Institutional Research and Academic Planning welcomes Michele Siqueiros of the Campaign for College Opportunity on Tuesday, Sept. 1 from noon to 1 p.m. in Franklin Lobby 1.

In her talk, titled “The state of higher education in California: Courage, equity and promise for the next generation of Californians,” Siqueiros will speak about the Campaign for College Opportunity’s work to ensure all Californians have an equal opportunity to attend and succeed in college in order to build a vibrant workforce, economy and democracy.

Siqueiros oversees the Campaign for College Opportunity’s strategy, policy priorities and fundraising, and serves as the leading spokesperson for the campaign’s work. She has been with the campaign since 2004, serving first as the associate director and the past seven years as executive director; she was named president in 2014. With her leadership in 2010, the campaign led the effort for historic transfer reform that will make it easier for students to transfer from any California community college to the California State University system and most recently led support for the passage of the Student Success Act of 2012. She was instrumental in assembling a statewide network of more than 12,000 coalition supporters, involving over 50,000 young people and their families through the “Save Me a Spot in College” and “I’m One in a Million” scholarship contests, awarding over $670,000 in scholarship dollars, guiding the direction of the campaign’s research and releasing reports on the impact to the California economy and educated workforce needs. She also secured passage of campaign-sponsored legislation to increase access to Pell Grants and promote college awareness for middle school students.

Siqueiros serves on the boards of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the Alliance for a Better Community and from 2011–2014, Siqueiros served as a gubernatorial appointee to the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency responsible for distributing and awarding more than $1.7 billion annually in Cal Grant aid to California college students. In 2015, the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation named her their Woman of the Year. Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) named Siqueiros their HOPE Treasure in 2014. That same year, La Opinión newspaper gave her the Hispanic Leader Award for her leadership in education. In 2008, La Opinión named her one of Los Angeles’s Mujeres Destacadas (Outstanding Women). She received her bachelor of arts in political studies and Chicano/a studies from Pitzer College and her master of arts in urban planning from UCLA.

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