Feb 4, 2022
In the first installment of our six-part series produced in
collaboration with and underwritten by the Ascendium Education
Group, Michelle chats with
Kirstin Yeado, a program officer at Ascendium responsible for
strategic grantmaking in support of Ascendium’s Rural Education and
Workforce Training program.: Shanell Watson, a program officer with
the Woodward Hines
Education Foundation, a foundation that has focused on
increasing postsecondary access and completion for Mississippi
residents since 1995.; Denise Callahan, the Director of
Postsecondary Success at The Ford Family Foundation in Oregon; and
Allison Pennington, Programs & Strategy Associate for Greater Texas
Foundation, a private foundation focused on helping more Texans
complete postsecondary credentials. In this first part of our 2022
series — a continuation of our terrific series produced with
Ascendium last year — Yeado discusses how her organization seeks to
remove obstacles faced by learners from low-income backgrounds,
investing in high-quality, actionable research, and implementing
evidence-based strategic initiatives for learners. Watson discusses
essential tools that funders need to successfully build
relationships with partners to implement programs in rural
communities and how her organization learns strategies for success
through its Get2College programming and grantmaking efforts, such
as the Global Teaching Project. Callahan discusses why The Ford
Family Foundation focuses almost exclusively on rural communities,
why success in education beyond high school is such an important
part of the foundation’s work, and the findings from its 2021
report, “Supporting Rural Students in Oregon in High School and
Beyond: A Study of College Enrollment, Persistence, Transfer, and
Completion Outcomes.” Pennington discusses why Greater Texas
Foundation intentionally funds rural communities and highlights
examples of successful rural postsecondary education collaboratives
in Texas, including Rural College Promise and West Texas Rural
Resilience and Opportunity on the High Plains. This episode and the
entire six-part series is supported by the Ascendium Education
Group. www.ascendiumphilanthropy.org