Education and the Development of Knowledge
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 philanthropy.
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 & 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 seventy 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 flagship event of the Forum was an annual meeting in Aspen, Colorado, that brought together leaders in higher education to discuss pressing issues ranging from higher education finance to innovation in technology to the role of the university in the global economy. The Academy is continuing this tradition. The first meeting of the Academy’s Forum was held in Aspen in June 2022. The meeting centered on 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
Funders
The Higher Education Forum is sponsored by the following organizations and foundations: Bank of America, Barclays, BofA Securities Inc., Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Huron, JP Morgan, Kaplan, Inc., Lumina Foundation, Morgan Stanley, Prager & Company, and United Educators.
Forum Meeting
June 13–16, 2022
Aspen, Colorado
This gathering was an opportunity for over ninety higher education leaders from many of the Academy’s Affiliate institutions to engage in stimulating discussions on issues of democracy and trust, equity and inclusion, and what the COVID-19 pandemic has meant to higher education. In addition to these pressing issues in higher education, experts explored topics that affect everyone, from the health of our democracy to climate change.
Speakers
Jodie Adams Kirshner
New York University
Rachel Barr
Georgetown University
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Trinity College
Michelene Chi
Arizona State University
José Luis Cruz Rivera
Northern Arizona University
Wendy Fischman
Harvard University
Wayne Frederick
Howard University
Kimberly Griffin
University of Maryland
Mushtaq Gunja
American Council on Education
Jonathan Holloway
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Lloyd Holmes
De Anza College
Alexandra Hrycak
Reed College
Natasha Kumar Warikoo
Tufts University
Nicholas Lemann
Columbia University
Susanna Loeb
Brown University
Paula McClain
Duke University
Maurie McInnis
Stony Brook University
Jamie Merisotis
Lumina Foundation
Ted Mitchell
American Council on Education
Eduardo Padrón
Miami Dade College
John Palfrey
MacArthur Foundation
Seth Pollak
University of Wisconsin–Madison
OiYan Poon
Spencer Foundation
Mary Schmidt Campbell
Spelman College
Talia Stroud
University of Texas at Austin
Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of Massachusetts Boston
David Victor
University of California, San Diego
Ruth Watkins
Strada Education Network
Elke Weber
Princeton University
David Wilson
Morgan State University