Nikki Edgecombe is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) and a research professor in the Education Policy and Social Analysis Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. She conducts research on developmental education, English Learners, higher education finance, teaching and learning, faculty development, and workforce development, among other topics. She is the principal investigator for the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) and a co-principal investigator for the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative, both of which are research and development centers funded by the US Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. She oversees CCRC’s research portfolio on developmental education, which, in addition to CAPR, has recently included a mixed-methods study of developmental English reform and English as a Second Language in three states. She also studies and writes about education equity and wrote “Demography as Opportunity,” a chapter in the 2019 edited volume Thirteen Ideas That Are Transforming the Community College World. She holds a PhD and a MSEd in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in urban studies–economics from Columbia University.

Jacob Jackson is a research fellow at the PPIC Higher Education Center. His research includes work on college costs, college readiness, community college participation, access to higher education, and college completion. Before joining PPIC, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis, and a middle school and high school teacher in Sacramento, California, and Columbia, Missouri. He holds a PhD in education from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Missouri.

Marvin Martinez is chancellor of the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD), one of the largest community college districts in California, with an annual enrollment of more than 50,000 students. RSCCD has eight major facilities, including the main college campuses of Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College. Prior to his current role, he was most recently president of East Los Angeles College, where under his leadership the number of transfers to UC and CSU rose dramatically, and according to Hispanic Outlook on Education magazine, the college ranked #1 in California for community college degrees and certificates granted to Hispanic students in 2017. He also served as president of Los Angeles Harbor College, provost of Santa Monica College, and dean of business and industry at Cerritos College. He has been a member of the board of the Chief Executive Officers for California Community Colleges since 2015; is a member of the College Board’s Community College Advisory Panel, which promotes national recognition of the role community colleges play in providing access to higher education; and was recently appointed to the advisory board of Attallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. He earned a master’s degree in urban planning and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Cesar Alesi Perez is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center. His work has focused on understanding how educational opportunities and outcomes differ across California, examining the relationship between higher education and economic opportunity, and analyzing the impact of placement and curricular reforms at California community colleges. Before joining PPIC, he was a research assistant at the San Diego Housing Commission, concentrating on evaluating economic security and mobility among rental assistance recipients. He also worked at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and as a hands-on educator at multiple levels of education. He holds an MPP from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at University of California, San Diego and a BA in economics from University of California, Los Angeles.

Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy is vice chancellor for educational services and support at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Previously, she was at Jobs for the Future, where she led and drove many projects centered on economic advancement strategies and cross-sector network building, inclusive regional economic development strategies, and lifelong learning system design. Her prior experiences include service as vice president at United Healthcare, where she worked in a national unit that developed integrated health and human services strategies to improve health outcomes for the company’s six million Medicaid members; the first corporate executive for a US subsidiary of a global manufacturer, where she led the company’s transition from concept to full production with over 1,000 employees within 18 months; and the head of a state economic development office that made strategic business and economic investments. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics and Japanese studies from Connecticut College and her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.