Conversation Highlights State’s Focus on an Equitable Recovery Through Higher Education Reforms
California Competes’s 10th anniversary interview series continues with a conversation between Executive Director Dr. Su Jin Gatlin Jez and Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis. As the Lieutenant Governor, Kounalakis has the unique vantage point of serving on the governing boards of all three public higher education segments in the state in addition to chairing the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. She highlights the state’s priorities around increasing accessibility, capacity, and diversity across the state’s higher education system.
A daughter of immigrants, Lt. Gov. Kounalakis discusses the importance of broadening pathways for underserved communities such as first-generation students and those from immigrant backgrounds as well as building out system capacity through online education.
“This pathway of the California Dream for millions of Californians goes through the halls of public higher education in our state,” says Lt. Gov. Kounalakis. “What I’ve been able to roll up my sleeves and immerse myself in is how to make the opportunities that our family has had available for future generations.”
Learn more about Lt. Gov. Kounalakis’s priorities for higher education and workforce development on California Competes’s blog.
