Progress Report and Research and Context Brief
Adriana Flores-Ragade is director of diversity initiatives for the Relationship Development unit at the College Board. Adriana earned her BA in Government and Spanish with cum laude distinction from Claremont McKenna College. Adriana currently oversees four diversity conferences, strategic partnerships with organizations serving diverse communities, and serves as a Spanish spokesperson for the College Board. Prior to joining the College Board, Adriana worked for the American Red Cross Palo Alto Area Chapter as Director of Community Services and for Claremont McKenna College where she held an assistant director of admissions and financial aid position. Adriana is a member of the Examples of Excelencia selection committee for Excelencia in education and a local Red Cross volunteer.
Keon M. McGuire is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and served as in intern at the College Board. His research explores identity development among students of color; engagement and retention of racial/ethnic minority students at predominately White institutions (PWIs); and the experiences of African Americans in higher education. He has prior experience in student affairs; namely, conducting best practices research and strategic planning for student activities, sorority and fraternity life, office of the chaplain, residence life and housing, volunteer services, and office of multicultural affairs. Currently, he serves as the Research Assistant for the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania.
John Michael Lee, Jr is policy director for the Advocacy and Policy Center in the Advocacy, Government Relations and Development unit at the College Board. John earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from New York University and his MPA with a concentration in economic development from the Andrew Young School at Georgia State University. John works on a variety of projects that include the College Completion Agenda Progress Report, Hispanic Supplement to the College Completion Agenda, the 1st Annual Counselor Survey, and the Educational Experience of Young Men of Color. John’s research interests include student access and participation in higher education, student preparation, and higher education policy. Prior to joining the College Board, John served as a policy analyst for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. John is a member of several professional associations including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).
Dr. Frances Contreras is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington in the College of Education in Leadership and Policy Studies. She researches issues of equity and access for Latina/o and underrepresented students in the education pipeline, including the transition between K-12 and higher education, community college transfer, affirmative action in higher education and the role of the public policy arena in ensuring student access and equity across a P-20 continuum. Dr. Contreras received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Educational Administration & Policy Analysis, Master of Education from Harvard University, and B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.
Her most recent book Achieving Equity for Latino Students: Expanding the Pathway to Higher Education through Public Policy (Teachers College Press, 2011) focuses on select policy issues that have inhibited Latino student success, and select levers to alter the path of under investment in Latinos, raise student achievement, increase the number of Latino students transitioning to and completing college in the United States. Frances is also co-author of The Latino Education Crisis (Harvard University Press, 2009) with P. Gandara and her work has been published in leading education journals including the Harvard Educational Review, Educational Policy, Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education, Journal of Advanced Academics, the Encyclopedia for Diversity in Education and the Bilingual Research Journal.
She serves on the boards of the ACLU of Washington, the Journal of Advanced Academics, LEAP (Latino Educational Achievement Project), and the Lupe Contreras Memorial Scholarship Fund.