as engines of economic growth were published in America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity. Before graduate school, Sakshee worked at EAB, researching developmental education, mental health among faculty and staff, social-emotional learning, and strategies to address student learning loss.

 

Sakshee holds a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in economics and psychology from Smith College.