Eloy Ortiz Oakley is an American educator and a leading voice on improving equity in higher education. As chancellor of the California Community Colleges, he leads the nation’s largest and most diverse system of higher education consisting of 116 colleges, which serve more than 1.8 million students. Under his leadership, the California community colleges are positioned as a vital source for maintaining global competitiveness of the California workforce. Through the implementation of innovative practices and policies, the California Community Colleges have begun to close education attainment gaps and have prepared more Californians for the 21st-century economy. His work includes the establishment of the California College Promise; the design and implementation of the systems’ strategic vision; the Vision for Success; the elimination of standardized testing; the reform of remedial education; the adoption of a student-centered funding formula; and the launch of California’s first public, fully online, competency-based education college. In the second half of 2021, he became a senior advisor to US Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in order to support and promote President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda for higher education. For his leadership, he has been recognized with the 2014 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, being named a President Barack Obama White House Champion of Change in 2016, and being awarded the 2018 Roybal Foundation Medal of Courage in Education Award. He currently serves on the boards of the American Council on Education, the UC Board of Regents, the College Futures Foundation, and CalChamber. He is also a member of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Council for Post-Secondary Education, the Markle Foundation Rework America Taskforce, the Bill & Melinda Gates Post-Secondary Value Commission, and the Public Policy Institute of California Higher Education Institute.