Community In Higher Education with Laura Ipsen, Ellucian President and CEO

Asked and Answered highlights entrepreneurs and leaders who are making a major impact in our communities. In this episode, Dr. Prisco is joined by Laura Ipsen, President and CEO of Ellucian,  an educational technology company used by colleges and universities across the country, including Holy Family.

To learn more about Laura and Ellucian, please visit www.ellucian.com

To learn more about Holy Family University please visit www.holyfamily.edu

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hi I'm dr add Crisco,
president of Holy Family University.
You're listening to ask and answer our shared humanity and collective responsibility to each other and our neighbors and community is at the core of who we are here at Holy Family and asked and answered,
I introduce you to some of the most influential leaders in philadelphia.

(00:30):
Holy family,
faculty members and alumni entrepreneurs and C.
E.
O.
S who are making a major impact in our communities joining me in this episode,
Laura Gibson,
President and Ceo of Allusion Allusion is a technology company whose software is used on the campuses of colleges and universities across the country,

(00:53):
including right here at Holy Family University.
Laura thanks so much for taking the time to join me for this episode as someone who's lived with Lucien products for years.
I recognize what I may be familiar.
Not everyone necessarily is.
So can you give the listeners an idea of what solution does?

(01:13):
Sure.
Well,
first of all,
Dr Prisco,
it's wonderful to connect with you again and thank you so much for your leadership for being just a wonderful client.
Evolution were a learning organization like as you are.
So we learn every day from what you driving your strategy and the needs of your students and what success looks like.

(01:34):
So if I if I back up Lucien is a company whose roots are over 50 years old,
all we do is provide digital transformation capabilities to higher education so you can provide wonderful opportunities for your faculty administration and students at the core.
You should think of us as an operating system.
We are what you call the E.
R.
P.

(01:54):
The enterprise resource planning along with the student information systems and and customer relationship management.
That builds the operational capacity of an institution.
But today as we serve over 2700 customers around the world in 50 countries we're focused on supporting the future of higher education to build out that education ecosystem.

(02:15):
They will both serve institutions and not just the current but the future needs of students.
As we went through covid things went online,
how we learn,
how we work,
how we build our lives for success is changing dramatically.
And so we're focused on that transformation.
A lot of that has to do with moving to the cloud and software as a service.

(02:37):
So we provide those that software solutions and services that make it all work all focused 100% higher education.
Which is why I think you have such a supportive market because we know that that's exactly how you've been approaching.
This is over the years.
Every time there's new technologies,
new possibilities.

(02:57):
It seems like the Lucien's always at the forefront of figuring out the next thing.
So I know we all appreciate that.
Well thank you and we just drive every day to listen to our customers to you,
to your students to learn from you and help lead and very proud Of the relationships we have with customers.
We serve over half of all institutions in the us over 2202 3rd of the historically black colleges and universities?

(03:25):
Over 80% of all community colleges we serve across the United States and building up overseas.
So it's it's just a wonderful time to be there to support the future of this whole learning continuum that we're all on.
Talking about a learning content.
I'd love for you to share with us a little bit about your own personal journey because you weren't always in the higher ed space and technology.

(03:49):
I wasn't.
And you know,
when we talked my journey was unexpected.
I thought by now I might be a diplomat or an ambassador working in the government.
I grew up with two parents in higher education but my career took a couple of twists and turns.
I took a risk.
I moved out to Silicon Valley 20 Over 25 years ago and then came back to the east coast.

(04:11):
But I fell in love with technology and the power for transformation.
A change at the time when I worked at Cisco,
how people lived,
worked and learned from John Chambers.
And so that was just fundamental on how I thought about business.
I'm someone that is very comfortable with change because when you grew up in the valley,
if someone didn't eat your lunch,

(04:31):
they eat your breakfast.
And so the need for change is important.
But listen in higher education and institutions,
you can't change too fast.
So I'm very aware of that.
But my passion for technology is someone who doesn't have a computer science background is how do we enable technology to do great things?
So I've been in all parts of the technology stack with the exception of semiconductors,

(04:54):
and I've been in computers and mainframes.
I spent a great deal of my career at Cisco,
running policy and government affairs.
Then then I started a business and connected energy for Cisco that became IOT and then on to Microsoft,
where I headed up the global public sector business and oracle.
So what I always did was I followed the things that being very curious that I was passionate about and looked to work and build transformation across industries.

