Separating Fact from Fiction in
Higher Education
Speaker Biographies
Matthew Chingos is a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where
he studies education-related topics at both the K–12 and postsecondary levels. Chingos’s areas of
expertise include class-size reduction, standardized testing, teacher quality, student loan debt, and college
graduation rates. His current research examines the effects of state policy on student achievement and
whether better information on college quality affects where students choose to enroll. Before joining
Urban, Chingos was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His book Crossing the Finish Line: Completing
College at America’s Public Universities, coauthored with William Bowen and Michael McPherson, was
published by Princeton University Press in 2009. His work has also been published in academic journals,
including the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Educational Evaluation
and Policy Analysis, and Education Finance and Policy. He has received support from the US government and
several philanthropic foundations. Chingos received a BA in government and economics and a PhD in
government from Harvard University.
Jessica Howell is the executive director of policy research at the College Board. The policy research group
conducts rigorous quantitative research on many topics related to college readiness, access, affordability,
admissions, and collegiate outcomes. Before joining the College Board, Howell was associate professor of
economics at California State University, Sacramento. Engaged in quantitative research on pressing
education policy issues, she is focused on access and success through the education pipeline for different
socioeconomic and racial and ethnic groups. Her current research projects focus on the match between
students and colleges, the role of different types of postsecondary institutions in achieving national degree
completion goals, and education policy levers for improving student outcomes. Howell received her
undergraduate degree in economics from James Madison University and her master’s and doctoral degrees
in economics from the University of Virginia.
Libby Nelson is a reporter at Vox who has covered higher education policy and politics for most of the
Obama presidency, including the push to regulate for-profit colleges, the rise of student debt as a political
force, the growing federal pressure for colleges to provide "good value," and the prominence of college
costs in the 2016 campaign. Nelson has written on higher education policy for the two publications
covering the issue most closely—the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed—and helped launch
education coverage at Politico Pro in 2013 and Vox in 2014. She also focuses on broader topics at Vox,
including contributing to and helping coordinate breaking news coverage, and is mixing education coverage
with a stint as a general assignment reporter. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Tampa Bay
Times, and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Nelson holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University.
Michael S. McPherson is the fifth president of the Spencer Foundation. Before joining the foundation in
2003, he was president of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. A nationally known economist whose
expertise focuses on the interplay between education and economics, McPherson spent the 22 years
before his Macalester presidency as professor of economics, chairman of the economics department, and
dean of faculty at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. McPherson, who is coauthor and
editor of several books, including Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities;
College Access: Opportunity or Privilege?; Keeping College Affordable; and Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy,
and Public Policy. He was also founding coeditor of the journal Economics and Philosophy. He has been a
trustee of the College Board, the American Council on Education, Wesleyan University, and the
DentaQuest Foundation. He was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study and a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution. He is a trustee of McNally Smith College of Music and president of the board of
overseers of TIAA-CREF. He holds a BA in mathematics, an MA in economics, and a PhD in economics from
the University of Chicago.
Edward Montgomery is dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Before
that, he served on President Obama’s Auto Task Force as executive director of the White House Council
for Auto Communities and Workers. From 2003 to 2008, he was the dean of the College of Behavioral and
Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, where he had been on the economics department faculty
since 1990. He also worked in the Clinton administration as deputy secretary of the US Department of
Labor, where he oversaw the operations of a $33 billion agency. Montgomery is an economist, and his
research has focused on state and local economic growth, wage and pension determination, savings
behavior, productivity and economic dynamics, social insurance programs, and unions. In 2011, he was
elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and he has been a research associate
at the National Bureau of Economic Research for over two decades. He has been on the faculty at Carnegie
Mellon University, Michigan State University, and the University of Maryland. In addition, he has held
visiting positions at the board of governors of the Federal Reserve and the Urban Institute. Montgomery
has a BS with honors in economics from Pennsylvania State University and an MA and PhD in economics
from Harvard University.
Sarah Rosen Wartell is president of the Urban Institute. A public policy executive and housing markets
expert, Wartell was deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the
National Economic Council. At the US Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1998,
she advised the federal housing commissioner on housing finance, mortgage markets, and consumer
protection. Wartell cofounded the Center for American Progress, serving as its first chief operating officer
and general counsel. Later, as executive vice president, she oversaw its policy teams and fellows. Her work
focused on the economy and housing markets, and she directed the Mortgage Finance Working Group and
"Doing What Works" government performance program. She previously practiced law with the
Washington, DC, firm Arnold & Porter and was a consultant to the bipartisan Millennial Housing
Commission. Wartell currently serves on the boards of the Low Income Investment Fund, Center for Law
and Social Policy, and Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. She is also a Penn
Institute for Urban Research Scholar. Her areas of expertise include community development, consumer
finance, asset building, and housing finance. Wartell has an AB degree with honors in urban affairs from
Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She has a JD degree
from Yale Law School.