Mary Laphen Pope
DIRECTOR OF STATE POLICY & SYSTEMS CHANGE
Mary Laphen Pope serves as Director of State Policy & Systems Change at HCM Strategists, where she supports clients focused on change management to advance access and opportunities for today’s modern learners.
Previously, Mary served as Strategy Officer for Access for Lumina Foundation, where she supported a portfolio focused on enrollment and reenrollment in community colleges, with specific attention to adult and rural learners. Prior to Lumina, Mary served at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission where she focused on college access and completion for traditional age students and adult learners, most recently as the inaugural Navigate Reconnect Director. In that role, Mary led a team to support the Tennessee Reconnect statewide initiative, which provides high-touch, wrap-around support to and through college to adult Tennesseans. Prior to her work with Tennessee, Mary worked at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as a college adviser in the National College Advising Corps.
Mary holds an M.Ed. in higher education administration from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in English from Gettysburg College. She resides in Pipersville, Pennsylvania with her family.
To read articles by Mary from her time at the Lumina Foundation, click here.