NCII is providing the project leadership for the Rural Guided Pathways Project. A team of implementation coaches, leadership coaches, and subject matter experts join NCII in working with participating colleges and developing the curriculum.
NCII also is building on longstanding partnerships with the Community College Research Center and the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program to support participating colleges.
As a long-time advocate for student success, Chris has spent 20 years promoting practices and policies that streamline and accelerate student pathways to postsecondary credentials. Chris joined NCII in 2022 to continue this important work. His current efforts focus on supporting guided pathways implementation at the institutional level — especially at rural community colleges — and establishing leadership development programs to create a pipeline of college leaders to expand success for all students.
Prior to joining NCII, Chris led his own consulting business through which he partnered with college and state leaders to advance the college completion agenda. Prior to his work as a consultant, Chris served as associate vice president at Jobs for the Future (JFF), directing efforts to expand the number of Student Success Centers nationally. This work followed four years as the founding executive director of the Michigan Center for Student Success, a previous stint at JFF leading the state policy component of the Achieving the Dream initiative, and a senior leadership role as vice president at Owens Community College.
Chris is also a lecturer at the University of Michigan, where he earned his doctorate in higher education administration.
Gretchen is a national leader in higher education transformation, focusing on issues of guided pathways and rural student success at NCII. Before joining NCII in 2020, Gretchen led the design and implementation of the American Association of Community Colleges’ Pathways Project 1.0 and 2.0 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through that work, she helped develop a national model for scaling guided pathways reform. She advises the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, the California Guided Pathways Project, Texas Pathways, Jobs for the Future’s Student Success Centers, the Gates Foundation’s Completion by Design, and the Lumina Foundation’s Beyond Financial Aid. Through these and other efforts, she has supported change work at hundreds of institutions through cohort-based projects and engaged in deep work via direct relationships with individual colleges.
Gretchen previously served as a program director for Jobs for the Future’s Postsecondary State Policy team and spent five years in the Virginia Community College System, first as educational policy director and then as assistant vice chancellor for academic and student services. She also staffed state college boards in Arizona and Virginia and taught in undergraduate- and graduate-level education programs.
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