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Sara Goldrick-Rab, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology & Medicine at Temple University and President and Founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice in Philadelphia. She is also the Chief Strategy Officer for Emergency Aid at Edquity, a student financial success and emergency aid company, and founded Believe in Students, a nonprofit distributing emergency aid.

Goldrick-Rab’s innovative research on college students’ basic needs sparked the national #RealCollege movement and legislation to address food and housing insecurity. Ranked in the Top 10 among education scholars according to Education Week, she is also a Carnegie Fellow. In 2016 POLITICO magazine named her one of the top 50 people shaping American politics. Goldrick-Rab’s book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, was featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and awarded the $100,000 Grawemeyer prize, which she donated to student emergency aid.

The Chronicle of Higher Education calls Goldrick-Rab “a defender of impoverished students and a scholar of their struggles,” an accurate description of her life’s work. A sought-after speaker, she has given talks for the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, United States Student Association, National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs, TEDx Philadelphia, SXSWedu, and for colleges, legislators, philanthropists, and business leaders across the country.

Goldrick-Rab is widely published in venues such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Sociology of Education, Review of Educational Research, and Teachers College Record, and co-edited a Harvard Education Press volume, Reinventing Financial Aid: Charting a New Course to College Affordability. The American Educational Research Association bestowed its 2017 award for best research article on her study of financial aid and college employment.

Dr. Dhanfu E. Elston (pronounced: dah-nee-foo) serves as Complete College America’s Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President for Strategy where he utilizes his national policy and campus expertise for practical application, implementation, and scaling of CCA strategies at institutions throughout the United States. He provides oversight of national external partnerships and has led CCA’s pathways initiatives, the Purpose First career alignment strategy, 15 To Finish national campaign, technology Seal of Approval, and scaling standards to close achievement gaps. Elston has also coordinated relationships with Governor’s Offices, higher education state-wide systems, and national partners in their college completion efforts. Recently, he launched a national initiative with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to amplify completion efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and minority-serving institutions. Over twenty-five years of his higher education career in academic and student affairs, Elston has created and implemented comprehensive success and retention programs that have garnered national attention. He has been recognized as a champion of college completion policy initiatives at institutions that educate highly diverse and underrepresented student populations.

Prior to his current role with CCA, Dr. Elston held the position of Executive Director of Student Success and Transition at Purdue University Calumet. Under Elston’s leadership, Purdue Calumet (now Purdue Northwest) experienced exponential gains in first-year retention, graduation rates, and enrolled credit hours. In addition, enhancements made to campus-wide academic advisement processes led to the receipt of the EAB’s inaugural Data-Driven Impact Award for utilization of predictive analytics.

Dr. Elston earned a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from Georgia State University where he conducted research in student retention, intercultural relations, learning communities, leadership development, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He earned both an M.A. in Educational Leadership and B.S. in Biology from Clark Atlanta University.

Chauncy Lennon, Ph.D., is the New York-based vice president for learning and work at Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all.  He leads Lumina’s community college strategy to equitably expand access to high-quality short-term credentials and associate degrees.

He came to Lumina in 2018 after nearly five years as the managing director for workforce strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he drove the firm’s $350 million investment in philanthropic initiatives. He previously managed portfolios at the Ford Foundation related to economic advancement and workforce development.

He serves on the New York City Workforce Development Board, providing oversight of the city’s policies and services for youths, adults, job seekers, and employers.  He is also on the board of Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, a leading provider of innovative financial coaching services for workers. He is a board observer of two education technology firms: Edquity, a student emergency aid delivery platform, and Noodle, the nation’s fastest-growing online higher education network.

Lennon is a graduate of Williams College and holds a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. He taught urban studies at Barnard College and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Stephen J. Handel, Ph.D., oversees a portfolio of special opportunity grants at ECMC Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as the College Board’s Senior Strategist for Strategic Higher Education Assessment Use and Opportunity. In this capacity, he consulted with college and university enrollment leaders in the application of fair and effective higher education admission assessments and other resources that benefit students seeking success in postsecondary education, especially students from underserved groups. Steve also served as chief admission officer for the University of California (UC) system, providing leadership on freshman and community college transfer policy and practice for the nine UC undergraduate campuses. With over 23 years of service at the UC, Steve served in a variety of leadership roles in such areas as undergraduate admissions, enrollment management, outreach and student services.

Steve is the co-author of books and monographs on higher education, including Beyond Free College: Making Higher Education Work for 21^st Century Students with Eileen L. Strempel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and the two-volume series, Transition and Transformation (also with Strempel, 2016, 2018), The Promise of the Transfer Pathway: Opportunity and Challenge for Community College Students Seeking the Baccalaureate Degree (with Ronald Williams, 2012) and the Community College Sourcebook: Strategies for Advising Transfer Students from Experienced Community College Counselors (2009). Articles and essays include Fairness and Fate in Elite College Admissions, Reigniting the Promise of the Transfer Pathway, College Admission: Now and Then Again, Under Match and the Community College Student, Reimagining Remediation (with Ronald Williams), Strengthening the Nation by Narrowing the Gap (with James Montoya) and Second Chance, Not Second Class: A Blueprint for Community College Transfer.

Steve earned his PhD and MA degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, a BA from California State University, Sacramento, and an AA from Cosumnes River Community College (Sacramento, CA).