Team
Ann Coles
Senior Fellow
Ann is the Senior Fellow for College Access Programs. In this role, she uses her extensive knowledge of research and expertise on a wide rage of college access issues to inform the work of uAspire staff. She also is a senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, DC, and consults nationally on college access and success issues. Previously Ann served as senior vice president of TERI where she provided leadership for national and local college access programs, including the Pathways to College Network and the Boston Higher Education Partnership. She also managed programs for low-income students at a Massachusetts community college and held positions with the Institute for Services to Education and the National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students. Her recent publications include Who’s Making It: The Academic Achievement of Recent Boston Public School Graduates in the Early College Years and Removing Roadblocks to Rigor: Linking Academic and Social Supports to Ensure College Readiness and Success. Ann has a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Finding ways to afford college is one of the biggest challenges students from low and moderate-income families face today in preparing for fulfilling careers. uAspire is the only organization in the US with a lazar-like focus on this issue, helping students and families from early high school through college graduation find ways to pay for college. The staff is constantly expanding and improving the information and assistance we provide, using research and data to inform everything we do. It is incredibly exciting to work with the uAspire team, making a college degree attainable for students who without our services would be unlikely to achieve this goal.