Drew Barker

Arlington Public Schools | Arlington, MA

Drew Barker is an Ed.L.D. student at Harvard Graduate School of Education and is passionate about closing a significant data-management gap in the education sector. This summer, he will work with Arlington Public Schools to tailor industry best practices in data management for school districts' use of financial data. Partnering with classmate Victor Lee, he will contribute a co-constructed, prescriptive model for modern financial data management that can support school districts nationwide.

Drew, a retired Navy pilot, steered naval aviation through a digital transformation centered on cutting-edge data management practices. His team revolutionized how naval aviation leverages data by transforming outdated, fragmented analysis methods into a centralized, automated, and cloud-based system. By transforming data into intuitive visualizations, they empowered senior leaders to identify and drive improvement processes, saving the Navy hundreds of millions of dollars while increasing aircraft readiness and improving training effectiveness.

Earlier in his career, Drew managed space systems design and development, advised the Secretary of the Navy on catalyzing innovation, and served as the curriculum lead and a lead instructor pilot for the Navy’s nuclear command and control aircraft. He holds a Master’s in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT and a Bachelor's in Physics from the U.S. Naval Academy. After accumulating over 20 years of public service in the U.S. Navy, he is driven to continue serving as a transformative leader in the education sector.