IHEP Welcomes Five Proven Proponents of Higher Education to Its Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, DC (February 9, 2021) – The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) has announced that five exemplary leaders in postsecondary education are joining its Board of Directors: MaryEllen McGuire, Founder and President of the Postsecondary National Policy Institute; Ajita Talwalker Menon, President & CEO of Calbright College; James L. Moore III, Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at The Ohio State University; Peter O. Nwosu, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Student Success at the Herbert H. Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY); and Michelle R. Weise, senior advisor at Imaginable Futures.

“We warmly welcome these talented, experienced, and dedicated postsecondary education leaders to our board,” said IHEP interim President Mamie Voight. “The five new members join a board and organization that shares their passion to solve today’s most urgent challenges in higher education with equity-focused, student-centered solutions.”

The new Board members bring a wealth of expertise and a diversity of perspectives to IHEP’s work.

• MaryEllen McGuire, Ph.D. is the Founder and President of the Postsecondary National Policy Institute (PNPI). Prior to creating and launching PNPI, she served on the White House Domestic Policy Council as President Obama’s Senior Advisor for Education. Dr. McGuire also served as Senior Education Policy advisor to Senator Chris Dodd, Majority Staff Director of the Senator Subcommittee on Children and Families, policy advisor for then-Senator Joe Biden, and Assistant Director of Research to former First Lady Hillary Clinton. In addition, she has worked for the Connecticut General Assembly, and taught as a public-school teacher.
• Ajita Talwalker Menon is the President and CEO of Calbright College, the first online, competency-based community college in the United States focused on working and economically dislocated adults. Prior to Calbright, Ms. Menon worked as a consultant advising higher education institutions and systems, non-profit organizations, and philanthropies in their efforts to drive better outcomes in higher education, including serving as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Ms. Menon previously served in the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Higher Education Policy at the White House Domestic Policy Council and has held senior roles in the federal government at the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. House of Representatives.
• James L. Moore III, Ph.D. is the vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at The Ohio State University, in addition to his concurrent appointments as Education and Human Ecology’s Distinguished Professor of Urban Education and executive director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center. Dr. Moore previously served as secondary school coordinator for the District of Columbia Public Schools, associate provost in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, interim director for the Young Scholars Program, and program director for Broadening Participation in Engineering in the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, VA.
• Peter O. Nwosu, Ph.D., is the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs and student success at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He previously served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, and associate vice president for academic programs at California State University, Fullerton. An American Council on Education Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and author of three books, Dr. Nwosu is a nationally recognized academic leader whose impactful experience includes the collaborative design, development, and implementation of initiatives ranging from curricular modernization and innovative pedagogy to guiding faculty and staff development, expanding opportunities for faculty and student research and creative activities, aligning academic and student life, fostering strategic partnerships, and improving student success outcomes.
• Michelle R. Weise, Ph.D., is a senior advisor at Imaginable Futures, a venture of The Omidyar Group, and the author of Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet (2021). Dr. Weise is the former chief innovation officer of Strada Education Network and Southern New Hampshire University. She designed and led Strada Institute for the Future of Work and Sandbox Collaborative respectively. Thinkers50 named Dr. Weise as one of thirty management and leadership thinkers in the world to watch in 2021.

These five members join Darren Briscoe, Business Narratives, Google; Laura Cronin, Senior Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton; Stella M. Flores, Associate Professor, New York University; Kristin Hultquist, Partner, HCM Strategies; Ericka Miller, Vice President, Isaacson, Miller; and Cheryl A. Oldham, Vice President of Education Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in serving on the Board, chaired by Jacob Fraire, President and CEO, Texas Association of Community Colleges.

IHEP deeply appreciates the contributions of Rob Anderson, President, SHEEO, and Jose Luis Cruz, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, CUNY, who have now completed their six-year terms on the Board of Directors.

The IHEP Board of Directors manages fiduciary responsibilities and establishes policies that further the organization’s growing research, advocacy, and programmatic portfolio.