(05:21):
And that's really what led me to illusion is just seeing the power of technology to transform what I think fundamentally is the most important thing is that every human being has an opportunity to have a great education and learn so that they can build and achieve their dreams in their lives and and that's why I'm here and that's why our amazing employees,
these are delusion too.

(05:42):
We share that same idea about the importance of sharing our stories for young people to make them realize that education is important and look at the career you've had in technology when your undergraduate degree was not in technology.
So how do we weave a life and a journey that's education and that's career.

(06:07):
So when thinking about again,
your own experiences and how cumulatively you know,
those things all make sense when you talk us through them,
how do you advise what you're thinking about?
Especially are pushed now to be sure that more and more women enter the stem fields and even young men and the range of positions that are available in the stem for at illusion.

(06:32):
We're very passionate about diversity equity,
inclusion building learning pathways for all of our employees,
connecting that to students of all ages,
certainly super focused on stem careers,
having raised three Children myself in Silicon Valley,
one has become an artist actor.
My daughter is a athletes studying neuroscience in a pennsylvania school for you have one that's going to focus on stem.

(06:59):
So one out of three isn't private,
you know,
I think it's really attaching,
there's coding,
but there then there's coding for a purpose and the great thing is now that we have institutions that develop more multidisciplinary,
I think more of us can be role models,
examples of how you use the core of stem education to,

(07:20):
you know,
no matter what career track you're on,
you're going to need some sort of tech background to make sure that you many institutions,
data science is a requirement now that you,
that stem can be the springboard for many careers,
it's part of the learning experience and and quite frankly the importance of just providing more programs,
providing funding and focus and role models that are stem based that may go into media that may go into medicine that stem is really all around us and being a great role model.

(07:52):
It's one of the reasons that I didn't grow up dreaming about being a ceo of a company.
I love leading great teams,
I love inspiring people.
I love serving in many capacities but I also knew as a female,
there are so few women that pursue the highest levels of leadership and tech companies.
You are such a role model.

(08:13):
We all have to be role models for the next generation and I'm very proud because many of my executive leaders are diverse and women,
we've got to make sure to make room for everyone because as that creativity and human spirit,
we need everyone in on stem and we have a huge opportunity to double the amount of women,
although recent research shows that because of initiatives that you have,

(08:35):
that we have to open it up and open people's minds around what a stem opportunity career actually means and recognizing that the earlier we introduced that and the applicability of stem knowledge,
right is so important.
So I love when I go into a high school and I see a bunch of young women in a robotics lab or you know,

(08:59):
we're in the science labs right there,
right guys and girls together trying to figure out so proudly,
how do we get this robot to throw this ball or how are we going to get them to?
How do we code to figure out this problem.
So.
Right and a lot of the research especially for women is having the mission and purpose is important for everyone and sometimes women in particular.

(09:21):
But showing the outcomes like what can you do with stem,
what are the fun things that you can do and problems that you can solve?
I'm a curious person.
Natural problem solver.
So that's why tech just appeal to me.
You know I always go back and say there's still time for me to learn how to code.
But applying that the application I think is what creates more openings for others to go down the pathway of stem and and make sure that they have the skill sets and it's about the application and the outcomes and that's so important because as someone who's had to learn how to use technology because it's part of our lives now and it's evolved over the years.

(09:58):
I remember I took one basic course in coding and what that helped me to do and I've never coded other than taking right but do is be the translator.
So I when I was explaining as an as an administrator or user of technology what I needed out of the I.

