Dr. Todd Foley, the inaugural Urban Futures Pathway Fellow, has just been named the recipient of the 2025 Spark Award—Adopt A Class’s highest honor—for his outstanding contributions to the organization’s mission. Over the course of his 12-month fellowship, Dr. Foley partnered with the Cincinnati-based nonprofit to unlock the power of 15+ years of program data, working shoulder to shoulder with the Adopt A Class (AAC) team to translate that information into strategic, actionable insights.

AAC, a long-time affiliate of Digital Futures, provides mentorship and career exposure to thousands of students from under-resourced schools across the region. But like many nonprofits, AAC faced challenges in leveraging its rich but underutilized trove of data to guide decisions and scale efforts. Dr. Foley’s expertise turned that challenge into an opportunity.

Through his research, AAC now has a clearer picture of its long-term impact and a robust case to present to state partners—including a pathway toward leveraging ResultsOHIO, a bipartisan initiative from the Ohio State Treasurer’s office that supports scalable, outcomes-based social programs.

“If this project works out as we believe it will,” Foley said early in his fellowship, “we can then think about how we can apply our approach and partnership model to other nonprofits—starting with the backbone organizations co-located in the Digital Futures building.”