“Getting Past Go” Project Partners
Education Commission of the States (ECS)
The Education Commission of the States (ECS) is an interstate compact created in 1965 to improve public education by facilitating the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization involving key leaders from all levels of the education system, ECS creates unique opportunities to build partnerships, share information and promote the development of policy based on available research and strategies.
Project Staff:
Bruce Vandal, Director Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development Institute
Mary Fulton, Policy Analyst
Matthew Smith, Policy Analyst
Ann Rautio, Researcher
Lumina Foundation for Education
Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private, independent foundation, strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access to and success in education beyond high school. Through grants for research, innovation, communication, and evaluation, as well as policy education and leadership development, Lumina Foundation addresses issues that affect access and educational attainment among all students, particularly underserved student groups, including adult learners. The Foundation bases its mission on the belief that postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments that individuals can make in themselves and that society can make in its people.
Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI)
Knowledge in the Public Interest is the web-based collaboration partner on the Getting Past Go team. Its role is to enable GPG to bring together wide ranging groups of professionals committed to innovative policy development that supports developmental education and results in significant improvement in student success. By incorporating online work GPG hopes to involve an unusually large and geographically dispersed group of people and thereby to both deepen and accelerate the work.
Knowledge in the Public Interest works primarily in the field of education. The company follows a structured process to support effective online collaboration:
- Design: Guide planning of collaboration including clarification of goals, metrics, outputs, and outcomes
- Deliver: Facilitate, organize, maintain and support online events
- Analyze: Use qualitative and quantitative methods to summarize inputs, frame insights and offer recommendations
- Sustain: Cultivate and re-purpose knowledge to advance the overall GPG initiative.
About Us:
Diana Woolis received her master’s and doctorate in higher and adult education from Teachers College Columbia University. Her research and career have been focused on systemic change that improves access and equity. She has held leadership positions at the city, state, and national level in research, policy, and program and has designed and launched a variety of large scale national demonstration projects.
Susan Restler, before co-founding Knowledge in the Public Interest, was a Managing Director and head of Marketing for JP Morgan Private Banking and JP Morgan Investment Management. Her experience is in strategic planning and marketing, including internet-based services. She is a graduate of Harvard University and has an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Policy Research on Preparation, Access and Remedial Education (PRePARE)
PRePARE, which is located at the University of Massachusetts Boston, will produce the literature review, assist with the national state policy database and state policy audits, and will conduct the project institutional case studies. PRePARE has extensive experience in the study of developmental studies and case study research methods. Their project’s advisory board will serve as additional support for the Getting Past Go project. PRePARE is led by:
Dr. Tara L. Parker, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, in the Department of Leadership in Education at University of Massachusetts-Boston’s Graduate College of Education is principal investigator of PREPARE.
Dr. Leticia T. Bustillos, Associate Director at Los Angeles County Education Foundation, Greater Los Angeles Area.
