Opportunity Forum with College Futures: Courageously Advancing Racial Equity Post-SCOTUS

How does the work to advance racial equity continue after the latest SCOTUS rulings on affirmative action? College Futures President & CEO Eloy Ortiz Oakley discusses lessons learned under Prop 209, today’s legal climate, and opportunities for higher education leaders and advocates with Thuy Thi Nguyen, partner at Garcia Hernández Sawhney, and Jessie Ryan, executive vice president at The Campaign for College Opportunity.

Thuy Thi Nguyen is a partner at Garcia Hernández Sawhney. She formerly served as president of Foothill College and interim general counsel for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. Her legal and policy framework, the Equitable Protection Principle, offers California’s higher education institutions guidance on how to continue anti-racism work while complying with California’s Prop 209 and the recent SCOTUS decisions on race-conscious admissions.

Jessie Ryan is the executive vice president at The Campaign for College Opportunity, where she leads the organization’s advocacy and policy efforts to increase the number of California students accessing higher education, impact the rate that students succeed in reaching their educational goals, and close racial equity gaps. The organization’s national initiative, Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion, Empowering Action, seeks to promote evidence-based solutions via a series of papers and toolkits that advance more equitable strategies in college preparation, access, and completion despite the Supreme Court’s decision on race-conscious admissions.