Accountability and Opportunity in Higher Education

Gary Orfield is a Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science & Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is also codirector of the Civil Rights Project, which he co-founded at Harvard University in 1996. He is a political scientist whose work includes more than a dozen authored or edited books, one of which was cited by the Supreme Court in upholding affirmative action. Orfield’s work focuses on equal opportunity and civil rights and has been included in testimony in more than twenty major class action civil rights lawsuits on school segregation, housing discrimination, and other civil rights violations. He has taught at six universities, including Harvard University and the University of Chicago, and is a member of the National Academy of Education.

Nicholas Hillman is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he is also a faculty affiliate in Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education and the La Follette School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on postsecondary finance and financial aid policy, primarily as they relate to college access and equity, and his work includes research on student loan debt and default, performance-based funding, and college affordability. Hillman teaches courses in politics of higher education, higher education finance, educational policy, and research methods.