Note: This interview in the Weekly Wisdom Series originally aired on July 17, 2023 as part of the University Innovation Alliance’s Innovating Together Podcast, appearing live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The transcript of this podcast episode is intended to serve as a guide to the entire conversation, and we encourage you to listen to this podcast episode. You can also access our summary, along with helpful links and audio from this episode.
Bridget Burns:
Hi, and welcome to another episode of Start the Week With Wisdom. I'm your host, Bridget Burns from the University Innovation Alliance.
Doug Lederman:
I'm Doug Lederman, editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed.
Bridget Burns:
Each week, Doug and I team up to have a conversation with a sitting college president, or chancellor, or a leader in the field that we think can give you some compelling advice. And ideally, we want to set them up to be able to share their wisdom with our audience. And we always want it to be very positive and uplifting, and that's why we call it Start the Week With Wisdom, because we know it's a Monday. Sometimes the Sunday scaries can be hard, and we're hoping that this makes it a little bit better.
Weekly Wisdom is sponsored by Mainstay, formerly known as AdmitHub, the student engagement and retention platform that has proven it works through peer-reviewed research, which is a very unique thing if you look at EdTech companies. For instance, it helped Georgia State be able to reduce its summer melt by 21%, which is nearly unheard of. That was also conducted with peer-reviewed research, and they later helped them be able to retain an additional 1200 students they weren't expecting to. So generally speaking, we think you should check that out, and also the other work they've done with a variety of other campuses, at mainstay.com.
Doug Lederman:
And today's guest is Mark Milliron, who is president of National University in California. Mark has an unbelievably eclectic background. He's worked in the foundation world. He's worked at organizations focused on collective action like League for the Innovation of Community College. He's worked at online institutions and been on faculty side as a dean, ran institutions, really wide range of experiences that have led him to National, and we're going to talk about his experiences. Welcome, Mark. Good to see you.
Mark Milliron:
Hi, Doug.
Bridget Burns:
The only job you haven't had is secretary of education, right?
Mark Milliron:
No, I don't know about that. It's a gracious way of saying I can't keep a job. Is that what you're saying?
Bridget Burns:
Well, no, but I will say, and we can probably start there, is that I think that it's very unique to consistently level up in your roles. You stay for what I think on the outside looks like the right amount of time, and yet you always seem to find something even more interesting. I think there's some folks who peak early or who peak in the middle or even peak late. But it just seems like, for every time I've talked with you, you have a role that is even more interesting than the last. So I've just been wondering how do you, as the person with this career, how are you making these decisions? I'm sure people come to you and bring opportunities all the time, but do you have any philosophy that you would share with, think of especially early-career folks who are trying to think about a career like yours someday?
Mark Milliron:
No. No grand strategy, Bridget. I think if you went back and talked to the 17-year-old busboy working at Rusty Pelican, going to Mesa Community College, and said, "Hey, this is the trajectory of your career," I would've thought you were crazy. For me, it was combination of serendipity and then really a combination of curiosity, really wanting to learn different things, and then really wanting to make a difference, trying to make sure what I was doing was meaningful and actually was helping people in some way. So I kind of fell in love with working with inspirational leaders, inspirational people that were doing powerful work that could make a difference.
I love learning new things, and I've always had the courage to jump in and be a rookie and try something new, especially in areas that are unfamiliar to lots of different folks. So I've been counseled by lots of folks over the years, Bridget, like, "What are you thinking? I can't imagine you're going to leave this job. This is such a phenomenal job." And I've always -- Those choices are often hard, but I've usually made them because it's going to give me an opportunity to learn something more and to make more of an impact if I do it the right way. And then you add in, you always have family things that are happening at the same time. So again, that combination of serendipity, curiosity, opportunity, and the chance to make a difference is probably what the mix is all about.
Doug Lederman:
Mark, what would you characterize as the, other than those things which all makes sense and I think could apply to a lot of different careers, what would you characterize as the sort of through line from a subject or focus standpoint? I mean, I think I kind of see one, but I'd be interested in how you think about it, recognizing the serendipity and all the other factors you're talking about.