(10:19):
T.
Department to produce,
I could literally think about what the coding would be like like I know you need to pull this variable and match it with that one.
So I've never coded,
but knowing the basics helps you apply technology and I think that's something we have to constantly reinforce with everyone is a basic knowledge of computers,

(10:43):
just just gonna help you and whatever you do.
And so tell me a little bit about what solutions doing in terms of,
you know,
when we think about the importance of exposure,
so scholarships internships,
how does solution think about optimal ways to sort of introducing that young people excited about entering stem fields?

(11:06):
Yeah,
well there's a few things that we're doing for current students and encouraging new students to get into stem.
We've run some programs with interns,
we hire a lot of interns from institutions that we serve to bring them into showcase them careers.
We work with amazing organizations like europe who does just a fantastic job of re skilling and opening up oper opportunities,

(11:29):
especially for underserved communities.
So we give back,
we also just acquired a company called Campus Logic and it's a company I've watched for many years because this is a company that that makes student financial aid friction free.
We know that so many students never get a shot to pursue a stem career,
any education because of financial aid and federal financial aid isn't enough.

(11:51):
So this is an organ is that helps on navigating financial aid with what we call student forms,
that helps find scholarships to understand the true cost of financial aid and navigate that world through even,
you know,
social ways of raising money for education.
So we're very passionate around the concept that everyone should have an opportunity to get a great education to pursue their dreams and higher education And that money shouldn't stand in the way.

(12:17):
And I think we can all be smarter about that.
So we've on boarded a new technology that serves today close to over 800 institutions and we're going to continue to build that in to be smarter to get ahead because by the time a student reaches junior senior of high school,
they've already probably opted in or out and that's where we'll lose diverse,

(12:40):
students.
underserved students.
And so we're on a mission to make sure that every student has that opportunity.
Technology can play a role,
but technology isn't enough.
During the tough times with Covid,
we're a company that gives back and while we couldn't help every student as a company owned by private equity,
we've invested over a million dollars in scholarship money to students that even a 250 or $500 bridge to help them on basic needs on their,

(13:06):
you know,
a nurse that needed to go through another course.
Again,
a single mom who I talked with,
we introduce something called our past scholarship,
which stands for progress,
accomplishment,
thriving and hope to give back.
It's not a one time thing.
We continue to invest in it to make a difference to be a role model to hopefully have others understand the power of a little help along the way when students get stuck and I don't know,

(13:30):
I know any students that haven't gotten stuck either in switching their major or taking care of their Children having to take a pause.
And in particular we see this,
this as a,
the biggest challenge is probably in the community colleges and so we give globally,
we give to every type of institution.
We're super focused on incentivizing and and doing our part to give back and help students along their journey,

(13:55):
which is something that I've spent my,
as we talked about my life committed to the idea of access and opportunity.
Right?
And so the idea of ever getting to a place where student financial aid can be friction free.
I think it's been a for a joy and have that enjoy listen for your listeners to stay on path dot org for institutions that are looking for help.

(14:21):
Our scholarship is open until Wednesday june 15th depending on the time you have the podcast.
You know,
maybe we'll extend that a little bit as well.
Well,
you know that when my,
when my students for sure and I appreciate that you recognize that small amounts of money really can make a difference because students can really get stuck,

(14:41):
especially as you said,
community college students and commuter students generally right because they come up with,
you know,
all of a sudden they have a flat tire or the car needs a new alternator and they literally can't afford it.
And then they stopped coming to school because of it.
The internet access access as we acquire this amazing company with just wonderful leadership there.

(15:03):
We are looking at the future of student success student well being,
may was mental health awareness.
We know that over 1000 students commit suicide a year.
I do think that more of our technology,
that data analytics can paint the whole picture of what students need,
faculty and administration to around their well being,
which is mental health,

(15:24):
physical health,
community interaction,
a sense of belonging financial aid.
There's more that we all can do to serve students.
Certainly our goal is to have more students achieve whether it's a degree of certification,
but get this skill sets,
the knowledge so that they can go after their future.
They can build their lives and their families were just excited about the future of what we're doing.

