Jasmine Haywood, Ph.D., is strategy director for credentials of value at Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis committed to making learning beyond high school available to all. In this role, she leads Lumina’s work to ensure that postsecondary credentials—particularly bachelor’s degrees—carry real and equitable value for students, employers, and communities. Her portfolio focuses on three solution areas: designing bachelor’s programs that align with labor market demands; helping students navigate pathways to good jobs; and catalyzing data to increase transparency and improve how credentials of value are designed and delivered.
Haywood began her career as an admissions counselor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an experience that inspired her lifelong commitment to improving postsecondary access and success. She went on to serve as a research assistant at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis’s Center for Urban and Multicultural Education, managing editor for the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and a visiting faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership at Indiana State University.
A recognized scholar and strategist, Haywood has published peer-reviewed research on Black and Latino students in higher education, microaggressions, and the experiences of faculty of color. She is frequently invited to speak nationally on the intersection of higher education, workforce preparation, and equity. Her contributions have been honored with national recognition, including being named a 2016 Ebony Magazine Power 100 honoree, receiving Indiana University’s Neal-Marshall Alumni Club Standard Bearer Award, and receiving the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education’s Advocacy Award.
Haywood holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in higher education and student affairs from Indiana University.