Mark Milliron:
There's an incredibly clear red thread through my career, which is like if it wasn't for places like Mesa Community College, Arizona State University, institutions that were committed to access and excellence, I wouldn't be here. And if it wasn't for the kind of education opportunities I had and the right people showing up at the right time, there's no chance I'd be doing the kind of work I'm doing right now. So I've absolutely fundamentally dedicated my life to helping more and more diverse students be more successful in the world of higher education so that they have more opportunities in their lives. And that kind of more, more, more framework, it is the core purpose of everything I've done, and every step I've made in my career has been trying to help that trajectory become more of a reality for more people.
Bridget Burns:
That's fantastic. And I do hope that that's helpful for folks, because I know that there is too often this emphasis on the hierarchy and the ladder and climbing up, and that you should aspire to being a president, or you should aspire to being again, secretary of education. But that you really have focused on different altitudes, but always adding more nuance and understanding about improving and serving students and how to advance change. I mean, I think about when I first met you at Gates, it is like you spent the time directing the field, and then you went back into the field to see how you might've gotten it right or wrong, and how you might evolve that thinking further.
So I want to turn to just the concept of leadership. And I don't know who your big mentors have been in life, but I'm curious about whether or not, if you think about how you learn to lead, who taught you what leadership is, and I'm curious about whether you learned more from watching good examples of leadership or bad.
Mark Milliron:
Yeah, it's always a great question. My doctorate was in leadership, and I fell in love with leadership in lots of different areas, whether it's in business and industry, whether it's in the military, whether it's in sports and academia, or sports and coaching. And then in the course in the world of academia, I've always been kind of enamored with folks who can, I guess, work the art of leadership in a really clear way and along the way, all kinds of models, all kinds of people who've inspired me and kind of, "Whoa, if I could just steal a little of that, steal a little of that." I think you put together the picture that makes sense for you. And for me, it's been a combination of good examples and bad examples. So early mentor, Nathan Hodges, small college in Western North Carolina, I got to work with him as an academic VP and being able to just watch him, his ability to kind of ground a team and really create a safe space and do hard work, be able to ask hard questions was amazing.
Getting to work with Charles Mitchell when I was at the League for Innovation was a chancellor of the Seattle Community Colleges. Walking down the hall with him and seeing him stop to pick up trash off the floor and not letting it go by, knowing the name of every janitor in the building, just those moments where you're blown away. Jerry Sue Thornton, who's a longtime chancellor of the Cuyahoga Community Colleges, was amazing. Her ability to think big, but also think about the crawl, walk, run to make something like that happen and the whole idea of helping mature an organization over time. Working with Jim Goodnight at SAS and his commitment to creating a place that nobody wanted to leave. That whole idea that if people could believe in something and know that they were being treated well, they'd want to drive against that.
And then new folks now, like Suzanne Walsh at Bennett College, who has just stepped into an HBCU and taken it to a whole different level and have helped them embrace change and notions of anti-fragility, and kind of taking the voice of Bennett to a whole different level. So it's been amazing watching folks like that. And then the negative examples are powerful as well, because you're like, "For the love of God, I'm never going to be like that. I never want to be like that." And they're almost always driven by ego needs and power plays and so much of the me, me, me stuff that it's exhausting, and what's good is it's instructive because it helps you understand what really will not help you move things forward.
Bridget Burns:
I'm super intrigued by the fact that you are both on the board at Bennett, or you've been on a board for university, and now you have a board and now you're a president, right? Again, you've done this before. I'm just curious if being in your role right now, do you feel like you're a better board member? Do you feel like you are better to your board because you have empathy for their position? I'm just curious about -- that's not a very common thing.
Mark Milliron:
I've done a lot of board work, so obviously when I was with the League for Innovation, we had a 20-member board of presidents and CEOs, and them talking about their boards was incredibly instructive. And we ran something there that was the League for Innovation Trustee Institute, where we would actually bring the board members and the trustees together and talk about how do you build a great board relationship? And nothing was more instructive than me than watching five years of those and hearing kind of the truthful like, this is where it goes wrong, this is where it goes. And then fast-forward, I was on the early board of trustees of Western Governor's University and was a part of the group that helped envision what that could be in the long run. And it was amazing being a part of that larger conversation. And I've been a part of probably 30 other boards in the process, including corporate boards.
