Our goal was to bring together people working across different contexts for change to inform federal policy proposals supporting a reimagined higher education ecosystem. We are finalizing an additional set of student advisors who will join this group—we are excited announce to announce them in the coming days.

Participation in this group does not necessarily constitute endorsement of any the principles, policy proposals, or other ideas shared under the auspices of Higher Ed Reimagined.

Chike Aguh

Head of Innovation & Strategy, Kapor Center

Chike Aguh works to ensure America equips its people for the industries of the future and sees that those industries benefit every American as the inaugural Head of Innovation & Strategy at the Kapor Center. Previously, he was appointed by President Biden as Chief Innovation Officer at the U.S. Department of Labor, leading efforts to use emerging technologies to benefit American workers and a $2 billion modernization of the unemployment insurance system. Aguh also serves as Vice Chair of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, appointed by Gov. Wes Moore.

Beth Akers

Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Beth Akers is an economist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where her research focuses on higher education finance, student lending, and the economic value of postsecondary education. She previously served as a staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and held research positions at the Brookings Institution and the Manhattan Institute. She is the author of Making College Pay and Game of Loans and is a frequent commentator on higher education and economic policy.

Viviann Anguiano

Managing Director, Education Policy, Center for American Progress

Viviann Anguiano is an experienced education policy strategist who previously served as director of education at the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Biden-Harris administration. Previously, she held senior roles on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee under Senators Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray and began her career in higher education in Chicago, including as a college adviser and a founder of Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago. A proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and first-generation college graduate, Viviann earned a B.A. in sociology from Loyola University Chicago and a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Bridget Burns

CEO, University Innovation Alliance

Dr. Bridget Burns is the founding CEO of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), a national coalition of 19 public research universities that serves as a national laboratory for innovation in higher education, testing, scaling, and openly sharing solutions to improve student outcomes and post-college mobility. She brings more than two decades of experience in institutional transformation, systems change, and higher education policy, with particular expertise in moving promising ideas into sustained implementation across complex institutions, state and conference lines, and a network serving more than half a million students. A recipient of the prestigious Clark Kerr Award, Burns has advised state and national leaders on innovation and student success and testified before Congress on artificial intelligence in higher education.

Michael Collins

Vice President of Education, Jobs for the Future

Michael Collins is an education and workforce leader focused on national systems of learning and work. As Vice President of Education at Jobs for the Future (JFF), he leads efforts to strengthen the systems that help people build skills, navigate career transitions, and connect learning to economic opportunity. A Forbes contributor, Collins writes about careers and the future of work, translating systems-level insights into practical guidance for navigating a changing economy.

Martha Coven

Founder, Coven Consulting and the Fresh Ideas Project

Martha Coven is the founder of Coven Consulting, where she provides strategic advising, training, and research services to nonprofits and philanthropies. She is also the creator of the Fresh Ideas Project, teaches courses in public policy, and is the author of Writing on the Job: Best Practices for Communicating in the Digital Age (Princeton University Press). She previously served under President Obama at the Domestic Policy Council and Office of Management and Budget, on the U.S. House leadership staff, and as a nonprofit advocate at Consumers Union and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Michelle Dimino

Director of Education, Third Way

Michelle Dimino is the director of the education program at Third Way, where she leads federal K-12 and higher education policy strategy and development. Her work centers on driving pragmatic solutions that improve student outcomes, strengthen accountability, and promote quality and transparency across the US education system. Prior to joining Third Way, she held communications and public affairs roles supporting universities and advocating for international education and exchange programs.

Alex Edgar

Losey Visiting Voice, SHRM Foundation

Alex Edgar grew up watching institutions make decisions about young people’s futures without young people’s leadership at the table. Now, as a Gen Z social entrepreneur, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and cofounder of Youth250, he’s changing that by designing the governance systems, civic programs, and philanthropic strategies that give the next generation genuine power to shape the country they’re inheriting.

