I’m Martha Horler, founder of The Data Goddess.
I spent over twenty years working in higher education data, and for most of that time I watched the same problems play out over and over again. Institutions that are genuinely brilliant at research, at teaching, at changing students’ lives – but chronically bad at the organisational and data fundamentals that would make all of that work so much better.
Simple things, done badly. Repeatedly. Expensively.
At some point I stopped being frustrated and started thinking about what I could actually do about it. The Data Goddess is the answer to that question.
I work with higher and further education providers on data strategy, data fluency, HESA returns, and the cultural and organisational changes that make data actually useful. I’m particularly interested in smaller and specialist providers who don’t have large data teams but still carry all the same obligations and pressures as the big institutions.
I care about practical change over theoretical frameworks. Small improvements, implemented properly, make a bigger difference than grand strategies that never get off the ground. When organisations stop fighting their systems, a lot becomes possible.
I’m a Fellow of AHEP, a regular contributor to WonkHE and SROC, and I present regularly at sector events on data, AI literacy, and data fluency. I’m also currently studying for an MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice, which is doing interesting things to how I think about all of the above.
If any of this sounds familiar, I’d love to have a conversation.