Now I'm on the board of Civitas, I'm vice chair of the board at Bennett College, and I'm also chair of the board for our own CityU at National. Those perspectives absolutely help me understand how we want to create a great board relationship. And one of the most important things we're trying to do is: one, let boards play to their superpowers. Really be servant leaders, make sure you're serving the board well. Involve them deeply in the strategic work, and engage them in the policy and advocacy work, and help them help you in terms of creating the right kind of infrastructure to do amazing work. But that doesn't just happen. That is really a shared process and storming and forming and connecting.
And so our board at National has been amazing. They've adopted these ways of work focusing around how everything we do is around championing student success, building trust, advancing inclusion, embracing accountability -- and I love our last one, which is just make things better and make things better, that's everything from the big innovation to, "Hey, let's create the policy that allows people to do their life's best work." That could be simple, small things to really big things. And for me, it's just really kind of great when a board sings and does the kind of work they can do for an organization and doesn't really get in the way, they're actually empowering for the organization.
Doug Lederman:
I'm curious, a lot of presidents and leaders of institutions don't have the kind of board exposure that you did. I'm curious if you have thoughts about how people in this audience who might be thinking about moving up to a presidency someday, what advice do you have about how to go about understanding that relationship? Because I do worry that a lot of presidents walk in without really having that experience.
Mark Milliron:
Doug, it's such a great question, because I think early in my career, I was so hooked on practices, like these things will change the world. And then I realized that practices are wonderful, but if you don't have the right enabling policies, they're never going to take hold, and you're never going to be able to make them happen. And I think the more you get exposed to the combination of you need great practices, you need great policy, you also need great leadership skill and will and developing people over time. The advice I always give to people is you've got to get on some boards. Get on some boards, especially boards that are functional, that are doing some good things, and just show up and understand the process, and understand how those kinds of gifts are given. That'll help you understand the dynamics of policymaking. And then you start seeing the interplay of institutional policy crafting versus state, versus federal, versus organizational and programmatic kind of policy frameworks. You understand that this is a Rubik's Cube, you've got to be able to twist and turn, and if you've never played the game before, it gets really tough.
Bridget Burns:
I want to pivot to just generally back to your career in your leadership journey, and not to go to the hard part, but I'm curious, because I bet it would be difficult for you to pick a favorite experience because you've had so many. But I'm curious. You have every different altitude across different types of institutions, across country, as a leader. What has been the hardest challenge for you? If you can think of one particular needy experience that did you have to navigate as a leader? Just give us a sense of -- because I think for folks, what they're wondering is what sticks out after such depth and breadth?
Mark Milliron:
So, I've been incredibly blessed to work with some really inspirational and meaningful folks. And I think one of the hardest things is there are times when your leaders, there are times when your team members really let you down. They have their own failings. There are times that when your own failings kind of hop in the way, but there are those moments when you just realize everybody's got feet of clay, and people are complex for all kinds of different reasons. And I think you, in your early years, you get almost bimodal about it. People are either good or they're bad. And then you realize a lot later, "Wow, people are complex," right? People are very complex and people come with their superpowers, and people come with their blind spots. And it's the realization, "Oh, by the way, I've got things I can do really well, and I have some areas where I could really get some work," and you want to be open to that conversation.
So, I think there's some moments where I had my heart broken by some folks who were really close, and that's just hard. It's just really hard because you thought that person was that way and they turned out to be another way. And again, sometimes that's somebody who works for you, sometimes that is somebody who works with you, sometimes it's somebody you work for. And in all those cases, it hurts just the same, because it really is almost like the end of a dream in terms of how that plays out. And you kind of like, "Okay, now I've got to figure out how we're going to work."
Now, one of the things I will say, Bridget, in that process I've learned is the power of grace and the power of understanding that people are complex, and being willing to engage and connect with them. Some of the people who have broken my heart early, or whatever it was, I've kept a relationship with them and later on have actually turned out to be really impactful of folks in my own life and connection. So it is, again, realization that even though somebody breaks your heart, doesn't mean you write them off. It means you just think about the moment for a moment, take a moment, and make sure you can understand what that might mean for you going forward. But simple answer to your question is usually that's the one that hurts the most. It's the people side.
