Jessica Baghian

Jessica Baghian is the President of Watershed Advisors. Known for her work leading large, diverse state education teams to major achievements, Baghian’s expertise lies at the intersection of policy, politics, and implementation. In 2021, she co-founded Watershed Advisors to help states plan and implement transformative visions for every segment of education, from early childhood to K-12 education and the workforce. Her team has partnered with more than 15 states to take promising ideas from concept to the classroom.

Prior to co-founding Watershed Advisors, Baghian was the Assistant State Superintendent and Chief Academic Policy Officer for Louisiana’s Department of Education, an agency serving more than 700,000 children. In that role, Baghian developed systems that drove historic improvements for students, including record graduation rates, nationally recognized progress on the “nation’s report card,” and dramatic increases in higher-education participation and success. She also supported  the state’s major expansion of high-quality early childhood opportunities and captained the design and implementation of Louisiana’s statewide accountability and performance systems for districts, schools, early childhood providers, and educators. 

Baghian has written about early childhood systems for U.S. News and World Report and Hechinger Report, assessment and accountability measurement innovations for the Fordham Institute, and the pandemic recovery for Education Next. 

Baghian began her career as a middle school math teacher in a small town outside of New Orleans. She is a graduate of Louisiana State University and holds a law degree from Harvard University. Baghian lives in Baton Rouge, La., with her family. You can often find her trying to drive her three young sons around town while sneaking in an audiobook. She is proud to serve on the board of the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition.