#007: Rachel Lipson on America’s Hidden Economic Engines: Community Colleges

Policy Works

On this episode, we talk with Rachel Lipson about the community college system in the US. Rachel was until recently co-founder and director of the Harvard Project on Workforce, an interdisciplinary, collaborative project across the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Rachel and Robert Schwartz, Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, are editors of an upcoming volume titled "America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity".

On this episode we talk with Rachel about the potential of community colleges in powering the economy, including:

- how they fit into their local economic development ecosystems

- how some community colleges around the country have innovated

- the institutional constrains that prevent them from being as powerful as they can be.

Schwartz and Lipson’s book published by the Harvard University Press will be available later this Spring. See episode notes for more details (including pre-ordering links and individual case studies) and other references from the episode!

Learn more about the Reimagining the Economy project: http://reimagining-the-economy.hks.harvard.edu

America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity

The Project on the Workforce at Harvard

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

NOVA (North Virginia Community College)

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

Project Quest

Year Up

Lorain County Community College

Per Scholas

Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success; Thomas R. Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, Davis Jenkins