We launched as the Higher Ed Equity Network in 2021 with an explicit focus on addressing systemic racism in higher education. We bring together more than 25 organizations at the forefront of driving change in higher education to collaborate on creating equitable systems that embrace the full potential and value of Black, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, and other students who are harmed by persistent systemic barriers linked to their racial and ethnic identities.
Working as a collective impact network, we envision and spur changes in higher education that will launch Black, Latino/a/x, and Indigenous students students toward increased economic and social mobility. We benefit from members driving change through a variety of levers, including advocacy, convening, research, and technical assistance work with institutions.
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The Governing Board provides the vision and strategic direction for the Network, champions the Network’s impact goals and related outcomes, and ensures communication and alignment among the Network’s working strategy coalitions. Every three years, members elect a governing board.
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The Network’s collaboration work is funded through patron members who are committed to ensuring that the sum of our impact is greater than what we can achieve as individual organizations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and Trellis Foundation support the Network as founding patron members. The Network looks forward to bringing on additional patron members as the work develops.
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Our Cause serves as the network manager and provides leadership, guidance, coordination, and support to the Network. As the network manager, Our Cause supports the implementation of the Network’s strategy and vision, works closely with the governing board and strategy coalition chairs to advance the Network’s goals and activities, and facilitates engagement across Network members and stakeholders. Our Cause is a Black and woman-owned social impact consulting firm dedicated to building a better future by strengthening the capacity of organizations to solve collective challenges, address systemic inequities, and drive social change.
The Higher Ed Equity Network brings together leaders and organizations at the forefront of driving change in higher education to collaborate on creating equitable systems that embrace the full potential and value of Black, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, and other systemically excluded students. We recognize that collaboration and partnership are vital to achieving the goals we’ve set to make the kind of progress that we can’t be patient waiting for.
Kristin McGuire
Chair Elect
I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for those who blazed the trail before me. Unsung heroes like my mom truly inspire me to continue to work for generations who will come after me.
Chair ElectAmelia Parnell
Immediate Past Chair
As we continue to advocate for the value of a college credential, it is now critical for higher education to deliver courses, programs, and services in new and more responsive ways. Changing our business models, policies, and practices will be hard but necessary, and it will require a commitment from the entire higher education community and its partners to provide the experiences that students deserve. I am excited to be working with the Higher Education Equity Network to address some of higher education’s most difficult challenges and I look forward to what we will accomplish together.
Immediate Past ChairAngel M. Royal, Ph.D
Board Chair
AACC will be a bold leader in creating a nation where all have access to the learning needed to participate productively in their communities and in the economy. Through AACC’s leadership, community colleges will increasingly be recognized as the gateway to the American dream—the learning resource needed to sustain America’s economic viability and productivity
Board ChairJessie Ryan
At-large Governing Board Member
Now is not the time to be a bystander. Now is the time to be an upstander… When we have a decision like the SCOTUS ruling against race-conscious admissions, we see students across the country and certainly here in California begin to wonder: do they belong, are they valued, are they wanted as key parts of our college communities? Among the most important things we can be doing as education equity advocates and as allies is to say to students that you belong, there is a place for you, and we are going to do everything in our power to remove barriers that prevent your access and success.
At-large Governing Board MemberMonica Parrish Trent
At-large Governing Board Member
Making good on the promises of higher education demands that its leaders insist upon equitable outcomes for all students, especially those who have been historically and systemically denied access and opportunity. Ensuring a future where every student, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or fiscal circumstances, can reap the social and economic rewards of a postsecondary education is the work of the Higher Ed Equity Network. It is a responsibility that Achieving the Dream has taken seriously since its founding, and I am honored to work alongside equity-centered higher education leaders driven by a common goal.
At-large Governing Board Member