Bridget Burns:
That's very honest, and it's a relief because I actually, yeah, I agree. That is the hard part, right? Too much, people forget that when we're talking about leadership, when we're talking about governance, we're talking about change. It's all about people. It's trying to get people to change. So understanding how to motivate people, inspire them, but at the end of the day, the fallibility of humans and -- I really appreciate your honesty about that and not being like, "Oh, well, we were merging 17 universities." Something that's not relatable you know? Doug, do you want to jump in, otherwise...
Doug Lederman:
Keep going. It's fine. I'm enjoying the conversation.
Bridget Burns:
Well, I'm [inaudible] for you, what has been the most surprising aspect of your career? What has taught you [inaudible] look back --
Mark Milliron:
I think probably the most surprising part of my career, Bridget, is the desperate need for -- people really want to be a part of something that's meaningful. They really want to be a part of something that can make a difference. And if you do the work of creating an authentic place that is mission-driven, that really is about that, and people, they're almost, like, dying to believe in something that's real. And there's a real responsibility with that, because once you realize that, you realize you have the opportunity to create an environment where people can do their life's best work, and they can really make the difference they want to be able to make. But what I've been amazed is if you do the work and no one believes you upfront, you have to do the work and put in the time. And as you create that environment, people will just come out of the woodworks and they want to be a part of it. "I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that." But you have to put in the time, and if you will, unbelievable talent, skill, will show up and rally to your cause. To me, it's been amazing how universal that truth has been in every stage of my career is, if you do the work to create the right kind of environment that people want to be a part of, that is especially one that is mission-driven -- wow. All kinds of people show up, donors show up, and partners show up, and then folks who want to be on your team show up just because, I just think people are hungry to be a part of something they believe in.
Doug Lederman:
I'm guessing the answer to this question may tie back to what you described as the sort of red thread through your career, but what do you believe is most needed in higher education at this moment? And I mean, I'm guessing that -- well, you're at National now, so maybe tie a little bit to sort of how you are believing you can help achieve that there, but I assume you wouldn't be somewhere where you weren't trying to pursue that big need. So how would you describe when you look at this whole ecosystem particularly, what most needs to happen?
Mark Milliron:
Yeah, and actually part of that explains why I'm at National. National, when I started the conversation with them, it was just such a coming home in some ways. It was founded by a Navy captain. I'm a Navy brat. My dad used to be a teacher in San Diego. The focus is totally on opening doors and pathways to possibility for different kinds of students. So, just such a resonance. The more I met with the board, met with the faculty and staff, I'm like, "Wow, these are my people. I want to be a part of this work." It's 250,000 graduates and two thirds of diverse. It is all focused on everything from certifications and associates all the way up to PhDs and DBAs and [inaudible]. I just love the expanse of it.
But as much as I love National University, it is not the be-all get end-all. I would argue in the world of higher education, there is far too much, and Bridget's heard me say this before, there's far too much better than conversations. Everyone's talking about this being more important than or better than, this model is better than this. And I'm just such a believer that we have these, especially for low-income, first-generation folks, most of them stay in the regions they were born. And if you can get a family of educational providers to work together and have better with thinking as opposed to better than, meaning I want my K-12 to be radically successful, both public and private. I want my community colleges to rock. I want my state universities to be fantastic. I want my R1s to be doing it. And I think places like National, like Western Governors, like SNU, all of them play a role in helping that ecosystem be successful.
And we get so oddly competitive when there is such a massive need right now for education. We have 40 million people in this country according to the National Student Clearinghouse that have some college and no credential. And if you just untap that potential, hell, we'll take 1%, you can take all the rest, right? It's the idea that there is so much work to do. We just got to figure out how we can work together in this and be absolutely willing to say, "Hey, National is phenomenal for this kind of student at this time. We're going to be amazing for them. But hey, if you're an 18-year old that wants a campus-based experience, for the love of God, don't come to National. But if you're a working student who's coming out of the military who wants to kind of advance your career or want to go get your PhD, and we can help you do that. Or if you want to get your ELL certification so you can work in construction, we have all of that."
