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Jamie P. Merisotis

President and Chief Executive Officer

Jamie P. Merisotis joined Lumina Foundation for Education as president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2008.

Merisotis, 43, is an expert on a wide range of higher-education issues. He is well versed in domestic and international issues related to higher-education opportunity and access, including student financial aid, minority-serving colleges and universities, global higher-education policy strategies, and social and economic benefits of higher education.

He is recognized as an authority on college and university financing and has published major studies and reports on topics ranging from higher-education rankings to technology-based learning.

Before joining Lumina Foundation, Merisotis was founding president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, an independent, non-partisan Washington, D.C.-based organization regarded as one of the world’s premier research and policy centers, concerned with higher-education policy development. After establishing the Institute in 1993, Merisotis contributed to the Institute's research while overseeing a staff of 30 professionals.

A champion of the idea that higher education reaps rich rewards for both society and individuals, Merisotis has focused his work on improving access to higher education for low-income, minority and other historically underrepresented populations. This commitment to equality of opportunity was a major factor in the establishment of the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education, an unprecedented coalition of national associations whose members represent more than 350 minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, American Indian Tribal Colleges and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Merisotis worked to foster the 1999 alliance by leaders from the minority-serving institutions. The Alliance serves as a leading voice for the interests of these institutions and has become a model of collaboration, unity and innovation among communities of color. Merisotis oversaw the Alliance’s numerous initiatives, including the National Articulation and Transfer Network, as well as programs that support leadership development, increased capacity in the STEM disciplines and other issues of national importance.

Merisotis also managed the Institute’s global portfolio, working to advance the effect educational opportunities can have on economic, social and cultural development, especially in southern Africa, the former Soviet Union and other regions of the world in transition. In 2006, he helped establish the Global Center on Private Financing of Higher Education, an Institute initiative to address the growing role of private financing as an avenue for expanding access to postsecondary education around the world. This international center serves as a repository of comprehensive data and trends analysis concerning private student loans, scholarships, and other philanthropic aid and public-private partnerships. Additionally, Merisotis oversaw the Institute’s work on college and university ranking systems, policy leadership development and other areas with cross-national implications.

Prior to founding the Institute, Merisotis had served as executive director of the National Commission on Responsibilities for Financing Postsecondary Education, a bipartisan commission appointed by the U.S. president and congressional leaders. He authored the Commission’s final report, Making College Affordable Again, and many of the Commission’s recommendations became national policy during the 1990s. Merisotis also assisted in the creation of the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps), serving as an advisor to senior management on issues related to the quality and effectiveness of national-service initiatives. From 1993 to 1997, Merisotis coordinated site-based evaluations of more than 100 AmeriCorps projects.

Merisotis’ work has been published extensively in the higher-education field. He has written and edited several books and monographs, and he is a frequent contributor to magazines, journals and newspapers. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, the Times Higher Education Supplement (London), The Chronicle of Higher Education, Higher Education in Europe, The Review of Higher Education and other periodicals.

Merisotis is a member of the executive committee of the European Access Network, headquartered in London. He also is a member of the board of trustees of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and previously served as the College's alumni association president. Merisotis' previous board service included chairman of the board for Scholarship America, the nation’s largest private-sector scholarship and educational-support organization; vice chairman of the board of directors for the Washington Internship Institute; and member of the board of directors of the National College Access Network.

Merisotis has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2002 Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and the 2001 Community College Government Relations Award presented by the American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College Trustees. He was a 2005 finalist for the Brock International Prize in Education, and in 1998 he was named one of the top young leaders (under the age of 45) in American higher education by Change magazine.

Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation

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