By Johnathan M. Holifield
As an NAACP civil rights lawyer and advocate, Urban League chief executive, community development champion, education and government reformer, and regional innovation-based economic developer, my life experiences have crystallized into a single intention: to wage a “war of opportunity” for traditionally ill- and underserved Americans. Beginning in 2017, I had the honor to serve as executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU Initiative).
Since 1837, HBCUs have educated and prepared, primarily, but far from exclusively, African American students—nearly a quarter of HBCU students are non-Black—to contribute to the American experience. These institutions help fuel the nation’s dual pipelines of competitiveness: diversely-talented employees and job-creating entrepreneurs.
Economic developers help create the conditions for growth and improved quality of life. This includes nurturing new ecosystems focused on advancing mutual gain for public and the private sectors. In leading the HBCU Initiative I brought an economic developer’s insight, skills, and vision to improving the competitiveness of HBCUs.
My career could be defined for being perhaps the first (and maybe only) African American to lead the creation of a primary regional innovation-based economic development organization. As executive director of the HBCU Initiative, equipped with an economic developer’s toolkit of lessons learned and strategies gained, my vision was clear and unequivocal: Inclusive Competitiveness® is the viable path for America to sustain new job creation, enjoy shared prosperity, and maintain an enduringly competitive national economy. I translated Inclusive Competitiveness into HBCU Competitiveness, socializing the concept, achieving adoption, and successfully implementing throughout the federal government.
Inclusive Competitiveness is the policies, strategies, practices, and metrics to improve the productivity and quality of life of disconnected populations and communities. Similarly, the HBCU Initiative established HBCU Competitiveness, defining the concept as the ability of institutions to successfully compete for federal and non-federal investments to meet student needs and promote community prosperity. During our term, the HBCU Initiative dedicated itself to cracking open some of America’s best areas of opportunity, further aligning HBCU actions with national priorities.
To build acceptance and alignment for HBCU Competitiveness, and as chair of the Federal HBCU Interagency Working Group, I persistently instilled the concept among 34 federal agencies. To augment federal leadership with outside engagement, the HBCU Initiative participated in HBCU Competitiveness convenings in 12 states, with HBCUs, local partners, and federal agencies. The goal was to leverage federal assets to create state and local HBCU Competitiveness strategies.
The HBCU Initiative established the Federal HBCU Strategy and Competitiveness Policy Coordinating Committee and the framework for the development of a federal HBCU Competitiveness strategy. The framework presented the government-wide vision for helping HBCUs better align with and contribute to federal agency goals.
Also, significantly, after 40 years of presidential HBCU executive orders lacking agency compliance accountability, I developed and recommended the policy innovation to enshrine in federal law Executive Order 13779, The White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Earning sweeping bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, the HBCU PARTNERS Act for the first time requires HBCU reporting to Congress. This Act codifies HBCU Competitiveness in federal statute; provides HBCU alignment with U.S. education and economic competitiveness priorities; requires government-wide HBCU strategic planning; and strengthens HBCUs through robust public, private, and community partnerships.
The HBCU Initiative also collaborated with the Economic Development Administration to develop a new HBCU engagement policy. For the first time, we embedded HBCU objectives into Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS).
After socializing the concept and earning adoption of HBCU Competitiveness, the HBCU Initiative then built the federal scaffolding required to safeguard implementation for years to come. This internal infrastructure protects federal HBCU leadership and aligns the federal government to continuously strengthen the role of HBCUs in delivering on agency missions:
Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy. For the first time, the federal government marshalled agency opportunities and resources to improve conditions for HBCUs to compete. The strategy established the foundation of federal HBCU leadership by:
codifying HBCU Competitiveness into federal policy;
mandating four-year minimum federal agency HBCU Competitiveness plans;
aligning federal agency HBCU planning, goal creation, and measurement with the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010;
establishing four federal HBCU priority areas that anchor all agency competitiveness plans;
and assigning federal agency HBCU quantitative metrics reporting to the Office of Management and Budget.
Federal HBCU Competitiveness Ecosystem. Effectively implementing HBCU Competitiveness depends on the ability of multiple interconnected actors to work together efficiently. The ecosystem brings together disparate and disconnected federal assets and makes connections that lead to impactful results.
HBCU Interagency Competitiveness Clusters. Clusters are a subset of the Federal HBCU Interagency Working Group. Flexible and interconnected, clusters are collaborative structures through which federal and non-federal leadership can more effectively implement HBCU Competitiveness. Capitalizing on common agency interests and priorities, clusters:
create efficiencies to increase impact and reduce redundancy;
provide high-leverage, collaborative leadership to advance HBCU Competitiveness;
and increase HBCU opportunities within agencies.
My economic development executive background prepared me well to lead the HBCU Initiative. We delivered the first federal HBCU strategy, successfully uniting federal agencies into a dynamic ecosystem and creating robust connections between agencies and HBCUs. Importantly, our efforts should also provide valuable guidance for the non-federal sector to improve HBCU Competitiveness, ensuring that institutions, students, and communities are connected to and competing for the best opportunities our nation has to offer.
Johnathan M. Holifield, architect of Inclusive Competitiveness, has more than 20 years of executive experience and is former executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is the author of The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness®: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans. He can be reached at [email protected].