Improving College Access and Success:
​The Need for a Comprehensive Approach

Laura W. Perna is James S. Riepe Professor and founding Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (AHEAD) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). She is President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), past Vice President of the Postsecondary Division of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and chair-elect of Penn’s Faculty Senate. Her research identifies how social structures, educational practices, and public policies promote and limit college access and success, particularly for individuals from lower-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups. Recent books include The Attainment Agenda: State policy leadership for higher education (with Joni Finney, 2014, Johns Hopkins University Press). Her research has been featured by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and other outlets. She has provided invited testimony to the U.S. Senate’s Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee and U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. She is a Fellow of AERA and Penn, and recipient of ASHE’s Early Career Achievement Award, Penn’s Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award.

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