Monday, May 25, 2026
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. CST

Ralph Newell
Senior Vice President, The EDU Ledger

Professional Background at The EDU Ledger
Since joining The EDU Ledger in 1991, Ralph Newell has held various senior management roles. He currently serves as Senior Vice President, overseeing the company’s business development strategies, fostering partnerships, and directing all technology-related initiatives. His responsibilities include managing the company’s suite of websites: TheEDULedger.com, CCNewsNow.com, and CCJobsNow.com.

In addition to his executive role, Ralph is the co-host of The EDU Ledger’s podcast, In the Margins. The podcast delves into the latest and most relevant thought leadership topics pertaining to access and opportunity in higher education. Each episode explores issues central to student and faculty success, equity, escalating college costs, athletics, and more, inviting listeners to engage with the evolving landscape of higher education.

Advancing Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
Recognizing the challenges that institutions face in recruiting and admitting students from underrepresented communities—and in hiring and retaining a diverse faculty and staff, Ralph embarked on a personal mission to address these gaps. His research into recruitment strategies has led to numerous speaking engagements and consulting opportunities. In 2011, Ralph encountered the original “Keep It Real,” later updated as “Keep It Real-II.” By 2020, with the third edition released, Ralph and his team at The EDU Ledger were actively hosting interactive, inclusive training workshops nationwide for students, faculty, and staff.

Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholars Awards and Sports Leadership
In 1992, Ralph established the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholars Awards, which annually honors student-athletes who achieve excellence in their sport, actively contribute to their communities, and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher. Within The EDU Ledger, Ralph oversees Ledger Sports channel, manages the magazine’s sports-related content, and collaborates with the NCAA on shared interests.

Nonprofit Research and Consulting
Ralph also serves as Vice President of CMA’s nonprofit research division, where he plays a critical role in developing, securing, and conducting inclusive focused research and consulting projects. He is currently involved in a research and certification program with Coop Di Leu, LLC, called the DOIT (Driving Organizational Impact & Transformation) Certification. This program, launched in 2022, evaluates institutions on aspects such as academic curriculum, senior leadership and commitment, campus climate, and the composition of senior leadership teams. Ralph’s consulting work extends to organizations including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Kellogg Foundation, National Science Foundation, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and Monster.com.

Education
Ralph earned his undergraduate degree from William & Mary and his MBA from George Mason University. He has also pursued additional postgraduate studies in e-commerce and online publishing at Stanford University.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026
8:00-9:30 a.m.

Davis Jenkins
Senior Research Scholar

Davis Jenkins is a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center and research professor in the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He works with colleges, schools, community groups, and employers in communities and states across the country to find ways to improve educational and employment outcomes for students from groups that have been poorly served by the U.S. educational system.

His research has helped inspire large-scale institutional reforms to improve educational and career outcomes for community college students, including career pathways, adult contextualized basic skills training (such as I-BEST), guided pathways, and dual enrollment equity pathways, or DEEP.

Together with Thomas Bailey and Shanna Jaggars, he co-authored the 2015 book, Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, which helped to catalyze the national guided pathways whole-college reform movement. In a new book, More Essential Than Ever: Community College Pathways to Educational and Career Success, he and his colleagues take stock of what they have learned from a decade of research on guided pathways reforms at over 100 colleges nationally. The book presents five strategies leading-edge colleges are implementing, building on early guided pathways reforms, to ensure their programs have strong value for employment and further education after completion, and thus are worth the time, money and effort students invest to enroll in and complete them.

Jenkins earned a PhD in public policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in religion from Princeton University.