Team Consultants

Grantees have been paired with higher education experts to serve as project consultants throughout the granting period. Consultants for the program are as follows:

Brian Bridges
Vice Provost for Diversity, Access and Equity
Ohio University

Brian Bridges is vice provost for diversity, access and equity at Ohio University. As a member of the Executive Vice President and Provost's Office, Bridges directs the offices of Multicultural Student Access and Retention, Institutional Equity, Disability Services, Women's Center, LGBT Programs and Multicultural Programs. Prior to his current position, Bridges served as associate director of the American Council on Education's Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity in Washington, D.C; adjunct professor of higher education at George Washington University in DC; and held several positions at Indiana University-Bloomington and its Center for Postsecondary Research. Bridges also worked in student affairs at Western Carolina University. He has also served in academic advising and career counseling roles at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In 2006, Bridges was named an American College Personnel Association Emerging Scholar. He is an active member of the American Education Research Association and the Association for the Study of Higher Education and is a frequent author and presenter on the relationship between diversity and education. Bridges earned a doctorate in higher education administration from Indiana University- Bloomington and a master's in public administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He also has a bachelor's of arts from Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C.

Leticia Tomas Bustillos
Co-Director
Policy Research in Preparation, Access and Remedial Education (PRePARE) Project

Leticia Tomas Bustillos currently serves as Co-Director of the Policy Research in Preparation, Access and Remedial Education (PRePARE) project with Tara L. Parker at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The project conducts research and analysis on policies guiding remedial and developmental practices in higher education. Presently, PRePARE is involved in a three-year national initiative to improve remedial and developmental studies in higher education in collaboration with the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and funded by the Lumina Foundation.

Bustillos received her Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Southern California, where she worked as a research assistant for Estela Bensimon of the Center for Urban Education. Her dissertation focused on community college math faculty members teaching remedial mathematics courses and the extent to which their involvement in the Diversity Scorecard Project influenced change at the department level. Bustillos’s publications include “Measuring the state of equity in higher education” in Leveraging promise and expanding opportunity in higher education with Estela Bensimon and Lan Hao, and Achieving equitable educational outcomes with all students: The institution’s roles and responsibilities with Georgia Bauman and Estela Bensimon.

Marshall C. Grigsby
President and CEO
Grigsby and Associates

Marshall Grigsby is president and CEO of Grigsby and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in higher education and policy related issues. He is also president of Educational Research Systems, Inc., a non-profit research organization.

Prior to founding Grigsby & Associates he spent eight years as Chief Higher Education Specialist with the Education Committee of the U. S. Congress. Grigsby has served as a faculty member and administrator at Howard and Hampton Universities and as president of Benedict College. While at Benedict he was one of five small liberal arts college presidents nationwide to receive the prestigious Knight Foundation Presidential Leadership Award for innovative, creative and effective presidential leadership.

Grigsby currently serves on the board of trustees of USA Funds, the nation’s largest guarantor of student loans. In 2002 he was instrumental in having USA Funds establish the annual MSI symposium series, the only gathering of its kind, where representatives from HBCUs, HSIs and TCUs gather to discuss common issues related to access, retention, debt management and financial literacy.

Estela R. López
Former Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Connecticut State University

Estela R. López is the former vice chancellor of academic affairs of the Connecticut State University. She served in that capacity for five years, from 2002 to 2007. From 1997 to 2002, López occupied the position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). Prior to joining NEIU, López served as a senior associate at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) and as a senior fellow at the American Council on Education while on a year-long sabbatical. From 1990 to 1995, López was Vice President for Academic Affairs and planning at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico. López earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature at Queens College. She then attended Columbia University, where she earned both a master’s and doctorate degrees in Spanish literature.

She is the recipient of the Hispanic Caucus of AAHE Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education Award, Illinois Latino Council in Higher Education Distinguished Service Award, and 2005 Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund Award. López co-chaired Hartford’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education, as well as chairing or serving on the boards of numerous other distinguished organizations.