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Nancy Zimpher, who has been chancellor of the State University of New York System for eight years, will found and lead a new think tank at the system’s Rockefeller Institute of Government after she steps down at the end of August.
Zimpher’s next move, which will be announced Thursday, about 13 months after she first said she would be stepping down, will have her creating and leading the Center for Education Pipeline Systems Change as a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute, starting in January. The center is slated to work on many of the issues Zimpher championed during her time as SUNY chancellor.
They include a “cradle-to-career” approach to higher education policy making and the idea of systemness. Development of some programs Zimpher has focused on, like the TeachNY teacher preparation initiative, will also be moved from the SUNY system to the new center.
“I see the power of policy, and I think the natural next step for putting into practice many of the things that I think are important is to see if we can embed those concepts in state policy and maybe, ultimately, federal policy -- and certainly in local activities,” Zimpher said in a telephone interview.
“In order to move the dial, we really have to look at the entire education pipeline of how students succeed, from early childhood education and kindergarten all the way through to college completion and hopefully work force and life success,” she said. “You insert into that, what is the role of higher education? And how is it what we do in teacher preparation connects to how well prepared students are when they come to college? For me, the big connector lies in policy development.”
Early on, the center will focus on efforts including the creation of a statewide education data system and a “train the trainer” certification program. It will also work to identify policies that can be scaled up.
The key to scaling up best practices that have been proven to work lies in systems, Zimpher said. She believes the best way to make that happen is by working in a think tank.
“Where is it working, why is it working and how can we take what works to scale?” Zimpher said. “Being able to align my work with this very complex system of higher education on the heels of being able to partner with one of the most complex state departments of education, which is what we did through TeachNY, really gives credibility to policy.”
Zimpher will also be a faculty member at the University at Albany and advise its president, Havidán Rodríguez, on cradle-to-career partnerships.
