IHEP

Experts

On its staff, IHEP has a number of experts who are knowledgeable about a variety of higher education policy related issues. These experts have spent many years in their respective fields, and are the principle professional and acaemic arms of IHEP.

Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D., President

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Higher education access and success (domestic and international)
  • Equitable reform of higher education
  • Student learning and outcomes, particularly for low-income, racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation, and underrepresented populations
  • Federal policy and trends
  • Tuition and financial aid
  • College readiness and preparation
  • Educational leadership and management

Clifford Adelman, Ph.D., Senior Associate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Access and success
  • Degree completion rates
  • Standardized testing and assessment
  • Student mobility and transfer patterns
  • The role of community colleges
  • Secondary/postsecondary transitions and curricular alignment
  • International issues on participation, attainment, and degree qualifications
  • Course-taking, curriculum, and majors

Ann Coles, Ed.D., Senior Associate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Higher education access and success–domestic and international
  • Federal and state higher education trends and policies
  • School-to-college transition
  • Access and persistence programs
  • International higher education
  • Financial aid policy

 

Alisa Federico Cunningham, Vice President of Research

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Benefits of higher education
  • Private financing, including loans and scholarships
  • Trends in higher education, including minority-serving institutions
  • Tuition, financial aid issues
  • Financing higher education, especially relating to disadvantaged groups
  • Using higher education data (national databases) in policymaking
  • Prices and net prices and trends

Gregory Kienzl, Ph.D., Director of Research

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Economics of higher education
  • Community colleges
  • Access and completion
  • Financial aid
  • STEM
  • Educational pathways

Lacey H. Leegwater, Director of Planning and Special Projects

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Student engagement in learning
  • Campus practices and procedures
  • Data-informed decision-making and institutional change
  • Intra- and inter-campus collaboration and solution management

Thomas D. Parker, Ed.D., Senior Associate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Higher education finance
  • Higher education access
  • Domestic and international
  • History of higher education
  • Trends in international higher education

Ronald A. Phipps, Ed.D., Senior Associate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Financing higher education
  • Statewide governance
  • Distance learning and technology

Thomas R. Wolanin, Ph.D., Senior Associate

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Federal higher education policy, with a focus on student financial aid programs and accountability systems
  • Higher education equity issues among historically disadvantaged students, such as low-income, disabled, and foster youth
  • Higher education policies in post-Soviet countries including Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Poland
  • Higher education policies in South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique

© Institute for Higher Education Policy 1993-2010