By Rachel Williams, NACAC Communications

Arlington, VA (April 5, 2024) – Education First, a national, mission-driven strategy and policy organization with deep expertise in education improvement, has been selected to help bring NACAC’s vision for a new center that reimagines college access to life.

Over the coming months, Education First will help NACAC build a comprehensive organizational blueprint for the center, including its vision and theory of action, its organizational structure and resource needs, its objectives and strategies for each initiative housed within the center, including how they will be connected and coordinated, and its key outcome and performance indicators. The blueprint also will include a three-year implementation plan with a high-level launch timeline, organizational chart, operating budget, and will propose a name for the center.

“We believe that the transformative power of postsecondary education should be accessible to all who seek it, and to truly accomplish that, we must redesign the outmoded, inequitable structures and processes that dominate college admission today,” said David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer at NACAC. “We are thrilled to have the help of Education First as we design and build what we expect to be a transformative center in higher education.”

Education First brings 18 years of experience to the project, having supported more than 100 strategic planning and business modeling projects for top education organizations. As it helps design the center, it will include perspectives from students, NACAC members, and association partners.

NACAC first announced its vision for this center at NACAC Conference 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland, during CEO Angel Pérez’s State of the Association address. Pérez shared the vision that the center will encompass research and prototyping of new assessment and evaluation initiatives and will have intentional workforce development initiatives that will cultivate the next generation of admission and counseling professionals.

To help support this vision, consider donating to NACAC’s fund dedicated to the center.