Advisory Board

Russ Edgerton
Director
Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning

Ray Handlan
Senior Advisor
The Atlantic Philanthropies

Terrence J. MacTaggart
Senior Fellow, Center for Public Governance and Trusteeship of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities Research Professor, University of Maine

Kay McClenney
Director, Community College Survey of Student Engagement
Community College Leadership Program at UT Austin

Kathy Spoehr
Former Provost of Brown and
Professor of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences

Blenda Wilson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Nellie Mae Foundation



Project Staff

Lara K. Couturier is Associate Project Director and Director of Research of The Futures Project: Policy for Higher Education in a Changing World at Brown University.She previously worked as a consultant and global marketing manager for Andersen Consulting and conducted research for the Harvard Project on Faculty Appointments.

Lara is working on her PhD in Modern American History at Brown University, holds a master's from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a bachelor's from the University of Richmond, and is an Associate of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Lara's publications are: Couturier, Lara K. "Extraordinary Circumstances: Dismissal of Tenured Faculty for Financial Exigency and Program Discontinuance." Policies on Faculty Appointment. Ed. Cathy A. Trower. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, 2000. 244-281. And, Newman, Frank and Lara K. Couturier. "The New Competitive Arena: Market Forces Invade the Academy." Change 33.5 (September/October 2001): 10-17. Lara can be reached at 401-863-2077 or Lara_Couturier@brown.edu.

The late Frank Newman was the founder and Director of The Futures Project: Policy for Higher Education in a Changing World and a Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at Brown University. He was also a Visiting Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In July of 1999, he stepped down after fourteen years as president of the Education Commission of the States (ECS). ECS is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps governors, legislators and other state education leaders develop and implement policies that improve education. Dr. Newman was the president of the University of Rhode Island from 1974 to 1983 and then a presidential fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He became president of ECS in 1985. He is the author of a number of books on higher education, most recently The Future of Higher Education: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Risks of the Market

He held a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University, a Master of Science in Business from Columbia University, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Brown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Naval Science and Economics, also from Brown University.

Jamie E. Scurry i s a Research Associate for the Futures Project: Policy for Higher Education in a Changing World at Brown University. She previously worked as the director for Satellite Housing-West at Wake Forest University, and as a resident director at Stonehill College.

Jamie holds a Masters Degree in American Civilization from Brown University, a Bachelor of Science in Management with a concentration in Marketing from Bentley College. Jamie's publications include:  Couturier, Lara K. and Jamie E. Scurry, "Correcting Course: How We ; Can Restore the Ideals of Public Education in a Market-Driven Era." Providence, RI: The Futures Project (February 2005)Scurry, Jamie E. "Guided by Voices? Convesations with Underrepresented Students." Connection (Winter 2005): 11-12; Scurry, Jamie E.,  In Their Own Voices:  Conversations with Students from Underrepresented Populations , The Futures Project, July 2004; Newman, Frank and Jamie E. Scurry, "Online Technology Pushes Pedagogy to the Forefront" The Chronicle of Higher Education 13, Jul 2001 B7; Newman, Frank and Jamie Scurry, "Higher Education in the Digital Rapids" International Higher Education, The Boston College Center for International Higher Education, Winter 2002; Newman, Frank and Jamie E. Scurry, "In Jeopardy … New England's Reputation in Higher Education" Connection Magazine, 2002; Jamie E. Scurry, "Online Learning's Best Kept Secrets", Journal of Teaching in Marriage & Family Special Issues: Instruction and the Internet, Spring 2002 Vol.2; Frank Newman and Jamie Scurry, State U's burdened by rigidity, The Providence Journal , 22 July 2002; Scurry, Jamie and Frank Newman, Dealing with U.S. News college rankings, The Providence Journal , 21, Sept. 2002. Jamie can be contacted at 401-863-9240, Jamie_Scurry@brown.edu

Laurie Custodio is the Executive Assistant/Project Coordinator for The Futures Project.
Laurie can be contacted at 401-863-9582, Laurinda_Custodio@brown.edu

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