Dr. Gabriel
Mast

Gabriel Mast, Ph.D., has more than two decades of experience leading efforts to strengthen student access, success, and institutional performance through evidence-based strategy. As vice president for research and network innovation at Achieving the Dream, Dr. Mast leads the development and use of evidence across the organization. This includes building a clear understanding of the institutional practices that drive change, integrating applied research with insights from the field, and strengthening systems to collect, analyze, and use data across ATD’s work. 

A teacher, researcher, and leader, Dr. Mast has extensive expertise in organizational change management, strategic planning, guided pathways, enrollment strategy, developmental education redesign, instructional design, and institution-wide program review.  

He began his career teaching English at the Universidad del Quindío in Armenia, Colombia. A recognized leader in community college institutional effectiveness, he has served as a peer evaluator for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, a peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation, and a lead administrator and co-principal investigator on multiple student success grants. His dissertation on organizational factors influencing student success across Washington’s community and technical college system received the Washington Education Research Association Outstanding Dissertation of the Year award and he is a 2025–2026 Aspen Institute Rising Presidents Fellow.