Team

As a long-time advocate for student success, Chris has spent 20 years promoting practices and policies that streamline and accelerate student pathways to a postsecondary credential while also increasing equitable outcomes. Chris joined NCII in 2022 to continue this important work. Chris’ work at NCII focuses on supporting institutional efforts to implement guided pathways — especially at rural community colleges — and establishing leadership development programs to create a pipeline of college leaders to equitably expand student success.

Prior to NCII, Chris led his own consulting business through which he partnered with college and state leaders to advance the college completion agenda. Prior to his work as a consultant, Chris served as associate vice president at Jobs for the Future (JFF), directing efforts to expand the number of Student Success Centers nationally. This work followed four years as the founding executive director of the Michigan Center for Student Success, a previous stint at JFF leading the state policy component of the Achieving the Dream initiative, and a senior leadership role as vice president at Owens Community College.

Chris is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan, where he earned his doctorate in higher education administration.

Ed is an educational consultant, coach, and senior fellow with the National Center for Inquiry & Improvement. He retired as the executive director for completion and performance at Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in North Carolina, where he also served as the managing partner director for Completion by Design in North Carolina. Ed held a senior management position at a large bank prior to joining GTCC as a developmental education adjunct instructor in 2005. He received GTCC’s Claire Hunter Award for Excellence in Developmental Education in 2007. In 2010, he became the Developmental Education Initiative grant director, overseeing the scaling of three core programs and two smaller projects under that grant.

Ed has engaged in state and national guided pathways work since 2011. In addition to his leadership with Completion by Design, he provided coaching and consulting to more than 50 colleges and systems in 15 states through the North Carolina Student Success Learning Institute, AACC Pathways Project and Pathways 2.0, Texas Pathways Institute, California Guided Pathways, and the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement. He shares the work and outcomes of Completion by Design and guided pathways at state and national conferences. He received the BB&T Staff of the Year Award for the North Carolina Community College System for his statewide work on guided pathways in 2014.

Sarah has nearly 30 years of experience working in higher education and helping institutions succeed by cultivating an environment for student success. She joined NCII in 2020. Prior to NCII, Sarah spent nine years at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), where she served as program manager for the AACC Pathways Project. In this capacity, she worked with more than 60 colleges through nine Pathways Institutes as they implemented guided pathways.

Sarah launched her career at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin as the graduate coordinator for students in the Department of Educational Administration, which included the Community College Leadership Program. During her 20 years at UT, she discovered her interest in higher education and her commitment to helping students, both of which continue to fuel her NCII work today.

Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences from Texas State University and resides on the farm she grew up on in Santa Clara, Texas.

Priya has worked in higher education for 20 years and is passionate about how institutions can support the whole student by design, not just by chance. Her work helps colleges advance redesign efforts such as guided pathways, with a particular emphasis on how embedding student financial stability efforts (addressing basic needs and affordability) can enable students to maximize their educational experiences. In addition to directly working with faculty, staff, and administrators, she also develops practitioner-focused guides and resources, such as NCII’s Student Financial Stability Resource Series.

Before joining NCII in 2013, Priya served as director of professional development and senior researcher at the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges; prior to that, Priya was an institutional researcher and instructor (and proud student!) at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. Priya earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in business administration from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is based in New York City.

Rob is a national leader in the higher education reform movement. He established NCII in 2013 to help community colleges and other broad-access institutions create structures, processes, and cultures that increase student learning, completion, and labor market outcomes and close opportunity gaps. Since that time, he has worked in partnership with more than 450 colleges in 42 states.

Rob’s engaging and practical approach to redesign helps to bridge major reforms sought by foundations, policymakers, and systems offices with the ground-level work of college practitioners and executives tasked with realizing changes in students’ experiences and their institution’s operations. Prior to NCII, Rob served as a middle leader and provost in the California community college system and as a strategic consultant in industry. Rob brings this unique history along with his optimism, energy, and commitment to social justice as he works with colleges to ensure that their students and communities thrive.

Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University, a master’s degree in experimental psychology from San Jose State University, and a doctorate in social psychology/psychology and the law from the University of Oregon.

For more than 20 years, Kelley has worked to support educational institutions in centering students in redesign — and fostering equity and achievement for each student. She focuses on helping students share their experiences and colleges tell their change stories so more students can reach their goals and thrive.

Since 2008, Kelley has worked as a consultant providing strategic communications, knowledge management, and qualitative research services to NCII and other organizations. Areas of focus include building college capacity for guided pathways inquiry, design, and implementation; advancing student financial stability; strengthening community college transfer; and engaging students in all aspects of college transformation and improvement. Kelley started her community college career at City College of San Francisco and served in the Offices of Institutional Effectiveness and Workforce Development for more than a decade. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Kenyon College and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, and she participated as a Coro Fellow in public affairs. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Kay is an independent consultant and partner in Mc2 Consultants. She serves as senior advisor to the president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges. She was founding director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin, serving in that role from 2001 through 2014. During that time, she also served as a faculty member in the university’s Higher Education Leadership program.

A founding partner in the national Achieving the Dream initiative, Kay has led numerous national and state projects focused on student success. She previously served for 10 years as vice president and chief operating officer of the Education Commission of the States. She has been a consultant to education institutions, state higher education systems, state government, and professional associations in 47 states and internationally. In addition, she served for several years as a community college faculty member, program director, system administrator, and interim CEO. She earned a doctorate in educational administration from the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin.

Gretchen is a national leader in higher education transformation, focusing on issues of guided pathways and rural student success at NCII. Before joining NCII in 2020, Gretchen led the design and implementation of the American Association of Community Colleges Pathways Project 1.0 and 2.0 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through that work she helped develop a national model for scaling guided pathways reform. She advises the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the California Guided Pathways Project, Texas Pathways, Jobs for the Future’s Student Success Centers, the Gates Foundation’s Completion by Design, and the Lumina Foundation’s Beyond Financial Aid. Through these and other efforts, she has supported change work at hundreds of institutions through cohort-based projects and engaged in deep work via direct relationships with individual colleges.

Gretchen previously served as a program director for Jobs for the Future’s Postsecondary State Policy team and spent five years in the Virginia Community College System, first as educational policy director and then as assistant vice chancellor for academic and student services. She also staffed state college boards in Arizona and Virginia and taught in undergraduate- and graduate-level education programs.