MaryEllen McGuire is the founder and president of the Postsecondary National Policy Institute (PNPI). Prior to creating and launching PNPI, MaryEllen served on the White House Domestic Policy Council as President Obama’s senior advisor for education. In this capacity she focused her efforts on developing and advancing the president’s higher education agenda.
Apart from her work with the administration, MaryEllen previously served as the senior education policy advisor to Senator Chris Dodd on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and as majority staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families. Before her time with Senator Dodd, she worked on education and social policy issues for then-Senator Joe Biden, was the assistant director of research to former First Lady Hillary Clinton, worked for the Connecticut General Assembly, and served as a Connecticut public school teacher. In 2018 she was named to the Board of Trustees of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and in 2020 she was named to the Board of Directors of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) where she now serves as chair.
In 2002, MaryEllen received her doctorate in politics and education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and in 2018 she received a certificate in transformational leadership from Georgetown University. In 2016, MaryEllen was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from Teacher’s College for her contributions to federal higher education policy and in 2023 she was named a Social Impact Woman to Watch by NonprofitHR.
