Bill Hayward leads Slover Linett’s work for colleges and universities. He joined the firm in 2009 with twenty-three years of experience in higher education research as Director of Analytical Studies and head of the Office of Institutional Research at Northwestern University.

While at Northwestern, Bill designed and oversaw a wide range of student and alumni research projects to guide planning and decision-making across the administration. He also helped organize and manage several national consortia research projects, serving in a variety of leadership roles for the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE). For example, Bill led an AAUDE initiative to design, field, and analyze a national benchmarking survey of undergraduate alumni and graduating seniors.

An active member of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), Bill has presented at numerous conferences and symposia on the planning, coordination, and dissemination of student survey research. He recently presented research findings about the decision-making process of prospective MBA students at the GMAC conference and has been a guest lecturer in several higher education administration programs on assessment and institutional research.

Bill earned an M.S. in demography from the University of Wisconsin and holds a B.A. from Indiana University. His interest in survey research dates back to his undergraduate days, when he was involved in a major study of gentrification in Indianapolis and began learning the principles of questionnaire design, sampling methods, and data analysis “on the job.”

Bill lives on Chicago’s northwest side with his wife and three children.