Interview with Institute for Higher Education Policy President & CEO Mamie Voight

From engineering to higher education in public policy and research

President Voight shared her background, “I took a pretty circuitous route to the position where I am now… I started out in civil engineering and minored in women’s studies. Then I worked in engineering for several years after college. I was consulting mostly for Departments of Transportation. What I realized was that even the perfect engineering design wouldn’t come to fruition unless the policy were in place to actually make it happen.” As a result of her bigger picture, she went back to school for public policy. She leans on her engineering skills of problem-solving. In grad school she explored both urban policy and planning and education, social and family policy. She was drawn to the education side. After several years at Education Trust, she transitioned to IHEP.

The draw of higher education in public policy

President Voight discussed access to higher education for students of color and students from low income backgrounds. “I think of policy as incredibly exciting. It’s what drives the real impact and change for real people on the ground.” One of the ways her work matters is increasing Pell Grant money regularly to help students with increased costs.

Advice for younger professionals to cultivate trust and confidence in your integrity

Observing leaders in those early career steps help one see positive and negative examples. President Voight explained one of the leaders she learned from taught her to “set high expectations for yourself and those around you, and people can rise to meet those expectations.” Another leader taught her “dogged determination.” She appreciated the empathy that the leader showed in recognizing her employee's feelings of just wanting to be done with a product and get it out the door when she was asking them to edit it a little more. The leader also listed the pros and cons of putting that extra work into it to motivate her staff to put in the extra effort. In the end, going back to doing more research and increasing the quality of the final product really made a difference.

What is needed from higher education at this moment?

“Through the pandemic, we’ve seen dramatic changes within higher education, and we’ve seen the inequities that have long existed come to the fore in new ways. We’ve seen them deepen and become more clear, especially as we’ve seen enrollment declines over the last two years… Higher ed turned on a dime and went online rapidly.” She acknowledged the positive things that came out of higher ed being more nimble and listening to students' needs, like needing internet access and meeting that need.

Advice she received from others

President Voight learned from her dad, who took her skiing when she was little. She found there is a tendency to hold one's breath when going fast down the mountain with the adrenaline rush. He advised her, “Remember to breathe.” She said that applies in her professional work as well, when things get fast in the policy world.

Advice for others

“Every task is an opportunity to show people what you have to offer.” She also recommended getting out there to meet with people in the field for coffee and lunches to “develop your network.” Her third piece of advice is to read articles related to your work to “build your knowledge base.”