Julie Peller
Executive Director
A message from
Founder & Executive Director, Julie Peller
Higher learning — education and training beyond high school — is the foundation for rebuilding and strengthening our economy. It allows thousands of Americans to return to work, increase their salaries, and support their families. Today’s students are the drivers of our recovery and growth, and supporting them today will lead to our success tomorrow.
While more learners are participating in education and training beyond high school than ever before, there is a vast and growing disconnect between the systems we have and the needs of students, employers and communities. Four-out-of-ten students leave college before getting a degree, a benchmark that’s far worse for students of color. And, the COVID-19 global pandemic has further exacerbated these issues and threatens to leave a generation of learners behind.
Simply put, too many learners are facing a system of higher learning that doesn’t work for them. For the skills and strengthened economy that the country needs, we need a system where all learners can go — or return — to school, complete their programs and degrees, and enter the workforce. We need a society that values learning, whether it happens at a four-year college or on-the-job. Learners must not have to choose between work or learning; where short-term job training programs are not pitted against college degrees, but instead are building blocks that fit together in a life-long work and learning pathway.
Our Mission
Shift federal policy to accelerate responsiveness to support the success of today’s students.
Policy & Advocacy
We conduct rigorous policy analysis, provide expert testimony, and work to educate policymakers on key issues.
Coalitions & Partnerships
We lead and build new coalitions on key issues and participate in partner networks to work toward shared goals.
Awareness
Working with leaders, reformers and today’s students, we bring new voices to the debate around higher education policy—highlighting stories of innovation and student success to inform policymaking.
Outreach
Through media and public engagement, we work to build support for reforming the nation’s postsecondary education policies and elevate new perspectives on the day’s most important issues.
Our Team
Board of Directors
Our Past Five Years
Higher Learning Advocates' timeline highlights our key campaigns, resource publications, and legislative victories throughout our first five years.
Our Champions Network
A group of forward-thinking state and local leaders devoted to improving quality, outcomes, and affordability in postsecondary education.
Strategic Plan
Expanding Opportunity for Today's Students
Advance Reform
Advance policies and support programs that ensure opportunity for all learners to succeed through an equitable system of higher learning.
Connect Systems
Define and advance a clear vision of interconnected higher education, workforce and training systems
Raise Profile
Promote the value proposition for postsecondary learning as a critical issue in policy and politics.
Our Commitment
We actively work toward a world in which everyone has access to real opportunity in an equitable and inclusive system of higher learning.
- Learner success — enrollment, completion, employment, earnings, and value — is no longer determined by the color of a student’s skin or the zip code from which they come.
- All of today’s learners, including students of color, low-income students, adult students, and student parents, are valued, respected, and supported by providers of higher learning.
- Pursuing higher learning is not systematically out of reach financially or culturally for communities of learners, especially Black and Latino learners.
- All pathways through higher learning — including alternatives to a four-year degree — are a choice of value to learners, institutions of higher learning, and employers.
Careers
Work at Higher Learning Advocates
Higher Learning Advocates is a higher education advocacy organization focused on advancing the bipartisan solutions needed to shift to a new system of higher learning that works for all of today’s students. We are seeking teammates who have an entrepreneurial spirit, think strategically, appreciate teamwork, and are dedicated to expanding educational opportunity and equality for all.
Full-Time Positions
We currently do not have any openings for full-time positions.
Internships
We currently do not have any openings for internships.
Our Partners
Higher Learning Advocates is thankful for the generous support of our current and previous contributors.
