Ayesha Boyce is an associate professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University. Her research career began with her earning a B.S. in psychology from Arizona State University, an M.A. in research psychology from California State University, Long Beach, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology with a program evaluation specialization from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she was a research associate for the Arizona Department of Education within the Accountability Division. After earning her Ph.D., she completed a one-year postdoctoral scholar position with the UIUC Illinois STEM Education Initiative. Boyce then joined the University of North Carolina, Greensboro's Department of Educational Research Methodology from 2015-2021 as an assistant professor.
She also co-directs the STEM Program Evaluation Lab. Boyce’s scholarship focuses on attending to value stances and issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, access, cultural responsiveness, and social justice within evaluation—especially multi-site, STEM, and contexts with historically and systematically marginalized populations. She also examines teaching, mentoring, and learning in evaluation. She has evaluated more than 60 programs funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, and Spencer and Teagle foundations. She is currently the external evaluator for six NSF-funded projects and has been a Co-Principal Investigator on four NSF-funded projects. Boyce is a 2019 American Evaluation Association Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award recipient and a 2019 UNC Greensboro School of Education Distinguished Research Scholar Award recipient. In her teaching and mentorship, Boyce encourages students to develop a strong methodological foundation, conduct studies based on democratic principles, and promote equity, fairness, inclusivity, and diversity.