Kathleen deLaski - "Who Needs College Anymore?" - Joseph Olchefske

Kathleen deLaski will discuss Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won't Matter. She will be joined in conversation by Joseph Olchefske. A Q&A and signing will follow.

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About the Book: An optimistic yet practical assessment of how postsecondary education can evolve to meet the needs of next-generation learners

​With keen insight, Kathleen deLaski reimagines what higher education might offer and whom it should serve in Who Needs College Anymore? In the wake of declining US university enrollment and widespread crises of confidence in the value of a college degree, deLaski urges a mindset shift regarding the learning routes and credentials that best prepare students for success after high school.

The work draws on a decade of design-thinking research from the nonprofit Education Design Lab as well as 150 interviews of educational experts, college and career counselors, teachers, employers, and learners. DeLaski applies human-centered design to higher education reform, engaging the perspective of end users to search for better solutions. She highlights ten top principles based on user feedback and considers how well they are currently being enacted by colleges.

In particular, she urges institutions to better attend to the needs of new-majority learners, often described as nontraditional students, including people from low- or moderate-income backgrounds, people of color, first-generation students, veterans, single mothers, rural students, part-time attendees, and neurodivergent students. She finds ample opportunity for colleges to support learners via alternative pathways to marketable knowledge, including bootcamps, skills-based learning, and apprenticeships, career training, and other types of workplace learning. This work suggests innovation as a means of evolution.

About the Author: Kathleen deLaski is an education and workforce designer, as well as a futurist. She founded the Education Design Lab in 2013 to help colleges begin the journey to reimagine higher education toward the future of work. Her non-profit has helped 1200 colleges, orgs and economic regions design shorter, more affordable pathways for learners to achieve their economic goals. Stepping down after a decade as CEO of the Lab, Kathleen serves as board chair there and on the board of Credential Engine. She spends time as a senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard University and  teaches human-centered design and higher ed reform as an adjunct professor in the Honors College at George Mason University, where she also served as an appointee to the Board of Visitors. Kathleen has long played a dual role as a philanthropist, managing the deLaski Family Foundation, which has been a 25-year grant maker in education reform, wellbeing, sustainable agriculture and the arts. In a previous career, Kathleen spent twenty years as a TV and then a digital journalist, including time as ABC News White House correspondent. Followed by a political appointment as the first female Pentagon spokesperson. 

About the Interlocutor: Joseph Olchefske has been a leader in the K-12 educational community for thirty years, holding significant executive positions in for-profit, non-profit and public sector educational institutions.  He currently serves as an adjunct professor at both the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education, where he teaches Master’s level courses in education leadership, school finance and entrepreneurship. He also serves as an Academic Visitor at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he leads sessions on district leadership, education finance and school choice/desegregation. Mr. Olchefske served as Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools from 1998 to 2003. Mr. Olchefske’s philanthropic commitments have focused on issues of social justice and the American civil rights movement. He also serves as a Board Member and Advisor to the March on Washington Film Festival. He holds a BA degree from the University of Chicago and a Master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. He has been married to his wonderful wife Judy for 38 years and they have one daughter, India, who also graduated from the University of Chicago and is now a professional ballerina in London. More information can be found at www.josepholchefske.com