A prominent advocate of expanding access to higher education will be the speaker for the 21st annual Louise McBee Lecture on Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. in the Chapel.
Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education, will deliver a lecture entitled “Three Critical Outcomes: Why Better Preparation for College, Improved Completion Rates and Increased Higher Education Productivity are Essential to the Nation.” The lecture, sponsored by the UGA Institute of Higher Education, is free and open to the public.
The McBee Lecture honors UGA’s former vice president for academic affairs and former state representative. Founded in 1989, the annual lecture series is one of the few in the U.S. that focuses solely on higher education.
Merisotis is leading the Lumina Foundation’s effort to expand access and success in education beyond high school, particularly among adults, first-generation college going students, low-income students and students of color. The foundation’s single, overarching goal is to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025. Currently, 39 percent of American adults hold post-secondary degrees, a figure that has remained steady for 40 years.
Merisotis has published major studies and reports on topics ranging from higher-education rankings to technology-based learning. Before joining Lumina Foundation in 2008, he was founding president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, an independent, nonpartisan organization regarded as one of the world’s premier higher education research and policy centers.
