Lena Balata

Lena Balata is a Researcher at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, working on a variety of research projects relating to access, transferable skills, work-integrated learning, access and equity. With more than ten years of experience in Ontario’s higher education system, she has worked on grant and project management, policy development and analysis, and written and contributed to several HEQCO publications. She has a strong understanding of postsecondary research, program evaluation and knowledge mobilization and is passionate about supporting equity of access and success in postsecondary education for underrepresented groups. She holds a MA in higher education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto where she studied Canadian and Mexican Indigenous educational policies aimed at improving access to and success in postsecondary education for Indigenous groups.

Specialization: Supporting equity-deserving groups through evidence-based research.