Current Position and Past Experience
Deborah A. Santiago is the co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Policy at Excelencia in Education. For more than 20 years, she has led research and policy efforts from the community to national and federal levels to improve educational opportunities and success for all students. She co-founded Excelencia in Education to inform policy and practice to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Her current work focuses on federal and state policy, financial aid, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and effective institutional practices for student success in higher education.

Santiago has worked in federal government as a policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service addressing legislative issues in higher education and at the U.S. Department of Education informing program and budget efforts in the Office of Postsecondary Education. She also served as the Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans working with federal agencies and communities across the nation to improve awareness and education opportunities for Latinos.

She has been cited in numerous publications for her work, including The Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, AP, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Santiago serves on the board of the National Student Clearinghouse, and the advisory boards of thedream.us and Univision’s Education Campaign.

Connect
Deborah Santiago can be found on LinkedIn and on Twitter.