Elena Quiroz-Livanis
Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner of Academic Policy and Student Success
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
Elena Quiroz-Livanis
Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner of Academic Policy and Student Success
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
Elena Quiroz-Livanis is the Chief of Staff and Assistant Commissioner of Academic Policy and Student Success at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Quiroz-Livanis is also a doctoral student in the Higher Education program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has been at the Department for six years and oversees the system’s efforts to create a unified system of transfer and transform developmental education. Under her leadership and with the support of a fantastic team, Quiroz-Livanis worked with faculty and transfer professionals across the three segments of public higher education to develop statewide transfer maps to over forty majors. Recently, Massachusetts implemented a reverse transfer policy and created a general education foundation to better support community college students interested in earning a baccalaureate degree in STEM. Quiroz-Livanis has also worked with Massachusetts public higher education institutions to develop a three-pronged approach to transforming developmental education. These efforts seek to increase the number of students completing college-level English and mathematics courses by using multiple measures to assess student readiness, increasing access to co-requisite courses, and building multiple mathematics pathways to ensure students complete the mathematics course appropriate for their major. Most recently, Quiroz-Livanis has begun working with the Commissioner of Higher Education under the direction of the Board of Higher Education to develop a systemwide strategic framework focused on equity. The framework seeks to significantly raise the enrollment, attainment, and long-term success outcomes among underrepresented student populations, specifically students from minoritized populations.