Who We Are


Meet the Higher Ed Equity Network

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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Governing Board

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. 

 

MEET OUR GOVERNING BOARD

Our Patron Members

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 supports the Network as a founding patron member. The Network looks forward to bringing on additional patron members as the work develops. 

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Our Network Manager: Catalyst:Ed

Catalyst:Ed serves as the network manager and provides leadership, guidance, coordination, and support to the Network. As the network manager, Catalyst:Ed 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.

Visit Catalyst:Ed

Network Member Organizations

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.

Governing Board

Bridget Burns
Strategy Coalition #4 Chair

Bridget Burns

This is the most important work we can be doing collaboratively across higher education. Black, Indigenous and students of color have been waiting far too long for higher education to prioritize their needs and experiences. I am honored to work with likeminded peers to advance systemic change on their behalf.

Strategy Coalition #4 Chair

Amelia Parnell
Governing Board Chair

Amelia Parnell

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.

Governing Board Chair

Angel M. Royal, Ph.D
Vice Chair & Strategy Coalition #2 Chair

Angel M. Royal, Ph.D

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

Vice Chair & Strategy Coalition #2 Chair

Michele Siqueiros
At-large Governing Board Member

Michele Siqueiros

I have full faith in the quintessential American promise: that someone who grows up in poverty – with ambition and some opportunity – can do great things and contribute to forming a more perfect union. Higher Education is the opportunity that makes this promise possible.”

At-large Governing Board Member

Yolanda Watson Spiva, Ph.D.
Strategy Coalition #1 Chair

Yolanda Watson Spiva, Ph.D.

Participating in the Higher Ed Equity Network (HEEN) is an opportunity to coalesce and align with partners with whom my organization, Complete College America, has been seeking an opportunity to work, but in our mutual busy-ness, the effort has sometimes gotten delayed. HEEN consists of a group of passionate advocates and leaders who understand that we can go farther together than alone. CCA clearly understands that we cannot achieve equity in higher education (at scale) without concentrated, concerted and strategic efforts toward this end.

Strategy Coalition #1 Chair

Monica Parrish Trent
At-large Governing Board Member

Monica Parrish Trent

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

Karen Vignare
Strategy Coalition #3 Chair

Karen Vignare

APLU is committed to a more equitable future for all students especially those who have not been justly treated in the current system. We believe the network, through a shared vision of policy change, advocacy, and practice improvements, can support overdue change at institutions and for our students. It is a great opportunity to be part of network that together will do this work.

Strategy Coalition #3 Chair

Mamie Voight
At-large Governing Board Member

Mamie Voight

We know that not only is higher education a pathway to a better living and a better life for individuals and their families, it has society-wide value as well. Now more than ever, we must make good on the promise of higher education and ensure that all students, regardless of race, background, or circumstance, have the opportunity to reach their full potential by participating and succeeding in higher education.

At-large Governing Board Member