Jamey Rorison

Jamey Rorison, Ph.D., is a senior program officer on the Postsecondary Success team at the Gates Foundation, where he leads efforts to advance a field-driven movement to increase equitable postsecondary value. This builds on Dr. Rorison’s recent work leading the development and operation of the Postsecondary Value Commission, a first-of-its-kind initiative that brought together 30 diverse higher education, workforce, civil rights, research, and federal and state policy leaders to do three things: propose a definition of postsecondary value, develop a way to measure that value, and urge action to improve value and make it more equitable. Rorison also manages a grantmaking portfolio seeking to improve postsecondary data quality, use, and infrastructure at the local, state, and national levels.

Prior to joining the foundation, Dr. Rorison served as director of research and policy at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) held research roles with the Institute for Research on Higher Education, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and the Education Trust, and taught middle school language arts in Charles County, Maryland.

Rorison earned his Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, where his dissertation examined the role of financial aid and other resources in persistence toward a bachelor’s degree for students from low-income families. He also holds a master’s degree in higher education and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, also from the University of Pennsylvania. Among other accolades, he is recipient of the 2021 Association for the Study of Higher Education Leadership Award recognizing his “visibility and support to the field of higher education and demonstrated contributions of the study of higher education and its connection to policy formation.”