{"id":2698,"date":"2023-09-29T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coenet.org\/?post_type=people&#038;p=2698"},"modified":"2025-07-15T14:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T18:56:33","slug":"margret-cahalan","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/coenet.org\/people\/margret-cahalan\/","title":{"rendered":"Margret Cahalan"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<section class=\"page-banner-bio alignfull coe-block\">\r\n\t<div class=\"container page-banner-bio__inner\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"row\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"page-banner-bio__content column-2 wow animate fade-in-stagger\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"breadcrumbs kicker\"><\/div><!-- .breadcrumbs -->\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"person__title page-banner-bio__title\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\tMargaret Cahalan\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"person__position\">Senior Research Fellow<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"person__departments\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Department: <\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPell Institute Staff\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"page-banner-bio__media wow column-2\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"page-banner-bio__image to-square bg-img\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t style=\"background-image: url(' https:\/\/coenet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/No-Headshot-Available-1-500x500.png ')\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t<div class=\"patterns-bg color-theme__bg patterns-hash-short\"><\/div>\r\n\t<div class=\"patterns-bg color-theme__bg patterns-herring-tall\"><\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n<p>Margaret Cahalan is the Interim Director of the Pell Institute, part of the Council for Opportunity in Education. She joined COE in 2011 after leading the Secondary-Postsecondary Cross-Cutting (SPCC) Team at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and co-leading an i-3 grant titled &#8220;Using Data to Inform College Access Programming&#8221; awarded to COE. Prior to her role at ED, she spent over 20 years as a statistical research contractor at organizations like Westat, Mathematica, and RTI. In that capacity, she directed major surveys and TRIO national evaluations, playing a crucial role in the redesign of annual performance reports (APRs) for various programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Maggie is the Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded iStronG project, which empowers Upward Bound Students with a science curriculum focused on green STEM careers and climate change solutions using systems dynamics modeling tools. She is also the lead author of the Pell Institute and PennAHEAD publication series, &#8220;Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States Historical Trend Reports,&#8221; which tracks progress in higher education equity. Maggie is dedicated to reducing educational inequality, promoting inclusive talent development, and addressing climate change through place-based education and action research. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n<section id=\"block-3d1195cd53bcd4876b91b359af4775e2\" class=\"cta-three-up cta-three-up alignfull coe-block bgcolor-white\">\r\n\t<div class=\"cta-three-up-inner container\">\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"cta-three-up__card wow animate fade-in-stagger\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"card-title\">Contact Maggie<\/h2>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-desc\"><p>You reach Maggie by phone at (202) 347-7430, ext.207<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"mailto:margaret.cahalan@pellinstitute.org\" class=\"card-link acf-link link--inline\">EMAIL ADDRESS<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Margaret Cahalan is the Interim Director of the Pell Institute, part of the Council for Opportunity in Education. She joined COE in 2011 after leading the Secondary-Postsecondary Cross-Cutting (SPCC) Team at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and co-leading an i-3 grant titled &#8220;Using Data to Inform College Access Programming&#8221; awarded to COE. Prior to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1847,"template":"","trio_programs":[],"audience":[168],"focus_areas":[],"departments":[38],"class_list":["post-2698","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","audience-research","departments-pell-institute-staff"],"acf":[],"cp_meta_data":{"_edit_lock":["1752605793:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"first_name":["Margaret"],"_first_name":["field_6250339f7515a"],"last_name":["Cahalan"],"_last_name":["field_625033ab7515b"],"position":["Senior Research Fellow"],"_position":["field_625033b07515c"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_audience":["168"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_departments":["38"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["2"],"_yoast_wpseo_wordproof_timestamp":[""],"_thumbnail_id":["1847"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_trio_programs":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_focus_areas":[""],"om_disable_all_campaigns":[""]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Margret Cahalan - Council for Opportunity in Education<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coenet.org\/people\/margret-cahalan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Margret Cahalan - Council for Opportunity in Education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Margaret Cahalan is the Interim Director of the Pell Institute, part of the Council for Opportunity in Education. She joined COE in 2011 after leading the Secondary-Postsecondary Cross-Cutting (SPCC) Team at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and co-leading an i-3 grant titled &#8220;Using Data to Inform College Access Programming&#8221; awarded to COE. 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