Have you noticed that EdTEch mission statements are starting to sound alike? When you consider that critical improvements in higher education are generally agreed upon, it can feel like we’re living in an echo chamber. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.
DegreeData works behind the scenes to support our partners’ unique solutions. While their technical approaches vary, one thing remains constant—effective solutions rely on data. Big data. Structured data. Reliable, secure, authoritative data from trusted sources.
Higher education doesn’t need another grand mission statement—as long as learners need lower costs, generous guidance and clear pathways our purpose is clear.
Our mission is to support your mission. Because we all know what’s important now.
DegreeData was founded by Anne Valentine while she was building her first start-up in higher education technology.
As an EdTech entrepreneur, Anne recognized the need for an independent archive of academic information as represented in college catalogs. She made it her mission to build a library of those publications and make them available for researchers, transcript evaluators and students.
That goal, plus a healthy dose of persistence and advanced technology has resulted in the only independently available source of policies, programs and courses in the US.
Our team of brilliant researchers come from backgrounds in US higher education, including registration, enrollment and veterans' services. They dig deep to find publications, policies and curriculum information that AI alone can't discover.
Employing AI and machine learning for a business does not exist in a vacuum. Our team of developers continually innovates to find the most accurate and automated approaches to deliver data products at scale, and at cost.
Since our founding we've relied on our advisors and network to guide us. Let’s call out a few here:
Jason Elwood, Elwoodway Consulting
Alex Jackle, Bardic Systems
From leadership to mining, DegreeData is a team of people who are experienced in helping students acheive their goals.
Founder
Anne Valentine is the founder and CEO of DegreeData. Her 25 years of experience in higher education spans working at a university publications office to founding SmartCatalog, the first online curriculum management solution for colleges and universities.
DegreeData is the result of her vision to build a national database of academic information from college catalogs. That mission, plus a healthy dose of persistence, has resulted in the only independently available source of policies, programs and courses in the US. Software developers use it to build transfer and pathways solutions and by subscribers and learners access it for research. Anne’s long-term vision is to transform the way educational experience is demonstrated on resumes, social media and in applicant tracking software.
Lead Data Acquisition
Beth has been leading the team for acquiring academic content since 2018. Prior to DegreeData, Beth was an HR professional, working for 20 years in the field. Her experience in hiring and training provides a valuable insight for exposing learning experience in the form of program artifacts from DegreeData.
Ifrah comes to DegreeData from the Registrar’s Office at Georgetown University where she serves as the Associate Registrar. Ifrah’s background in registration and transfer evaluation provides real-world experience to Anne and the team. When she’s not acquiring new data, she works on custom projects for DegreeData customers such as researching on testing for ETS or veteran’s credits for ACE.
Alex is DegreeData’s data design and growth consultant. As a technology strategist, futurist, and data scientist he is uniquely qualified to guide our growth. Alex is the chair of the A4L North American Technical Advisory Committee, a Board Member of PESC, Chair of Data Standards United, and Chair of the T3 Innovation Network’s Technology and Data Standards Network.
Data Acquisition
Lynne's background is at the junction of education and the armed services through her work at the Service Members Opportunity Colleges. It was there that she helped military personnel transfer experience to educational credits. Lynn is one of our most experienced specialists in acquiring catalog and program data and she also assists on special projects.
Dave has as much experience in higher ed as you could ask for. He was a senior staffer in the registrar’s office at UT Austin for 21 years. Following UT Austin, he served as the Registrar at Southwestern University for 12 years. He has more credentials than we can even count, and now he’s our newest data acquisition specialist. Welcome to the team Dave.
Sam is a recent college graduate and a pro at quickly and efficiently finding information about college programs and courses. She acquires academic catalogs and is responsible for tagging academic affinities such as HACU and HBCUs in the database. Sam has the unique ability to find anything about a college or program whether it's a policy buried 3 pages down on a website or a catalog that's 15 years old.