Company Profile
Partnership for Education Advancement
Company Overview
Partnership for Education Advancement (Ed Advancement) is a 501(c)(3) that supports Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through sustainable approaches that transform enrollment, institutional performance, and student success. Our efforts are aimed to advance socioeconomic mobility for historically under-resourced students and maintain and extend the impact of HBCUs as unique and critical drivers of racial equity and social justice. We are dedicated to the following principles as we carry out our mission:
- Our resources and investments align with students’ future success in evident and measurable ways.
- We must acknowledge and uphold the capacity of minority-serving institutions, including HBCUs, to lead equity efforts.
- Transformation requires solutions that are sustainable, scalable, and broadly adoptable.
Our approach is collaborative, in-depth, and comprehensive in both evaluating current policies, practices, and infrastructure, and developing detailed, tailored, and innovative strategies for each institution. Additionally, we build knowledge-sharing resources and communities, and partner with higher education service providers to develop shared service network solutions in critical areas that maximize institutional performance and enhance student service and engagement. These capacity-building efforts are made possible through substantial resources from catalytic, supportive, and generous donors, partners, and our diverse leadership team. Our talented leaders bring complex management experience and higher education expertise, including enrollment management, student services, student success, project management and operations, technology, procurement, finance, risk management, compliance, and HBCUs.
Company History
Partnership for Education Advancement (formerly known as Education Finance Institute) was formed in 2018 by Tony James, Executive Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group, and Jim Runcie, former Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the higher education regulatory oversight and student financing arm of the federal government. Mr. James and Mr. Runcie believe strongly in the benefit of obtaining a college education and have seen first-hand the significant and generational impact of higher education on students’ lives. They have also witnessed the structural inequities that keep this opportunity out of reach for many Americans.
Our efforts to improve equitable access to educational opportunity include strengthening and sustaining institutions that primarily serve under-resourced students. These schools include minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that play a pivotal role in socioeconomic mobility and social justice within our country. These institutions have served their mission under challenging resource constraints.