Bill Hayward leads Slover Linett’s work for colleges and universities. A veteran research and assessment professional in higher education, Bill is responsible for developing institution-specific, consortium, and association studies that create new knowledge about the full lifecycle of education constituents, from prospects and admits to current students, alumni, and donors. He oversees a broad portfolio of quantitative and qualitative research projects, including branding and social media studies, student life and student services evaluations, alumni engagement research, and (in collaboration with Slover Linett research fellow Rachelle L. Brooks, PhD) student outcomes assessment.
Bill joined the firm in 2009 with more than twenty years of experience in higher education research and assessment, including more than a decade 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 surveys to guide planning and decision-making across the administration. He also helped organize and manage several national consortium research projects, serving in leadership roles for the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) and its national benchmarking survey of undergraduate alumni and graduating seniors.
An active member of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Bill presents regularly at conferences on the planning, interpretation, and use of research in higher ed. He has guest lectured 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, and data analysis “in the field.”
Bill lives on Chicago’s northwest side with his wife and three children (two of whom are in college, giving Bill a personal stake in the future of higher education).
