Projects in Education and the Development of Knowledge examine the vital role that education plays in our nation and the world. Work in this area seeks to inform policy and practice in support of high-quality educational opportunities for all Americans. From advancing equitable educational outcomes to leveraging new developments in the learning sciences and digital technologies to understanding the vital role that public universities play as engines of economic growth, innovation, social mobility, and citizenship, projects in this area draw on scholars and practitioners from diverse fields to provide leadership and actionable solutions to policy-makers, higher education leaders, and philanthropists.
Recent work in Education and the Development of Knowledge includes the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education (chaired by Roger Ferguson and Michael McPherson) and The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education (chaired by Robert Birgeneau and Mary Sue Coleman), which developed recommendations for ensuring that public universities continue to serve the nation as engines of economic development and opportunity. In addition, the Commission on Language Learning was requested by eight Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and issued recommendations to improve access to as many languages as possible, for people of every age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.
Kimberlee Eberle-Sudré joined the Academy in January 2022 as the new Director of Education and the Development of Knowledge. She previously worked at the American Association of Universities (AAU), where she led their work on racial and gender equity in higher education and oversaw their federal policy research agenda. Additionally, she has held roles on college campuses, in federal and state government, and in student advocacy organizations.
Project
The Forum @ the Academy
The Forum for the Future of Higher Education, a collaboration of higher education leaders and scholars, started in 1984 and has been based at several different institutions in its history, beginning with Columbia University. Over the ensuing decades, the Forum moved to Stanford University and then to Yale University, before moving to its most recent home at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In early 2022, the Forum transitioned to the Academy and officially became The Higher Education Forum at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Academy – with its program area on Education and the Development of Knowledge, its extensive programmatic work, and an Affiliates program that counts over eighty institutions of higher education among its network of supporters – provides an ideal home for the Forum and brings a natural audience of deeply invested stakeholders to all its education work. The Forum, in turn, offers the Academy an opportunity to be nimble and innovative in this area.
The Academy’s inaugural Forum meeting was held in June 2022 in Aspen, CO. The meeting brought together leaders in higher education to discuss the most pressing issues in this sector ranging from student access to the role of the university in the workforce and democratic citizenship. The meeting centered around themes of democracy and trust, equity and inclusion, and what the COVID-19 pandemic has meant to higher education.
Forum Advisory Committee
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Trinity College
Mary Schmidt Campbell
Spelman College
Nancy Cantor
Rutgers University–Newark
Sean Decatur
Kenyon College
John DeGioia
Georgetown University
Howard Gardner
Harvard University
Nicholas Lemann
Columbia University
Michael McPherson
formerly, Spencer Foundation
David W. Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Francesca Purcell
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of Massachusetts Boston
Forum Staff
Kimberlee Eberle-Sudré
Director of Education
Lywana Dorzilor
Program Coordinator for Education and the Development of Knowledge
Funders
The Higher Education Forum is sponsored by Bank of America; Barclays; BofA Securities Inc.; Deloitte; Goldman Sachs; Huron; JP Morgan; Kaplan, Inc.; Lumina Foundation; Morgan Stanley; Prager & Company; and United Educators.
June 2022 Higher Education Forum Meeting
