The Lumina Foundation has appointed Distinguished Professor Rich DeMillo, director of the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U), one of four Lumina Fellows. 

As the nation’s largest private foundation dedicated exclusively to increasing students’ access to and success in postsecondary education, Lumina has defined its mission with a specific goal, known as Goal 2025: to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality college degrees, certificates and credentials to 60 percent by 2025.

The Lumina Fellows will work to advance Lumina’s 2013 to 2016 Strategic Plan by analyzing issues and recommending solutions, using their national media presence to influence the dialogue around issues of importance to Goal 2025.

Former Dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, DeMillo founded C21U in 2011, and leads the unique institution that serves as Georgia Tech’s “living laboratory” for fundamental change in higher education. As the chair of the Provost’s Council for Educational Technology, DeMillo is responsible for educational technology innovation on campus. Regarded as a national leader and spokesperson for the online revolution in higher education, he is frequently requested as a keynote speaker, most often to discuss his book Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities, published in 2011 by MIT Press.

DeMillo joins three other thought leaders as the first group of Lumina Fellows for an initial two-year appointment. Together the fellows will, through various forms of public communication, enrich the conversations about college attainment and provide recommendations for policy makers, higher education and business leaders and other important stakeholders to increase the ability for the U.S. to dramatically increase college attainment levels.