The Pullias Center for Higher Education and Principal Investigator Adrianna Kezar have received a multi-year, $400,000 grant from the ECMC Foundation to continue their ground-breaking work on Shared Equity Leadership (SEL).

SEL is a collaborative process where leaders work together to support both individual and organizational transformation, contributing to a change in organizational culture. With this approach, equity becomes everyone’s work, rather than siloed in a single office or leader’s purview, and is targeted to supported the needs of all postsecondary education students.

This newly-funded aspect of the SEL work at the Pullias Center will examine how to support SEL on campuses that want to start up the approach and follow their journey stories to help other campuses as they begin this work. It will also create supportive resources for campuses that wish to start up SEL in the future.

Kezar notes the importance of this work right now: “Campuses are increasingly turning to shared equity leadership as a way to continue DEI work in this challenging political environment.” She continued, ­“And they want to do so quickly, so we are hoping to learn lessons from campuses who are trying to accelerate their start up process to SEL to help others.”

Co-Principal Investigator Elizabeth Holcombe notes that the research aims to provide insights that benefit both practitioners and scholars in understanding the key early decisions that lead to SEL uptake and meaningful transformation. “We are excited for the opportunity to continue learning from and supporting DEI leaders, especially during this challenging time. Our hope is that the resources we create during this project will benefit not just the participants but institutions and leaders across the country who continue the important work of making higher education more equitable and inclusive,” said Holcombe.

Earlier work by the Pullias Center on Shared Equity Leadership, including six reports and a toolkit, focused on different aspects of Shared Equity Leadership in higher education. The initial report, Shared Equity Leadership: Making Equity Everyone’s Work, suggests that the work of improving equity outcomes of systemically marginalized students is at its most effective when leadership teams across campus take collective responsibility in developing and moving the DEI agenda forward. This work was done in partnership with the American Council on Education (ACE).

ECMC Foundation joins previous projects funders the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the TIAA Institute. The Pullias Center began work on the Shared Equity Leadership concept in 2019.

The Pullias Center will host a webinar on May 1 at 11:00 a.m. (PT) for those interested in starting Shared Equity Leadership at their institution. "“Starting Shared Equity Leadership: Insights from Research and Practice," hosted by Adrianna Kezar and Elizabeth Holcombe, will explore SEL with two universities that have successfully implemented the approach, University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Minnesota. Registration for the free webinar is now open.

About the ECMC Foundation:

ECMC Foundation is a national, private foundation whose North Star goal is to eliminate equity gaps in postsecondary completion by 2040. The Foundation uses a spectrum of funding structures, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments through Education Innovation Ventures, to invest in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures. In pursuit of system change, the Foundation’s grantmaking and investing are concentrated on the three following strategic priorities: removing barriers to postsecondary completion; building the capacity of organizations, institutions and systems; and transforming the postsecondary ecosystem.