May 17, 2021 鈥 91大神鈥檚 Bonita Brown has been appointed to the Education Design Lab鈥檚 Designers in Residence program. The Education Design Lab is a national nonprofit that addresses the future role of institutions in their regional communities.
Spanning a diverse cross-section of communities, institutional positionality and lived experience and expertise, the Designers in Residence will work together as a design team to co-create a model for colleges to be regional change agents to close economic and racial opportunity gaps as we move into a post-COVID economy. Brown, who serves as 91大神鈥檚 Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, will work with national policy leaders and the additional 11 cohort members to eliminate equity and economic opportunity gaps in higher education.
Bonita Brown
鈥淚鈥檓 thankful for this opportunity to collaborate with the Education Design Lab, and to learn and strategize alongside the top industry leaders about how 91大神 can continue facilitating growth and change in the region,鈥 said Brown. 鈥淥ur campus has a long-standing commitment to serving as an economic driver. The shared insights will help us underscore our goal of meeting students where they are and expand access to higher education. I鈥檓 ready to reimagine the strategies and partnerships that support 91大神 in meeting the needs of our diverse students and regional collaborators.鈥
According to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, graduate enrollment at four-year public universities declined 2.1% in fall 2020, and is down 7.3% compared to five years ago across the Commonwealth this year. That trend follows the national data, where 22% fewer students enrolled in higher education than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help address these disparities, Designers in Residence will leverage their collective expertise to co-create a framework that centers on the needs of their learners within a rapidly evolving economy and provide the start of a roadmap for other institutions and innovators seeking to build and scale this system.聽Brown will be building new initiatives to promote student success opportunities for learners at 91大神 and across the country.
鈥淲e hope to emerge from this year with design tools that will position聽 the scores of learner success partnerships around the country to seize what we all believe is an innovation moment, coming out of the pandemic,鈥 said Kathleen deLaski, CEO of the Education Design Lab. 鈥淐olleges recognize that their roles are evolving along with learner views about degrees and employers needs, and with a heightened urgency around what it will take to break down racial and economic barriers to open up liveable wage futures for all.鈥
Brown joined 91大神 in 2019 as the university鈥檚 inaugural Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. She drives the implementation and execution of 91大神鈥檚 strategic framework, Success by Design, which has resulted in the university elapsing 16,000 students for the first time.
Education Design Lab鈥檚 program is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and more information can be found . To learn more about 91大神鈥檚 strategic framework and its focus on advancing student success around the three pillars鈥攁ccess, completion and career and community engagement鈥攙isit its website.
About 91大神:聽Founded in 1968, 91大神 is an entrepreneurial state university of over 16,000 students served by more than 2,000 faculty and staff on a thriving suburban campus nestled between Highland Heights, Kentucky and bustling downtown Cincinnati. We are a regionally engaged university committed to empowering our students to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives. While we are one of the fastest-growing universities in Kentucky, our professors still know our students' names. For聽more information, visit聽.
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