Carnegie Postsecondary Commission
The aim of the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission (CPC) is to identify the most powerful levers to propel millions more students, particularly those furthest from opportunity, through postsecondary education into purposeful careers.
The Commission will amplify the highest leverage methods: scalable, affordable, career-aligned postsecondary models; technology-powered teaching and learning modalities; pathways that disrupt the Carnegie Unit and blur borders between secondary, postsecondary and work; and essential public policy ideas to accelerate progress.
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Current State of K-12 to Postsecondary Pathways
This action paper showcases several promising pathway programs that aim to better integrate K-12 education, postsecondary education and the workforce. By spotlighting these success stories, this paper provides a trajectory for colleges and universities committed to blurring the divides between K-12, postsecondary, and work, and improve outcomes for learners.
Revitalizing Higher Education: A Blueprint for Transformative Change
The CPC’s vision is ambitious, calling for innovations and disruptions from pre-college preparation to post-graduation success. By catalyzing transformative change, the Commission aims to create a postsecondary system that effectively prepares millions more students for healthy, dignified, and fulfilling lives.
We commissioned the HEA Group to provide three primers on college access, college affordability and economic outcomes. These papers were intended to inform the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission’s work to produce transformational change within the US higher education system as we know it.
Postsecondary Commission Members
Composed of leading voices in higher education and K-12 aiming to identify the most effective ways to help millions more students achieve postsecondary education goals and secure meaningful careers.
Co-Chairs
Dr. Shirley M. Collado
Tuajuanda C. Jordan
President and CEO of College Track
Dr. Shirley M. Collado
Shirley M. Collado, Ph.D., began her tenure as President and CEO of College Track, a comprehensive college completion program, in January 2022. Prior to this role, she served as the ninth president of Ithaca College, and was named president emerita at the conclusion of her tenure. She is the first Dominican-American to serve as president of a four-year institution of higher education in the United States. Dr. Collado is nationally regarded for designing and implementing innovative approaches in higher education that expand student access and success. She has served as executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer at Rutgers University-Newark; dean of the college and vice president for student affairs at Middlebury; and as executive vice president of The Posse Foundation, where she scaled its operations nationally. Dr. Collado is a founding member of Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and a member of the boards of ACT, Excelencia in Education, and Vanderbilt University. This summer, Dr. Collado collaborated with President Knowles and Senior Fellow Fred Swaniker to establish the Silicon Valley Program, an entrepreneurship intensive for postsecondary students from across Africa and California.
PRESIDENT, ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARYLAND
Tuajuanda C. Jordan
Dr. Tuajuanda C. Jordan is the seventh president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Since joining, President Jordan has been widely recognized for her contributions to higher education and the larger community.
Jorge Aguilar
Luvelle Brown
Nancy Cantor
Mildred García
Timothy Knowles
Ted Mitchell
Juan Sánchez Muñoz
Jay A. Perman
Monte Randall
Aaron Rasmussen
Ronald S. Rochon
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
Michael J. Sorrell
Astrid S. Tuminez
Lori S. White
Superintendent, Wonderful College Prep Academy
Jorge Aguilar
Jorge A. Aguilar began his career in education as a Spanish teacher at South Gate High School. He is currently the superintendent of Wonderful College Prep Academy in Sacramento, California. Prior to this position, he served as the superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, with responsibility for over forty thousand students and seventy-five schools. Previously he served as Associate Superintendent in Fresno Unified School District and Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational and Community Partnerships and Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the University of California, Merced.
Under his leadership, Aguilar has supported educators to significantly increase high school completion rates, dramatically reduce dropout rates, raise student performance, and improve post-secondary entry and success. He recently forged a historic agreement with the region’s major higher education institutions to enable Sacramento students to seamlessly transition to higher education. Aguilar is a champion for equity and access in education and has guided Sacramento City Unified in the creation of an award-winning Facilities Master Plan, which serves as a model for other districts for reimagining how construction and improvement projects are prioritized with a focus on schools that are historically underserved.
Aguilar also serves as a Commissioner on the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission, a Carnegie Learning Leadership Network member, and he provided plenary remarks for the 10th Anniversary Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education. He is recipient of the Winston Doby Impact Award for exceptional professionals chosen by their colleagues for commitment to improving educational opportunities for California students. In 2015, Aguilar was invited by first lady Michelle Obama to present on education equity and access as part of a White House initiative. The same year, he was appointed by California State Superintendent to the state’s Advisory Task Force on Accountability and Continuous Improvement.
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese and earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He is the son of farm workers in the central valley of California and a product of the Migrant Education Program. He spent his early childhood migrating back and forth between Parlier, California and the state of Michoacán, Mexico.
Superintendent, Ithaca City School District
Luvelle Brown
Dr. Luvelle Brown is an experienced educator who has held positions as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, school CIO, and Superintendent of Schools. Currently, He is serving as the Superintendent of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) in Ithaca, New York. During his tenure in Ithaca, the Ithaca City School District has experienced unprecedented levels of success.
President, Hunter College
Nancy Cantor
In August 2024, Cantor was named the 14th president of Hunter College. Prior to her appointment, Cantor served as the chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark for ten years. She is recognized nationally and internationally for emphasizing the role of universities as anchor institutions in their communities, especially by forging diverse, cross-sector collaboratives and leveraging publicly engaged scholarship.
