Michelle Asha Cooper

Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D., is a higher education policy leader and coauthor of Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, a book that calls on colleges to redesign their practices and culture to better serve today’s diverse students. She has served as vice president for public policy and executive director of the Washington, D.C., office at Lumina Foundation, and previously held senior roles in the U.S. Department of Education as Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs.

Cooper was president and CEO of the Institute for Higher Education Policy for more than a decade, where she led research and advocacy focused on college access, affordability, and student success. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Charleston, a master’s degree from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.