Join us as we discuss a (recent) history of the free college fight and of “College Promise” programs in the U.S. with Michelle Miller-Adams, author of the book The Path to Free College, and Mark Huelsman (bios below). This event will include a discussion of a variety of free college models, research and evidence, and ongoing policy efforts.

• Mark Huelsman, who is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs, where he focuses on federal policy efforts to modernize higher education and safety net policies to support students’ basic needs and improve college affordability. He also currently serves as a Senior Fellow with Protect Borrowers, a nonprofit organization fighting to build an economy where debt doesn’t limit opportunity. Mark’s writing and work have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Slate, Vox, Marketwatch, The Nation, The Guardian, Inside Higher Ed, the New Republic, The American Prospect, The Hill, and U.S. News and World Report. In 2016, he was named to Politico Magazine’s Politico 50 guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics for his role in sparking a national policy conversation around debt-free college.
• Michelle Miller-Adams, who is a senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Miller-Adams is the author of The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity (2021), Promise Nation: Transforming Communities through Place-Based Scholarships (2015), and The Power of a Promise: Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo (2009), along with two other books. One of the nation’s leading experts on the tuition-free college movement, she speaks with national media and advises state policymakers and community partners on their tuition-free college initiatives. Miller-Adams also co-directs the Upjohn Institute’s Policies for Place Initiative that explores how communities can create good jobs for their residents. She holds a BA in history from the University of California Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and a PhD in political science from Columbia University.