But it's kind of playing to your strengths and figuring out how we can work together. So, to me, in the world of higher education, it's a little less shaming, a little less blaming, and a lot less bluster, and a lot more, like, "How can we do this kind of work together?" And then celebrate when other people are successful.
Bridget Burns:
I completely agree. And shift to the best advice that someone else gave that was valuable to your career. What was it, and who gave it?
Mark Milliron:
Yeah, so a couple. One, Nathan Hodges, going back to one of the first president I worked for. He and I co-authored an article together, and I'd obviously just come out of a leadership program, and he was bringing 40 years of experience in doing his work. And we were working together on this frame, and we end up with this frame that I still go back to all the time. It was this idea that the core of really good leadership is getting grounded, getting real, and getting going, and I love that frame. The idea of getting grounded is doing the work collectively with your teams around what is your mission, your vision, what are your values? What's your core strategy? What's your plan? Why do you believe it? And that grounding work is really valuable. But then once you get the grounding work, you got to get real, which means you need data to understand what's working and what's not, and be willing to face brutal facts. This is where we're terrible, this is where we're good, and let's figure out how we move ahead. And then, once you get grounded and get real, then you get going, and that get going phase is like you test, try, tune, collaborate, pull ideas together, and just work towards achieving those mission and vision elements, watching that data along the way. I just love that frame, and Nathan and I, when we whiteboarded that, I still remember it to this day, it's been fundamental to probably how I've approached every piece of leadership I've ever done.
The other one is, Jerry Sue Thornton used to talk about this idea of you can be right and lose badly, and there's no truer phrase I've ever heard, is I've known people, they've won arguments and they've destroyed relationships. They've won the moment, but they just can't lead their way to the right place. And I think it's the realization as a leader, it's not about being right, it's about doing the right things in the right way and figuring out what that really looks like.
And the last one is one, my team here, God bless them, they hear me say it all the time, which is we need to do fewer things at A level, not more things at the B and C level. It is about making the main thing the main thing. There's so many brilliant people in the world of education. We end up excited by 15 different shiny objects. We got to get down to the ones that really matter for us in this moment and really focus on doing them at a really high level. We had that conversation at Western Governors all the time. In the early days of Western Governors, everybody had ideas about what we should do, especially as we got accreditation and took off, people went, "You should go international. You should go work for us. You should go this and that." And it was just Sam Smith from Washington State, Bob Mendenhall, longtime president there. They would just kind of focus on that idea of focus, focus, focus. But you saw that at Georgia State. You saw that at Arizona State. They picked the things that they were going to be good at, and they went and executed on it.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah, no, that's great. Those are all wonderful piece of advice. Doug, do you want to ask about --
Doug Lederman:
Well, yeah, just the corollary to that, which there's sometimes overlap, but sometimes differences as well. What advice do you pass on either elements of what you just said or completely new things? What do you tell people who are coming to you at this stage of your career for guidance on how to build theirs?
Mark Milliron:
Yeah. I think a few things. One is I've fought competitive martial arts for years. And so one of the things I learned was the power of balance. And that's kind of the realization that in some ways there's this phrase from the King Arthur legends about you are the land, which is how you take care of yourself, will emanate. And a good friend of mine, [inaudible] Villa Santos, he wrote a piece with Steve Mittelstet who was an amazing president at Richland College for years, where he talked about leadership from the inside out, where you've got to do your work internally and take care of yourself. That really matters. It matters more than you know because of the second thing, which is when you are in these roles, you're onstage nonstop. And that doesn't mean you're giving keynotes, it means your emails. It means the tone of voice. It means how you approach meetings. Every little thing is being watched by people who want to do good work, and they want signs. They want signals that they're going in the right direction or wrong direction. And you've got to have a level of awareness. You have to have a level of mindfulness, that is exhausting. And because of that, you've got to recharge. You've got to take the time to recharge and get yourself up, because you are going to be in that place and the people you're serving deserve it. They deserve you to be focused that way. So you've got to take the time to be able to have that yin and yang between self-care and then awareness about how you're driving yourself forward.
