Career
Boughen is a former educator and consultant and an active member in his home community of Moose Jaw. He served two terms as mayor of the city from 1994 to 2000, and was elected trustee to the Prairie South School Division Board of Education in 2005. He is known for leading the Boughen Commission: Financing Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education, for the Province of Saskatchewan.
In 1993, he opened a consulting firm, Educational Consulting and Counselling Services.
He has also sat as co-chair of the Moose Jaw Multiplex Builders Incorporated. and chair of the Zion United Church Council. He has served as Vice-President for Cities for the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, as chair of the 1996 Saskatchewan Summer Games, and as Saskatchewan chair of the Canadian Forces Liaison Council.
He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota, a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Master of Science degree from the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University), majoring in counselling psychology and educational administration.