Chancellor, California State University
Mildred García
Recognizing her dynamic leadership and expertise, the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Mildred García as its 11th Chancellor. This appointment makes her the first-ever Latina to lead the nation’s largest and most diverse four-year university system. In her most recent role as AASCU’s president, Dr. García advocated for public higher education at the national level, working to influence federal policy and regulations on behalf of nearly 400 member colleges and universities. She was the first Latina to lead one of the six presidentially based higher education associations in Washington, D.C.
President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Timothy Knowles
Timothy Knowles is the 10th president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Prior to joining Carnegie, he served as founder and managing partner of the Academy Group, an enterprise designed to prepare extraordinary young people from under-resourced communities to own and operate successful companies nationwide; reduce economic disparities and; serve as a human capital engine, built on a sustainable business model, to unlock human potential at scale.
Previously, Knowles founded and served as director and chairman of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute. Knowles also founded and served as director of the University of Chicago Urban Labs, which works globally to design, test, and scale policies and programs that are effective, humane, and cost-efficient. Knowles also served as the John Dewey Clinical Professor of Education.
Prior to his work in Chicago, Knowles served as the deputy superintendent of the Boston Public Schools and co-directed the Boston Annenberg Challenge, a nationally regarded initiative to improve literacy. Knowles also served as director of a full-service K–8 school in New York City, founding director of Teach for America in New York, and a teacher of African history in Botswana.
Knowles has started multiple social sector organizations, holds appointments at the University of Chicago, and has written and spoken widely on education and entrepreneurship.
President, American Council on Education
Ted Mitchell
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. Mitchell and his team work closely with Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector to develop policies and innovative practices that serve our country’s postsecondary learners.
Chancellor, University of California, Merced
Juan Sánchez Muñoz
A California native whose parents immigrated from Mexico and whose father worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz has deep roots in the UC System and the Central Valley region. He earned his B.A. in psychology from UC Santa Barbara.
Chancellor, University System of Maryland
Jay A. Perman
Dr. Jay Perman was named the fifth chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM) in January 2020. The USM comprises 12 public universities and three regional higher education centers across the state, enrolling 163,000 students.
President, College of the Muscogee Nation
Monte Randall
Dr. Monte Randall is Muscogee (Creek) from the Apekv-Tvlledegv Tribal Town and Deer Clan. He is a veteran of the United States Navy and the Oklahoma Army National Guard. Dr. Randall is a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University, the University of Oklahoma, and Oral Roberts University, where he received a doctorate in educational leadership. He resides in Glenpool, OK, with his wife Lauren and three children.
Co-founder, MasterClass; founder, Outlier.org
Aaron Rasmussen
Aaron Rasmussen is an entrepreneur, inventor, and game designer. He’s best known as a founder of educational platforms MasterClass and Outlier.org, the latter known for creating impactful for-credit online college courses to promote affordable, equitable education. At MasterClass, Rasmussen was both Creative Director and CTO, creating courses taught by notable experts and directing many himself.
He previously founded and sold an industrial robotics company and a beverage company. The video game he co-wrote, BlindSide, has won multiple awards and is being adapted into a film. He speaks and writes on education, innovation, art, and the intersection of all with artificial intelligence.
Students at Outlier receive transcripted transferable credits from the University of Pittsburgh. Outlier recently launched associate degrees with Golden Gate University that cost less than the average Pell Grant award enabling students to receive an education at zero cost to them. At MasterClass, Rasmussen was both Creative Director and CTO, creating courses taught by notable experts. The video game he co-wrote, BlindSide, has won multiple awards and is being adapted into a film.
President, California State University, Fullerton
Ronald S. Rochon
Dr. Ronald S. Rochon is currently the president of California State University, Fullerton. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Rochon was the University of Southern Indiana’s fourth president in July 2018, after eight years serving USI as provost. In his first four years as president, he successfully secured over $250 million in state funding for capital projects and operations from his first two biennial budget presentations to the Indiana Legislature.
Chancellor, City University of New York (CUNY)
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is the eighth Chancellor of CUNY, and the first educator of color and the first Latino to lead the nation’s largest urban public university, which serves 243,000 degree-seeking students across 25 New York City campuses.
President, Paul Quinn College
Michael J. Sorrell
Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is the longest-serving President in the 151-year history of Paul Quinn College. During his 16 years of leadership, Paul Quinn has become nationally celebrated for its ability to reimagine higher education to better serve the needs of today’s students and their communities.
President, Utah Valley University
Astrid S. Tuminez
Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez (pronounced too-MEE-nez) was appointed the seventh president of Utah Valley University in 2018. Born in a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, she moved with her parents and siblings to the slums of Iloilo City when she was two years old, her parents seeking better educational opportunities for their children.
President, DePauw University
Lori S. White
Lori S. White was appointed the 21st president of DePauw University on March 4, 2020, and began her term on July 1, 2020. Most recently, she was the vice chancellor for student affairs and a professor of practice at Washington University in St. Louis. At DePauw, she also holds the rank of professor of education. She is the first woman and the first person of color to serve as DePauw’s president.
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