Educational Policy Seminars - 2014/2015

2014-2015 Educational Policy Seminars

The Education Policy Series at the Institute of Higher Education provides opportunities for the exchange of views on key policy issues in higher education and related areas. Seminar participants include faculty, graduate students, administrators, and policy experts who come from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.  Speakers for the seminar come from colleges and universities across the country as well as a research and policy centers and government agencies connected to education policy issues at all levels.

MICHELLE ASHA COOPER, President Institute for Higher Education Policy Washington, D.C. 

In September 2008, Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D., became the second president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP)—one of the nation’s most effective voices in championing access and success for all students in postsecondary education. Cooper is recognized as a well-respected practitioner, researcher, and policy advocate helping to reaffirm IHEP’s role of ensuring equal educational opportunities for all students. An expert on various higher education issues, Cooper is well versed in higher education access and success (domestic and international), with special emphasis on equitable reform of higher education, financial aid simplification and policy, student success outcomes, institutional accountability, diversity and equity, and other national higher education trends and policies.

DAVID A. LONGANECKER, President Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education Boulder, CO

Previously he served for six years as the assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the U.S. Department of Education, developing and implementing national policy and programs that provided more than $40 billion annually in student aid and $1 billion to institutions. Prior to serving with the Department of Education, he was the state higher education executive officer (SHEEO) in Colorado and Minnesota. His primary interests in higher education are: access and equity; promoting student and institutional performance; finance; the efficient use of educational technologies; and internationalizing American higher education.

BRIAN NOLAND, President East Tennessee State University Johnson City, TN

President Noland presented on the “Privatization of Higher Education: The Balance of the Public Good.” During his visit at IHE, President Noland met with Erik Ness and Jim Hearn to discuss their current research (funded by the WT Grant Foundation) on the role of intermediaries in conveying research evidence in support of college completion, ways research evidence is used, and the extent to which policymakers rely on intermediaries. Noland became the ninth president of East Tennessee State University on January 15, 2012. Prior to his arrival at East Tennessee, Noland spent five years as chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, a ten-person board that oversees the state’s postsecondary education system. From 1998-2006, he worked for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and was promoted to associate executive director.