Sam Rauschenberg

What brings me to this work?

In today’s world, a postsecondary degree is a key to opportunity, but too many students from low-income backgrounds fall short of earning a degree, often due to barriers outside the classroom. I’m grateful to serve in an organization that’s committed to removing those barriers and supporting students’ path to upward mobility.

As Vice President, Growth & Impact, Sam leads the expansion of the Achieve Atlanta Scholarship within Metro Atlanta. In addition, he oversees the organization’s research and evaluation efforts to measure the impact of its core model and the expansion, ensuring those learnings strengthen how Achieve Atlanta serves students and inform the broader college access and success field. As part of his role, he serves as an affiliated fellow with Georgia Policy Labs at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in a research-practice partnership to evaluate and strengthen Achieve Atlanta’s impact. Previously, Sam led the organization’s data strategy, systems/operations, and marketing/communications functions, partnering with program teams to execute strategy and enable the organization to accomplish its mission.

Prior to Achieve Atlanta, he served as Deputy Director for Research, Policy, and Accountability with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, where he oversaw the agency’s data and research agenda to inform state-level education policy decisions and provide accessible education data to stakeholders. A Georgia native, Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgia College and a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He started his career as a high school math teacher in the Louisiana Recovery School District through the teachNOLA Fellows Program.