The third ILEA Summit was held October 30, 2019, on the campus of Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) with over 150 staff, faculty and administrators from the ILEA cohort in attendance. The theme of the Summit was “Equity-Minded, Data Driven: Building Campus Capacity to Close Completion Gaps.”

The day-long event was kicked off with a warm welcome from MVCC President Dr. Sylvia Jenkins, and MVCC Student Trustee Drew Williams, followed by a presentation from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and other speakers.

Morning keynote presentations from Dr. Kenyatta Lovett, Assistant Commissioner of Workforce Services at the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, and Dr. Anthony Carnevale, Research Professor and Director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, highlighted the importance of using state-level and workforce data to build supports for students that connect college to career.

During the afternoon, Dr. Sarah Whitley, Senior Director of First-generation Student Success at NASPA, focused on higher education institutions supporting first-generation students, while Dr. Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director of the Indiana University for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute discussed the importance of using student engagement data in their respective workshops.

Lisa Castillo Richmond, Managing Director of PCC presented on the “State of ILEA: From Planning to Implementation” and Mike Abrahamson, PCC Policy Analyst, presented on the recently released PCC College Affordability Studies. Additional sessions were conducted on strategy topics including: Building a data-informed and equity focused culture; Providing access and supports for undocumented students; Using student voice in our work; and Leveraging National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) dashboards.

PCC would like to thank all presenters and participants of this fall summit.