Joe Garcia

Retired higher education administrator, State of Colorado

Joe Garcia, a graduate of Colorado University and Harvard Law School, recently retired after a 40 year career in higher education as a community college and university president and system chancellor. He also served as Exec. Director of Colorado’s Department of Higher Education and as the state’s Lt. Governor. Throughout his career he advocated for increasing equity, access, and completion for historically underrepresented students.

Andrew Gillen

Research Fellow, Cato Institute

Andrew Gillen is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. His research focuses on the economics of higher education, with an emphasis on federal and state policies related to financial aid, regulation, accreditation, financing, transparency, and accountability. Prior to joining Cato, he spent close to two decades at nonprofit and philanthropic organizations researching and trying to improve higher education.

Dan Greenstein

Chief of Industry Transformation, Ellucian

Daniel Greenstein, Ph.D., is Chief of Industry Transformation at Ellucian, where he leads higher education system strategy and works with university and college leadership, state systems, policymakers, and institutional networks to accelerate transformation. He most recently served as Chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, leading a redesign across 10 universities that improved access, affordability, and student outcomes; earlier he led the Postsecondary Success program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served as Vice Provost at the University of California Office of the President. His work centers on strategies that drive institutional sustainability, innovation, and student success.

Aurora Harris

Vice President, State Strategy and Partnerships, Young Invincibles

Aurora Harris is a community organizer and policy advocacy strategist whose work centers on building power with young adults through storytelling, cultural organizing, and leadership development. She serves as Vice President of State Strategy and Partnerships at Young Invincibles, where she leads strategy across the organization’s five regions and works to strengthen young adult organizing and advocacy nationwide.

Angela Jackson

Founder, Future Forward Institute

Dr. Angela Jackson is the Founder of Future Forward Institute, a lecturer and researcher at Harvard University, and a recognized authority on the future of work. She is the bestselling author of The Win-Win Workplace, a New York Times, USA Today, and Los Angeles Times bestseller, and helps leaders build high-performing workplaces that increase employee engagement, productivity, and sustainable growth. She advises organizations across sectors on the future of work, workforce innovation, and human-centered leadership.

Su Jin Jez

CEO, California Competes

As CEO of California Competes, Dr. Su Jin Jez leads the organization’s work to develop nonpartisan, evidence-based, and financially pragmatic policies that strengthen California’s higher education and workforce systems. An accomplished researcher and nationally recognized thought leader, she provides research and strategic guidance to higher education and government leaders on economic and workforce development, college success, and institutional effectiveness, with her work shaping conversations on higher education transformation across the United States and internationally. Before joining California Competes, Dr. Jez spent more than a decade as a professor of Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento, and held several leadership roles in higher education.

Walter Kimbrough

Executive Vice President, UNCF

A native of Atlanta, Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough earned degrees from the University of Georgia, Miami University in Ohio, and Georgia State University. He enjoyed a fulfilling career in student affairs, and age 37, he began a seven-and-a-half-year tenure as president of Philander Smith College, followed by ten years as president of Dillard University, and a year as the interim president of Talladega College. Kimbrough currently serves as the Executive Vice President for Research and Member Engagement at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

Doug Lederman

Lederman Advisory Services

Doug Lederman is a journalist, higher education analyst and principal of Lederman Advisory Services. He was editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed from 2004 through 2024, where he now writes the “Tough Love” column. He worked as a reporter and editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1986 to 2003, and began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times.

Kent McGuire

Chair of the Board, Philanthropic Collaborative for Education

Dr. Kent McGuire has served in many capacities spanning roles across philanthropy, policy, and public scholarship over the course of his career. He most recently served as Director of the Education Program for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and has previously served as President of the Southern Education Foundation, Dean of the College of Education at Temple University, and Assistant Secretary of Educational Research and Improvement at the US Department of Education during the Clinton administration. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) and the National Academy of Education (NAEd) and serves on several boards, including the boards of the Learning Policy Institute, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, the Philanthropic Collaborative for Education, and the Wallace Foundation.

