The Speakers

Elena Quiroz-Livanis is the Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner of Academic Policy and Student Success at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Quiroz-Livanis is also a doctoral student in the Higher Education program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has been at the Department for six years and oversees the system’s efforts to create a unified system of transfer and transform developmental education. Under her leadership and with the support of a fantastic team, Quiroz-Livanis worked with faculty and transfer professionals across the three segments of public higher education to develop statewide transfer maps to over forty majors. Recently, Massachusetts implemented a reverse transfer policy and created a general education foundation to better support community college students interested in earning a baccalaureate degree in STEM. Quiroz-Livanis has also worked with Massachusetts public higher education institutions to develop a three-pronged approach to transforming developmental education. These efforts seek to increase the number of students completing college-level English and mathematics courses by using multiple measures to assess student readiness, increasing access to co-requisite courses, and building multiple mathematics pathways to ensure students complete the mathematics course appropriate for their major. Most recently, Quiroz-Livanis has begun working with the Commissioner of Higher Education under the direction of the Board of Higher Education to develop a systemwide strategic framework focused on equity. The framework seeks to significantly raise the enrollment, attainment, and long-term success outcomes among underrepresented student populations, specifically students from minoritized populations. 

Dr. Campbell is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor in the School of Education. Her research, funded by the Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education, examines three interrelated streams: college teaching in diverse institutional contexts, assessments of higher education quality, and the organizational environments that support faculty in thriving in their careers. Prior to coming to American, Dr. Campbell was Associate Professor in the Higher and Postsecondary Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Campbell’s research has been published in several top-tier journals, such as the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Teachers College Record. Her work has been highlighted in news venues, such as Inside Higher Education, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the New York Times. Dr. Campbell has served on several editorial boards including Review of Higher Education and Review of Educational Research. In 2015, Dr. Campbell was awarded the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. She also served on a committee of the National Academies to assess interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies in college and a committee of the National Center for Education Statistics, revising the national postsecondary sample surveys. Dr. Campbell received her Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Maryland, her M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University, and her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia.