During the 2025 SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference, ECMC Foundation staff and leadership gathered with a network of constituents, partners, and community members from across the country. Over multiple days, the group came together to share insights, reflect, connect, and collaborate. A commitment to building lasting impact through partnership, purpose, and community was reaffirmed, guided by our North Star and a shared vision that drives our work forward.  

Support for Rural Learners 

ECMC Foundation’s Associate Director of Research, Stephanie Sowl, and Rural Impact Program Officer, Julia Cunningham, were able to speak on panels surrounding the experiences and challenges of rural learners.  

Sowl brought her expertise as a former ECMC Foundation Rural Impact Initiative Program Officer as she shared her insights as a panelist for the discussion titled, “Farm-to-Table: What Strong Foundations 2025 Reveals About Postsecondary Data and Rural Success.” This session presented actionable strategies and best practices for strengthening rural post-secondary data, improving student success, advancing state attainment goals, and expanding opportunities at rural-serving institutions by drawing on rural research, philanthropic perspectives, Strong Foundations survey results, site visits in two states, and rural focus groups. 

During the panel, Sowl stated, “ECMC Foundation was really motivated by the lack of knowledge about where rural learners go to college, whether where they graduate from college, how they enter the workforce... it's kind of impossible to know what the issues are or the potential interventions if we can't even identify the actual learner.” It is difficult to support rural learners in the most effective ways when there is not enough known about them and their needs. The conversation highlighted the importance of defining this population and learning more about how to support them beyond the current avenues that exist.  

Julia Cunningham, Program Officer at ECMC Foundation, shared her knowledge on the panel titled, “Rural Student Success: Scaling Access and Completion” During this session, they examined the structural barriers to rural student success and discussed evidence-based solutions that drive systemic change. 

The panelists tackled stigmas surrounding rural students, recognizing that this group of learners has diverse socio-economic backgrounds, life experiences and other traits that set them apart.  As a panelist, Cunningham articulated the problem professionals in this field are trying to solve by asking, “How do we make sure that the employers and the communities and institutions are all talking to each other and are really creating systems that work for all rural learners?”  

Strategically Responding to Veteran Learners 

“Breaking Barriers: Supporting Veterans' Success in Higher Education” panel featured ECMC Foundation Program Officer, Jonathan Reid. The conversation explored the unique challenges veterans face during their transition from military service to academia. The session proposed evidence-informed solutions that can be implemented at the institutional and state levels with special attention given to the policy implications for state higher education agencies and institutional leaders who seek to better serve this important student population. 

Reid was able to touch on ECMC Foundation’s work with Veterans Education Success, a nonprofit that works on a bipartisan basis to advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families, and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill and other federal postsecondary education programs. He also discussed expanding this work into partnerships with SUNY system schools. As a member of ECMC Foundation’s strategically responsive grantmaking team, his goal in partnering with organizations is to make sure the Foundation is providing solutions for immediate needs. “What makes the work that Veterans Education Success is doing strategically responsive, in our eyes, is that they're able to meet that moment and take what they're learning and seeing in real time and then see the opportunity to go a little bit deeper.” 

State Policy Conversation 

Owamni by The Sioux Chef was the setting for an intimate dinner hosted by Program Officer Amber Angel, focused on the Parenting Student Success Initiative, alongside College Promise. State leaders gathered for a conversation to learn from each other about what has worked and where there are opportunities in their individual states to better identify and support parenting student success. The discussion also explored how state-level policies can be leveraged or reimagined to create more equitable pathways for parenting students, ensuring that policy aligns with practice to drive systemic change. 

Conclusion 

Overall, this SHEEO’s Higher Education Policy Conference is an annual touchpoint that allows our team to dig deeper into the world of state policy and how it affects our funding strategies. The ability to network with colleagues from across the country and learn from those doing the work is an immeasurable benefit to our work.