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Welcome to “Greater Ed Coverage,” my new weblog at Inside Greater Ed. A lot of you could know me because the creator of “University of Venus,” the long-running weblog at Inside Greater Ed that I launched with a gaggle of wonderful ladies in larger ed within the spring of 2010. “College of Venus” continues to be right here and going robust, and I’ll nonetheless be enhancing and writing over there.
Nonetheless, I additionally needed to create an area for these of us excited by coverage points in larger schooling. Final 12 months, I served as chief of coverage and planning for Mayor Kim Janey in Boston, and I turned absolutely immersed in municipal coverage points for New England’s largest metropolis. My portfolio included broader coverage points past schooling, however it additionally included all education-related points—from early schooling and care by means of PK-12 and on to larger schooling. I commonly met with leaders and different representatives from our native schools and universities for COVID-19–associated challenges and updates, and we additionally mentioned initiatives similar to profession and school pathways work targeted on Boston youth. On this position, I used to be additionally accountable for the day-to-day operations of boards and commissions, together with the nomination and choice course of for the Boston College Committee. I commonly staffed the mayor’s conferences with space college and school presidents and with the management of the Boston Public Colleges, and I additionally staffed our conferences with the management of the Boston College Committee. I found that I actually benefit from the affect that coverage modifications can have, particularly within the space of racial fairness.
Once I returned to Boston College in October 2021, my time serving in metropolis corridor left me wanting extra within the space of schooling coverage. Final fall, I used to be lucky to have the ability to take part in conferences and occasions with a number of teams, together with the American Council on Schooling, the Nationwide Affiliation for Neighborhood School Entrepreneurship, the American Affiliation of Schools for Trainer Schooling and the New England Fee of Greater Schooling. Working with members of those associations jogged my memory of how a lot I’ve all the time loved working within the space of upper ed coverage. As a longtime mentor lately instructed me, “Mary, you might have been doing coverage work for over 30 years!” And as my phenomenal consultant Ayanna Presley likes to say, “Coverage is my love language.” That resonates!
This previous January, I took over management of Boston College’s larger schooling administration program, and I’m excited to be educating Greater Schooling Coverage within the fall of 2022. As I moved extra formally into this larger ed coverage house, I discovered myself wanting to put in writing about this work increasingly more, and this was how the concept of the “Greater Ed Coverage” weblog was born. On this weblog, I’ll give attention to points like racial fairness agendas, scholar mortgage forgiveness, early school, workforce readiness, affirmative motion, meals insecurity, help for first-generation college students, test-optional initiatives and a lot extra! I’ll write about newly launched experiences, coverage journal articles, occasions and convenings, and I can be interviewing larger ed coverage consultants. I’d love to listen to from you. Let me know whom you desire to me to interview, which experiences you contemplate to be should reads and which occasions are can’t-miss occasions. If larger ed coverage is one in every of your areas of experience, ship me your journal articles, invite me to your shows and let’s discover time to speak!
I sit up for creating this new house with you at “Greater Ed Coverage” at Inside Greater Ed.
Mary Churchill is the previous chief of coverage and planning for Mayor Kim Janey within the metropolis of Boston and present affiliate dean for strategic initiatives and group engagement and director of the upper schooling administration program at Wheelock School of Schooling and Human Improvement at Boston College. She is co-author of When Colleges Close: Leading in a Time of Crisis. She is on Twitter @mary_churchill and may be reached by e mail at [email protected].
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