And the last thing is just, I'm a big believer in rookie courage. I think it's really, really healthy. We were talking before we got on about Alzheimer's. I got really interested in Alzheimer's and dementia because of deep connections with my family members who wrestled with it. And so I really got into brain research from the UCLA center and from the folks in the Netherlands. And one of the things I loved is this idea that if you want to stave off Alzheimer's and dementia, one of the most important things you can do is just be a rookie every year, learn something that stretches you out of your comfort zone, and it's unbelievably healthy for your brain. And I have found that that process of learning new things, whether it's now going to be about AI or going to be about this or about that, it stretches you in a way that just helps. It's healing and it's comforting and it's wonderful, and I think you end up getting to a much better place. It also is wonderfully humbling and helps you get connected with those students who are coming in and having that experience in your own place.
Bridget Burns:
That was wonderful. Thank you so much. I will ask, is there one leadership book that has been most useful to you in your career that we can leave behind for our audience?
Mark Milliron:
Oh my gosh, I wish there was one. I will tell you that we do this thing, we call it dessert at the end of our University Leadership Councils every month. We literally share a different book that everybody reads for the next month, and so recently we've been reading Extended Mind by Annie Paul, which is amazing; Range by Epstein, which is phenomenal. If you're a champion of liberal arts, you'll love Range. We also, because we're a military-affiliated institution, we love The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, which is, it's a neat book by McRaven, and the newest one that I'm absolutely in love with is Poetry Unbound. The Poetry Unbound collection is powerful, and especially a couple poems, the "Book of Genesis" and also "Wonder Woman," just unbelievable poems. I would encourage you, again, as a leader to take a moment that's part of that kind of, again, recharge, to do that kind of reflection and connection. There's real power and healing in that reflection and recharge coming out of that reading. And not to mention, it's not just books. It's also these days you have all kinds of different media you can pull together, right?
Bridget Burns:
Well, that was perfect. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you being so generous, sharing your wisdom with our audience, and so thanks as always for participating. This has been really great, and Doug, thanks for being an excellent co-host. For those of you at home, we will see you next time.
Bios of Guest and Co-Hosts
Guest: Mark Milliron, President & CEO, National University
Dr. Mark David Milliron serves as President & CEO of National University (NU), one of the largest private, nonprofit universities in the United States. NU is designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and has a 50-year history of innovating around the needs of military, working, and other nontraditional students. The faculty and staff at NU have catalyzed the careers of community difference makers in service industries such as education, healthcare, business, cybersecurity, law, and criminal justice with education initiatives (including Harmony SEL, Inspire Leading in Learning, and Workforce Education Solutions) that reach millions of students, teachers, and other working professionals each year. In addition to his work with NU, Dr. Milliron serves on the boards and advisory councils of education organizations, such as the Trellis Foundation, Bennett College, the Global Online Academy, Civitas Learning, the Mastery Transcript Consortium, and ISKME/Open Education Resource Commons. He also holds an appointment as a Professor of Practice in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education named Dr. Milliron a Distinguished Graduate for his service to the education field. In 2007, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) presented him with its prestigious National Leadership Award and inducted him into the AACC Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the United States Distance Learning Association’s Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2016 he was chosen by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the Top Technology Innovators in higher education; and in 2018, he was listed by EdTechDigest as one of the Top Influencers in the education technology field.
Co-Host: Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Dr. Bridget Burns is the founding Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA). For the past decade, she has advised university presidents, system chancellors, and state and federal policy leaders on strategies to expand access to higher education, address costs, and promote completion for students of all backgrounds. The UIA was developed during Bridget’s tenure as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship at Arizona State University. She held multiple roles within the Oregon University System, including serving as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor, where she won the national award for innovation in higher education government relations. She was a National Associate for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and has served on several statewide governing boards including ones governing higher education institutions, financial aid policy, and policy areas impacting children and families.
Co-Host: Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder, Inside Higher Ed
Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country. His work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003, after working at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one for a 2009 series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug and his wife, Kate Scharff, live in Bethesda, MD.
About Weekly Wisdom
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that happens live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, we join forces with Inside Higher Ed and talk with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations will be filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. Hopefully, these episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and a bit of inspiration.
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