Sofia Malik

Dr. Sofia Malik is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin, where she serves as co-coordinator of the Education Policy and Planning program. She teaches core courses in the Educational Leadership and Policy Department and specializes in preparing current and future school administrators, leaders, and policy makers to lead with evidence-based approaches.

With over 20 years of professional experience spanning classroom teaching, district leadership, and government policy development, Dr. Malik brings real-world expertise directly into the classroom. Beginning as a public-school teacher, she progressed to Chief Research Officer at one of North America's largest and most diverse school districts, the Peel District School Board (155,000 students), where she managed the Research and Accountability Department and provided strategic support to school board leaders on district-wide evaluation and accountability initiatives.

Her policy expertise was honed through senior roles at the Ontario Ministry of Education, including Senior Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator, where she contributed to policies affecting 5,000 schools and managed a $35 million well-being in education initiative. She coordinated the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research, an $8 million multi-year research-to-practice partnership that exemplifies her commitment to ensuring academic research informs educational decision-making. Her academic roles include serving as an adjunct professor at Queen's University, and a faculty member at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where she completed her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy and co-founded a policy internship program for graduate students.

Dr. Malik maintained active connections to the field through her role as Researcher-in-Residence with the Ontario Education Services Corporation, working with superintendents and school administrators across over a dozen school districts on demographic data collection and strategic application of findings to school improvement initiatives. In Texas, she partners with local researchers and the evaluation community, bringing her students to professional events and hosting evaluation capacity-building workshops that connect UT's academic community with practicing educators. Her UT graduates have gone on to faculty positions, policy roles, and school leadership positions, applying evidence-based leadership approaches in their districts and organizations.

Dr. Malik's research focuses on program evaluation, knowledge mobilization, and evidence-informed decision making. She serves as Program Chair for the Research Use Special Interest Group within the American Educational Research Association and Plenum Representative for the University Council for Educational Administration. She is a recipient of the University of Toronto's Arbor Award, the institution's highest honor for service to the university community, and recipient of an International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) Early Career Fellowship.

Her work bridges academic rigor with practical application, regularly engaging both scholarly and practitioner audiences through publications, keynote addresses, and presentations at national and international forums, ensuring evaluation findings translate into actionable insights for educational leaders.