Bridget Burns

It turns out leading a complex bureaucracy with a multi-billion dollar footprint is like really complicated and hard. And that it's also hard to be a human doing that. These people are humans, right? And so I had to do a lot of the weaving of the relationship because they don't have time to get to know each other.

It turns out leading a complex bureaucracy with a multi-billion dollar footprint is like really complicated and hard. And that it's also hard to be a human doing that. These people are humans, right? And so I had to do a lot of the weaving of the relationship because they don't have time to get to know each other.

They would come to a meeting every three months and they were interested, but I don't think that they would have kept going had I not been able to weave together. a sense of perspective between them and for them to know that, hey, Michael Crow struggles with that thing, too. Or President Chancellor Wilcox, they're having that same issue at UC Riverside.

They would come to a meeting every three months and they were interested, but I don't think that they would have kept going had I not been able to weave together. a sense of perspective between them and for them to know that, hey, Michael Crow struggles with that thing, too. Or President Chancellor Wilcox, they're having that same issue at UC Riverside.

And in fact, here is a here's some anecdotes from that experience that makes them realize that maybe there's other value in working together beyond just teaming up to see if this works. It's actually, wow, it would be nice to have some allies, some buddies. And that was a really big part, I think, that I played.

And in fact, here is a here's some anecdotes from that experience that makes them realize that maybe there's other value in working together beyond just teaming up to see if this works. It's actually, wow, it would be nice to have some allies, some buddies. And that was a really big part, I think, that I played.

And then also forming the prospectus, which was basically the strategy and what we were going to do. And getting 11 college presidents and chancellors in 11 states, running institutions over 25,000 students.

And then also forming the prospectus, which was basically the strategy and what we were going to do. And getting 11 college presidents and chancellors in 11 states, running institutions over 25,000 students.

to sign off on a document that was so significant, including a data sharing agreement and agreeing to match all the money that is raised was really, it required a lot of trust building because there's no way that any one person can read every single line. But for me, I had to, and I had to come up with this consensus-based document and how this organization was going to operate.

to sign off on a document that was so significant, including a data sharing agreement and agreeing to match all the money that is raised was really, it required a lot of trust building because there's no way that any one person can read every single line. But for me, I had to, and I had to come up with this consensus-based document and how this organization was going to operate.

And when I first got to, you talked about like the kind of entrepreneurial aspect of it. When I first got to ASU and met Michael Crowe, He told me I was a bureaucrat and that I was going to need to become an entrepreneur if I was going to do this. And we were going to have to break out that bureaucrat. And boy, did we.

And when I first got to, you talked about like the kind of entrepreneurial aspect of it. When I first got to ASU and met Michael Crowe, He told me I was a bureaucrat and that I was going to need to become an entrepreneur if I was going to do this. And we were going to have to break out that bureaucrat. And boy, did we.

I don't think I... I wasn't already... I had some entrepreneurial tendencies prior to this. But it just required a willingness to throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall and figure it out and ask for a lot of help and advice from people. But just sitting with the stories that I had to surface of the campuses and the weaving between of what they had in common.

I don't think I... I wasn't already... I had some entrepreneurial tendencies prior to this. But it just required a willingness to throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall and figure it out and ask for a lot of help and advice from people. But just sitting with the stories that I had to surface of the campuses and the weaving between of what they had in common.

And then also what the sector really needed to see from that. leaders that would be fundamentally different than everything they'd seen before. Because at the time, higher ed was obsessed with college access, which is just get more people in. That was the strategy.

And then also what the sector really needed to see from that. leaders that would be fundamentally different than everything they'd seen before. Because at the time, higher ed was obsessed with college access, which is just get more people in. That was the strategy.

And the other theme was under-matching from President Obama, which was basically that low-income kids could get into better schools, but they just don't know it. And both of those things are right and fine for that time.

And the other theme was under-matching from President Obama, which was basically that low-income kids could get into better schools, but they just don't know it. And both of those things are right and fine for that time.

But they are missing the biggest problem, which is that there are literally millions of students who are never going to go to college if the higher ed doesn't change how well it does, how well we serve those students.

But they are missing the biggest problem, which is that there are literally millions of students who are never going to go to college if the higher ed doesn't change how well it does, how well we serve those students.