Our Team

As vice chancellor of the Digital Innovation and Infrastructure Division, Valerie Lundy-Wagner, PhD, oversees technology and research for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. She leads a variety of internal and external initiatives overseeing information technology systems, implementation of more than $100M in system-wide technology investments, and development of research into evidence-based policy, focused largely on financial aid and basic needs for adult students and transfer.

A nationally recognized leader on equity in higher education, Dr. Lundy-Wagner has spent considerable time examining how higher education, K-12 and workforce development connect for large-scale transformation. Over the last 15 years, such themes have permeated her work with national non-profits, small state-specific research and policy advocacy organizations, and her work at the Community College Research Center (CCRC). In most of that work, Lundy-Wagner has led or contributed to a conversation about the use of data around systemic and structural inequality in higher education at the local, state, and national levels all with the goal of improving pathways into and through college for vulnerable and low-income populations.

Dr. Lundy-Wager holds expertise in topics like the role of historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions on underrepresented student outcomes as well as the relationship between demography in college and STEM-specific access and success. Her publications include policy briefs as well as peer-reviewed academic and practitioner articles in the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, the Journal of Negro Education, the Proceedings for the American Society for Engineering Education, Teachers College Record, and the Journal for Diversity in Higher Education. Lundy-Wagner currently serves or has served as an advisor for a variety of organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the ASPEN Institute.

Dr. Lundy-Wagner earned her bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering at UCLA, her master’s degree in education at Stanford University and her Ph.D. in higher education at the University of Pennsylvania. She also was a postdoctoral scholar in engineering education at Purdue University and served as a Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor at New York University.

Valerie enjoys perusing titles at Marcus Books, the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore, attending the City Arts and Lectures series in San Francisco, spending time outdoors, listening to podcasts, and going to trivia.

As a researcher, my commitments to equity through higher education occur primarily through a lens of information and data. To improve strategic decision-making in higher education, data assets must be organized and structured in ways that facilitate conversation about what is, as well as what can be. Supporting that work through an independent and impartial organization gives me optimism for communities that continue to face obstacles to educational attainment and economic stability, many of which can be moved.