(15:47):
Evolution.
It's always holy family for us because you know,
we've got a great alum who's on your board of trustees and so we admire and appreciate what you do at Holy Family.
And I do think that alarm is someone who could take credit for,
um,
and trustee steering us to,
we're adopting for two majors and two minors.
So as of the fall semester we're gonna be using,

(16:10):
we're gonna be offering applied computer science and security.
Right.
What we talked about cybersecurity,
that is awesome,
I will give Jim Bennett some credit for that and I know he's happy about that.
And then interestingly enough as miners were starting e sports and the related academic offering will be gaming,

(16:31):
design and administration again.
So thinking about these emerging fields that are related to technology and how do we use them in an applied way.
Right.
So you're not the computer scientist,
You're the applied computer scientist.
So how do you manage well?
Absolutely.

(16:52):
And you taking those leadership roles and getting ahead of the curve of technology and creating opportunities to learn is going to serve businesses very well to have jobs that you are feeling that the students that we all need,
the interns we need and employees for the jobs of the future.
So thank you for your leadership and cybersecurity,

(17:13):
e sports.
It'll be a great testament to how you're helping build the economy and markets and wonderful graduates from Holy Family.
And we know that our graduates do tend to stay in the communities where they reside.
Many of them are local and so we truly do give back to the community and need to address then the needs of the firms and the companies in this area,

(17:36):
right in terms of telling us and that's what they're telling us.
I could talk to you all afternoon long.
No,
we have to wrap up.
So there's this,
you know,
question about what would you tell yourself,
you know,
your college going self,
if you could talk to yourself when you were 17,
before you started all of this journey?
Well,

(17:56):
well,
part of this is influenced by some of my experience,
but I think for everyone,
it's about taking risk,
embracing change.
You know,
there's gonna be bumps along the way,
but those bumps make us all stronger.
So when you see the curve of head,
like lean into it and accelerate,
that's really is what gives you that resiliency,

(18:17):
that courage takes you to the next level in your life,
whether it's your personal life or your career.
So I hope that there was a little bit that I learned along the way and,
you know,
coming from Silicon Valley,
the power taking risk and being fearless and knowing that you're not always going to be successful at everything that you do,
but you learn more from your the tough times and some of your failures than probably your successes.

(18:39):
So that's what I was saying.
And I think we all learn that along the way,
but we have to remind ourselves right,
when we do once in a while times,
it's like we really need more character building.
We need another tough time.
We've got a lot of tough times.
And so I hope that we can the bumps,
we can smooth out from Covid,
we've learned from it and that we will accelerate around some of the next terms because we've learned and I'm just excited around the innovation with holy family,

(19:06):
the work that we see many institutions doing serving students no matter where they are because it's a hybrid world now and we're all learning how to make the best of it and have our work life balance a little bit different moving forward.
Well I look forward to the Days and the and the years ahead together.
I'm sure we'll be doing great things.
We did too.

(19:26):
And I can't wait to visit you on campus.
So we look forward to that as well.
And congratulations for all the success that you've had were we watch you your role model for the community.
We can't wait to get our hands on recruiting some of your amazing graduates.
We've got 30 interns that we started with and we would love more of those to be from Holy Family.
So thank you for everything that you and your entire team does.

(19:48):
Super and thank you to and for being a leader even in terms of internships because you pay your interns So to shade and we pay our interns and the hardest part was there all on zoom But I meet them every time when they onboard when they graduate we pay our interns and I think more of us in our communities need to make sure that this is the next generation,

(20:10):
the earlier that we work and learn and contribute to the better off our community will be the stronger communities and our institutions will be to well said.
Thank you so much.
Thank you to learn more about laura and Lucien.
Please visit solution dot com.
E l l u c i a n dot com.

(20:31):
And to learn more about Holy Family University,
please visit Holy Family dot you.
D You Holy h o l Y family.
F a m i l Y dot e d U.
Thanks for listening today.