Credentials: Understand the problems. Identify the opportunities. Create the solutions.

Peter Ewell is President Emeritus of NCHEMS, the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Michelle Van Noy is an Associate Research Professor in the Labor Studies and Employment Relations Department and the Director of the Education and Employment Research Center at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is also on the faculty of the Higher Education Ph.D. program at Rutgers. Previously, she has conducted research at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers; the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University; and Mathematica Policy Research.She has 25 years of research experience on the connection between education and work. Her research has included studies of technician education, community college noncredit education, student decision making about majors and careers, quality in non-degree credentials, higher education labor market alignment, and effective practices in workforce education.She recently published an edited volume for New Directions for Community Colleges “Lessons Learned from TAACCCT” documenting findings from DOL’s $2 billion investment in community colleges through the TAACCCT grant program. She has published articles in the Community College Review and Economics of Education Review. She publishes widely for practitioner audiences with over 50 papers and reports on workforce and education related topics.She holds a Ph.D. in sociology and education from Columbia University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, a M.S. in public policy from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, and a B.A. in psychology and Spanish from Douglass College, Rutgers.She lives in central New Jersey with her two sons, Evan and Andre, and her cat, Momo. She enjoys running, reading, cooking, and watching her sons play in local youth soccer. Paul L. Gaston, Trustees Professor Emeritus at Kent State University (Ohio), has s