Ajita Talwalker Menon

President and CEO, Calbright College

Ajita Talwalker Menon is President and CEO of Calbright College, California’s statewide online public college reimagining higher education for working adults. She focuses on building flexible, affordable, skills-based learning and support models to meet the needs of today’s learners for tomorrow’s economy. Her experience spans leading higher education policy as Special Assistant to the President for Higher Education Policy in the Obama White House and holding senior roles at the U.S. Department of Education and House of Representatives, as well as advising government agencies, higher ed systems, and philanthropies on postsecondary policy and innovation to drive stronger learner outcomes.

Jen Mishory

President, TICAS

Jen Mishory is the President of The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS). Jen previously served as the Deputy Under Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education and in the White House as First Lady Jill Biden’s Senior Advisor on workforce and education, leading efforts to improve career and technical education, community college and other workforce programs, financial aid, and public benefits access for students.

Ted Mitchell

President, American Council on Education

Ted Mitchell has served as president of the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, since September 2017. He came to ACE from the U.S. Department of Education, where he served as under secretary of education, with responsibility for federal postsecondary policy, student aid, and adult and career education. His earlier career includes the presidency of Occidental College, leadership roles at UCLA and Dartmouth, and service as CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California State Board of Education.

Melanie Muenzer

Melanie is currently the President of Empowered Higher Education Consulting that works with higher education institutions, state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and advocacy groups improve student outcomes and organizational effectiveness. She previously served for more than a decade at the U.S. Department of Education in senior higher education roles under both the Obama and Biden Administrations. Melanie has served as a Vice Provost and Associate Vice President at the University of Oregon and was on the Board of Education for Lane Community College.

Yolanda Watson Spiva

President, Complete College America

Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva has spent three decades across nearly every corner of higher education — federal policy, academic administration, and national nonprofit leadership — before becoming President of Complete College America in 2018. Under her leadership, CCA became one of six national partners in the Gates Foundation’s Intermediaries for Scale initiative and launched a network aligning academic programs with workforce needs at predominantly Black and historically Black community colleges across eight states. She holds a Ph.D. in higher education from Georgia State University, alongside degrees from Spelman College and the University of Chicago, and coauthored an NAACP Image Award-nominated book on higher education history.

Deb Santiago

CEO, Excelencia in Education

Deborah A. Santiago is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Excelencia in Education. She believes in the power of higher education to link opportunity and talent. For more than 20 years, she has led efforts from the community to national and federal levels to improve educational opportunities and success for all students. She co-founded Excelencia to inform policy and practice, compel action, and collaborate with those ready to increase student success.

Martha Snyder

Partner, HCM Strategists

Martha Snyder is a partner at HCM Strategists, where she leads the firm’s postsecondary portfolio and advises states, systems, institutions, and foundations on higher education finance and student-centered policy design. A national expert on postsecondary funding models, she has testified before state legislatures and worked with policymakers across the country — including recently in Texas, Oregon, and Illinois — on funding formulas that better align state goals with student needs. Her work spans affordable student pathways, K–12 to postsecondary transitions, and outcomes-based approaches to state finance.

Brittany Stitch

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor; Co-Founder, Guild

Brittany Stich leads workforce strategy at RAISE US, a nonpartisan national organization partnering with governors, employers, and training providers to help American workers train, transition, and thrive in an economy transformed by AI. She co-founded Guild, a company that partners with Fortune 1000 employers to provide education and upskilling to their frontline workers, and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and as a White House Fellow on the Domestic Policy Council. A former classroom teacher, Brittany worked in community colleges building honors programs and transfer pathways to four-year institutions, served as a Commissioner on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, and holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA and M.A. in Education from Stanford.

Though this seems like a gloomy outlook, all is not lost. Recently, several groups and organizations have begun to release reports outlining potential ways for institutions to respond to many of these challenges. And though trust in broader institutions is at a low overall, individuals and communities still believe higher education has the potential to change lives and appreciate the value of their local community-oriented colleges and universities. Many individual higher education institutions are continuing their work in successfully serving learners and communities in ways that are innovative, transformative, and worthy of exploring for lessons for the broader ecosystem.

