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Eddie R. Cole, Ph.D., is Professor of Education and History at UCLA and a 2023-24 fellow at the  Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. 

He is author of the award-winning book, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the  Struggle for Black Freedom (Princeton University Press, 2020). 
His essays and op-eds have appeared in TIME, The Guardian, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chronicle of Higher Education; and he has appeared as expert commentator for CNN,  BBC World News, MSNBC, and C-Span Book TV. 

A historian of higher education, Professor Cole’s research explores on race and social movements on American college campuses; power and systems of power; and education’s  impact on society. 

In addition to research support from the Radcliffe Institute, Professor Cole’s has also received  fellowships and grants from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (now the  Institute for Citizens & Scholars), the Spencer Foundation, the National Academy of Education,  the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.

Anne F. Harris
President, Grinnell College

Anne F. Harris, was appointed the 14th president of Grinnell College on July 14, 2020. She is a recognized leader in diversity and inclusion, academic program and community development, and financial stewardship and fundraising. She serves on several boards and advisory groups related to higher education and economic development. Her energies serve the strategic plan of the College, Knowledge Into Action.

President Harris earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and classical languages from Agnes Scott College and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago.

Nicole Hurd
President, Lafayette College

Known as a tireless advocate for increasing student opportunity, President Hurd joined Lafayette College in fall 2021 and has since initiated a number of major initiatives to expand access at the College, including decisions that have made it the first liberal arts college to waive a complex financial aid form for students from high-poverty high schools, quadrupling to $200,000 the family-income level below which financial aid consists exclusively of grants and no loans, and reduced the number of activities requested of students on the Common App. 

Hurd is leading two critical College-wide processes to strengthen the excellence and impact of Lafayette as it prepares for its Bicentennial in 2026: developing a Strategic Plan and creating a Master Plan for the physical campus. Together, these initiatives will guide the College’s priorities and drive student success, including educational outcomes, residential experiences, investments in athletics and wellness, and a commitment to innovative creativity and community engagement for years to come. 

An early indicator of Hurd’s focus on student opportunity included securing an unprecedented gift from Chip Bergh ’79 H’22, retired President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., and his wife, Juliet, who created the Bergh Family Fellows program that is supporting 200 students engaging in undergraduate research, internships, and global experiences annually through a $5.25 million gift. 

Prior to becoming Lafayette’s president, Hurd served as CEO for more than 15 years of the national nonprofit College Advising Corps, which she founded. For this and related work, she was honored as a 2016 White House Champion of Change for College Opportunity, selected as a Featured Innovator by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and named by Washington Monthly as one the most innovative people in higher education, among other accolades. 

Hurd holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia. She and her husband, Bill, have one student in college and another in graduate school, and three dogs on campus.

Steven Tepper
President, Hamilton College

Steven Tepper became Hamilton College’s 21st president on July 1, 2024. He previously served as dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University (ASU), the largest comprehensive design and arts college in America.

A leading writer and speaker on higher education and U.S. cultural policy, Tepper has fostered national discussions about cultural engagement, creative work and careers, art and democracy, and the transformative possibilities of a 21st-century creative campus. He was a key architect of two national policy centers focused on creativity and cultural policy at Princeton University and Vanderbilt University, and launched the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at ASU.
 

John Tomasi is a political philosopher who earned his graduate degrees at Oxford University. He has held teaching and research positions at Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard Universities. Tomasi was for many years the Romeo Elton 1843 Professor of Natural Theology at Brown University. In January of 2022, Tomasi left his (comfortable!) chair at Brown to become the first President of Heterodox Academy in NYC. 

Heterodox Academy is a non-partisan, non-profit organization of 7000+ university professors and administrators who love their universities, and try to help them to live up to the ideals of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.

Ron Daniels is the 14th president of Johns Hopkins University, a position he has held since 2009. At Hopkins, he has strengthened interdisciplinary collaboration in research and education; enhanced student access; deepened engagement with the city of Baltimore; and supported economic and social innovation. 

A law and economics scholar, he is the co-author of eight books and dozens of scholarly articles on the intersections of law, economics, development, and public policy. His most recent book, What Universities Owe Democracy, takes up the challenges facing democracy and argues for the indispensable role that universities play in sustaining democratic societies at this critical moment in history. He previously served as provost at the University of Pennsylvania and dean and James M. Tory Professor of Law at the University of Toronto.