Postsecondary Spotlight on Catalyzing College Return and Completion for “Comebackers”

October 9, 1:00 pm ET

More than a quarter of US adults have left college without earning their bachelor’s degree - and only 5% will make their way back to college. Carnegie Corporation of New York partnered with The Burning Glass Institute to assess the opportunity and the barriers to completion for this population. Their analysis points toward concrete programmatic policy strategies to support degree attainment for those who are economically stranded. Join us to explore the findings from this research; their implications; how to scale effective practices to support the re-enrollment, completion, and economic mobility of college comebackers; and how grantmakers might independently and collectively tackle this complex and persistent societal issue.

While this event is intended for members and other education grantmakers, others are welcome to attend.

There is no cost to attend this Grantmakers for Education program.

Registration closes 15 minutes prior to the program time. By registering for this program, you agree to our Learning Environment Commitment. Thank you for your patience; we review each registration in advance.

About the Speakers

Stuart Andreason
Executive Director of Programs
Burning Glass Institute

Stuart Andreason is Executive Director of Programs at the Burning Glass Institute. He leads research and engagement on workforce innovation, higher education, and economic mobility. At BGI, Andreason has helped to lead the development of Jobs that Mobilize, an initiative that builds data strategies to align talent development and economic development. He’s also developed measures of skill-based hiring, skills to drive the green economy, and non-degree credential quality in the Credentials of Value Index, and educational strategies. Andreason previously founded and led the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where he led Federal Reserve System efforts on workforce development and economic opportunity. He edited Workforce Realigned with Social Finance and Investing in America’s Workforce.

Sallie Glickman
Managing Director, Comebacker Completion Initiative
Burning Glass Institute

Sallie Glickman is a civic entrepreneur who has dedicated her career to fostering strategic partnerships and community mobilization efforts to create sustaining structures that address significant social issues, most particularly as they relate to economic and social mobility for historically disenfranchised populations. She co-founded Graduate! Philadelphia, which designed a methodology for successfully and cost-efficiently supporting adult “comebackers” back to college and through to a degree, and most recently led The Graduate! Network, which was the national organization founded to support the replication of that model. Building on two decades of this work, Sallie joined Burning Glass Institute in 2024 to design and lead the Comebacker Completion Initiative.

Saskia Levy Thompson
Program Director, Education Program
Carnegie Corporation of New York

Saskia Levy Thompson is a program director within Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Education program, where she leads direct investments in schools, interventions, and programming that increase the number of young people on track to successfully complete a postsecondary pathway that leads to a mobility wage career. For over twenty years, Saskia has worked at the intersection of education practice, policy, research, and now philanthropy. She was a leader at the NYC Department of Education, including an appointment as Deputy Chancellor for Portfolio Planning; served as Executive Director of the Urban Assembly, a nonprofit network of college and career-preparatory high schools expanding opportunity in historically disenfranchised communities; and held senior roles at both the Research Alliance for NYC Schools and MDRC, the preeminent national think tank focused on building knowledge to improve social policy and reduce poverty. Saskia holds a BA in Political Science from NYU.

Saskia sits on the boards of several youth-serving organizations, including East Harlem Scholars Academies, the East Harlem Tutorial Program, and the Teagle Foundation, and volunteers in her Crown Heights, Brooklyn community. In 2021-22, Saskia chaired the Mayoral Education Transition Committee for New York City. She served on the Mayor’s Task Force on the Future of Workers and on the XPRIZE Brain Trust for Learning & Society in 2023 and 2024 and has been appointed three times to the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education.