What these important developments and contributions need now is a cohesive vision for the system infrastructure to carry reform forward, connected with real people in communities outside of academia.

Enter Higher Education Reimagined– an initiative to serve as connective tissue between the existing and emerging bold ideas and community voices focused on the future of higher education and the federal policy infrastructure needed to make those futures real for every learner and every community.

Our core conviction is that a higher education which provides demonstrable value both to learners and to society is the foundation of the social contract that warrants federal investment.

Historically, the federal government has played a powerful role in supporting higher education, from creating the system of federal student aid that supports over 10 million students in postsecondary education each year, to the investments that created community colleges and land grant colleges, and the funding that has fueled a generation of transformative research making American universities the envy of the world. The federal government has also historically played a critical role in protecting civil rights in education to ensure equal opportunity for all students. Individual efforts across states and institutions are important and valuable, but the power of the federal infrastructure in creating widespread opportunity and uplift is undeniable.

We need a new path forward for the federal role that is responsive to the changing needs of today’s students and today’s workforce, without sacrificing the core values that make American higher education great. American higher education is unique in its support for opportunity for all, no matter one’s income or background; in its belief in the power of free inquiry, without the pressure of government censorship; and in its commitment to democratic principles of shared governance–in all its messy glory.

We know that higher education, however, needs to be more affordable and more focused on connecting learning in the classroom to the world outside of it–which doesn’t just mean internships, but a variety of experiences and work-based learning that provide meaning and value. It must continue to create opportunities for respectful dialogue across differences, and environments that are inclusive and free from discrimination. Some of these challenges are more suited to the purview of federal policy than others, but acknowledging the full spectrum of needs at this moment is key to moving forward.

The path to designing a new federal policy outline for higher education will not be easy. Support for higher education itself has grown more polarized along partisan lines, a shift from the broader bipartisan support the enterprise has historically enjoyed. We must acknowledge this shift while also planning for a future that addresses the conditions that allowed it to take hold.

We approach this work collaboratively, with humility, and with genuine inclusivity. That means embarking on a policy design process that authentically involves those closest to the work: learners, faculty, employers, and community members whose perspectives are not merely noted but taken seriously. We believe that the most durable and effective policy infrastructure must be designed with sustained engagement with learners, employers, and communities writ large.

We also realize that policy design doesn’t end with a white paper–it must be carried through to implementation driven by principles of effective government.

So, who is “we” and how will we achieve this vision? The core team includes the authors of this introductory blog– Jenna Sablan, PhD and Zakiya Smith Ellis, EdD. We are both policy practitioners who have worked in both state and federal policy and with lived experience teaching and advising students that informs our work.

We have also recruited an amazing set of advisors who will help guide us along the way. They bring experience leading institutions and state systems and working at the intersection of workforce and industry; building movements and organizing with youth; working in philanthropy and working to design state and federal systems, across various political and policy perspectives. More about them here.

We have also partnered with Campus Compact to host listening sessions across the country that will center learner, stakeholder, and community voices in this process.

And finally, we would love to hear from you. Yes YOU! If you are reading this post, you are likely interested in or involved in some sort of effort to improve higher education. Whether you have an idea for a policy recommendation, an interesting report or blog post that you’d like us to know about, or if you’re interested in partnering with us in some way, we’d love to hear from you. If you work on a campus and are interested in hosting a listening session, we’d love to hear from you!

We will share more about other ways to engage with our work as we release some initial briefs and ideas in the coming days. In the meantime, please subscribe to our Substack to be informed of all of the developments of our work. We would love to be in community there with others who see a need to develop a future of higher education that is responsive to learner and community needs, evidence based, and values-aligned.

Are you working on reimagining higher education? We would love to know about your efforts! Reach out at info@higheredreimagined.org