Community colleges in micro-urban spaces, which are small cities with big-city dynamics, play a pivotal role in expanding access, strengthening workforce pathways, and advancing equity for Black learners. In this conversation, Dr. Terry Vaughan III highlights how these communities offer unique advantages, such as concentrated resources, reduced geographic barriers, and strong anchor institutions that can drive economic mobility. He explains to host Gianina Baker how the shift toward skills-based hiring reframes the value of credentials, emphasizing the competencies, experiences, and outcomes they represent.

Vaughan also outlines his job duties at Workcred, where he focuses on building a national system of high-quality credentials, work-based learning, and transparent data to better align education with the needs of the labor market.

In this episode, Dr. Sheila Quirk-Bailey, the recently retired president of Illinois Central College, talks with host H.M. Kuneyl about her career journey from corporate education into community college leadership, emphasizing how her Illinois-based communication and business training, paired with a practitioner-focused doctorate from Maryland, shaped her student success-driven philosophy. Among other topics, she and Kuneyl discuss the value of working across institutional silos, knowing one's "why," and pursuing leadership roles with purpose rather than for prestige.

In this episode, OCCRL Associate Director Gianina Baker talks with Drs. Rick Rantz and Lauren Contreras about the book Developing Culturally Responsive Curriculum in Higher Education. The scholars describe the origins of the book, rooted in concerns about student retention, curriculum relevance, and the absence of higher education-specific tools for assessing cultural responsiveness. They highlight how faculty engagement, institutional context, and student demographics shaped their work, emphasizing the importance of representation, relationship-building, and action-oriented pedagogy.

As the discussion expands, Drs. Tiffany Davis and Ginny Boss connect culturally responsive curriculum to broader challenges in higher education, including political pressures, DEI debates, and shifting student needs. Collectively, the speakers frame culturally responsive curriculum not as an optional add-on but as essential, holistic, and urgent, impacting teaching practices, institutional culture, student belonging, and educational equity.

In this episode, Dr. Sadya Khan discusses with H.M. Kuneyl how data can drive equity, student success, and institutional effectiveness. She emphasizes the importance of selecting the right data for the right questions, building trust and collaboration around data use, and making data accessible and meaningful for faculty, staff, and students. The conversation highlights beginner-friendly ways to engage with data, the role of culture and relationships in cultivating data-informed leadership, and practical examples of using data to improve processes across campus. Dr. Khan is the executive director of institutional research, planning and effectiveness at Moraine Valley Community College, and Kuneyl is a senior research assistant at OCCRL.

In this episode, Dr. OiYan Poon—an author, speaker, and race and education scholar—talks with Harper College President Avis Proctor about how her institution is strategically organizing campus efforts to reduce the rates of D and F grades and course withdrawals, especially in gateway courses, by engaging in actionable institutional research and data.

In this episode, Dr. OiYan Poon talks with Dr. Lonetta Oliver about how colleges can improve advising and wraparound services to more effectively support all students in their postsecondary educational journeys.

This special-edition Illinois SUCCESS podcast, and several others in the series, explores how campuses can leverage data and institutional research to improve holistic advising and other programs to support students to and through college to complete a credential or degree.

Bonus material: Attaining College Excellence and Equity from the U.S. Department of Education.

In this special-edition Illinois SUCCESS episode, we explore how campuses can leverage data and institutional research to improve holistic advising and other programs to support students to and through college to complete a credential or degree. Dr. OiYan Poon talks with Dr. Lindsey Back about the On-Track data system at the University of Illinois Chicago, and how this information informs her team's work to improve student success across campus.

In this episode, Dr. OiYan Poon—an author, speaker, and race and education scholar—talks with Dr. James Minor about how campuses can leverage data and institutional research to improve holistic advising and other programs to support students to and through college so they can complete a credential or degree. Dr. Minor is the chancellor of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.