What if college wasn’t built for the very students who need it most? In this episode of Pathbreakers, we talk to Dr. Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), about her deeply personal journey from first-generation college student to national higher education reformer. Bridget opens up about the systemic gaps that left her, and students like her, under-supported and misunderstood, and how that experience lit a fire that fuels her work today.

We explore how Bridget and the UIA are rewriting the playbook for higher education, one collaboration at a time. She shares how she’s brought together 19 university presidents, often former first-gen students themselves, to put competition aside and share not just their success stories, but their failures. Why? Because vulnerable students can’t wait for every school to reinvent the wheel.

Bridget also takes us inside UIA’s Listening Lab, a powerful innovation that puts student voices at the center of decision-making, and offers a candid look at the pressures facing college leaders today.

Key Takeaways:

Radical collaboration can drive real student success outcomes.

Scaling innovation means adapting, not copying, solutions.

Listening to students isn’t optional, it’s transformational.

Empathy and improv can change how institutions lead.

The classroom isn’t the only path to career readiness.

“We just need good ideas to not be a trade secret.” - Dr. Bridget Burns

If you believe higher education should work for everyone, not just the privileged few, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Subscribe to Pathbreakers, share this episode with an educator or student in your life, and journal about how your own education shaped your path.

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This week's episode is sponsored by Mainstay, a student retention and engagement tool where you can increase student and staff engagement with the only platform consistently proven to boost engagement, retention, and wellbeing. To learn more about Mainstay, click here.