Erica Cuevas

Associate Director

Erica Cuevas is an associate director at JFF. In that role, she leads policy analysis, research, and communications efforts to strengthen federal and state policy to spur innovation and improve pathways across K-12 and postsecondary education systems.

Erica’s work includes engaging leaders and policymakers to ensure that they understand the challenges facing our education systems, as well as the solutions to those challenges. She also helps on-the-ground practitioners develop the skills to effectively engage in policy advocacy.

Erica is an objective federal and state policy analyst who understands the need for policies to be connected to on-the-ground practice. She’s also a researcher, writer, and blogger, and an advocate and strategic partnership builder.

Her areas of expertise include:

Educational equity
Innovation in education
Streamlining transitions between high school to college and careers
Career and technical education
Work-based learning
Higher education access, success, and affordability

Before joining JFF, Erica was a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, where she focused on federal programs designed to make postsecondary education more accessible and affordable. She also managed a workgroup dedicated to improving the student borrower experience.

She also worked with the Department of Education’s White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, playing a lead role coordinating the initiative’s Federal Interagency Working Group on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

A past participant in the McConnell Foundation Scholars Program, which provides financial support to first-generation, low-income college students who want to bring positive change to their communities, Erica now helps choose new McConnell Scholars each year as a member of the program’s selection committee.

Erica says she was drawn to JFF because the organization’s bipartisan approach and its strong relationships with policymakers, which strengthen its ability to influence policy. Additionally, she notes that JFF’s policy work is informed by practitioners on the ground who actually work in communities with students and workers.

Outside of work, she says, “I love to travel, be outdoors, and spend time with family and friends.”

This tool was co-created with input from Building Equitable Pathways Community of Practice members, to support their own and others’ policy work.

As high school seniors celebrate graduation and their moves to new career pathways, let’s also honor the adults who are returning to college or pursuing a degree for the first time.

JFF and the Building Equitable Pathways (BEP) Policy and Advocacy strand created an assessment tool for use by the BEP community of practice and broader field to review existing and proposed policies of their state’s legislative and governing entities to determine the extent to which their state policy environment aligns to the framework and, thus, provides conducive conditions for building equitable pathways.

The Higher Education Act hasn’t been updated for nearly 11 years. It’s time to make the law work for today’s students, and JFF’s policy team has the solutions.

Supporting learners and workers must be a priority in the year ahead. JFF recommends these critical policy actions for equitable economic recovery and the rebuilding of our nation.

A bill that would overhaul federal support for career and technical education took a big step in the US Senate. JFF commends the effort and is optimistic the bill will become law later this year.

The Building Equitable Pathways Coalition offers guidance to intermediaries on policy and advocacy engagement.

President Trump signed into law a bipartisan effort to improve the quality of CTE programs but the scope of their success now depends on the states.

Maximizing Mobility: Leveraging New Data to Help Low-Income Students Climb the Income Ladder

The strongest policy solutions are those that are developed in an inclusive manner.

Policymakers can improve college completion rates by working to change the design and delivery of postsecondary education and training.

The City of Memphis, looking for ways to retain employees, is offering to help pay off their student loans. It is the first city in the nation to provide this benefit to public sector employees.

Now that the first Democratic debates are behind us, JFF looks forward to hearing all presidential candidates propose solid solutions about how to fix the nation’s education and workforce development systems.

Two bills that would update the Higher Education Act are circulating through Congress. JFF took a close look at them to see how they compare with our vision of a better HEA.

Today, 4.5 million young adults ages 16 to 24 are out of school and unemployed. Often referred to as “opportunity youth,” they face significant barriers in the labor market. Policymakers must learn from proven college and career pathways models and craft effective policies to help opportunity youth succeed in education, skills training, and careers. This brief outlines key research findings and includes recommendations for designing the supports young people need.

The federal work-study program is a valuable resource for many low-income students, but it’s not always providing the meaningful work experiences students need. JFF calls on policymakers to update the program to make it relevant for today’s students.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is a hopeful sign for DACA recipients. Now Congress must take the next step and build a permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

It’s time to extend the social contract to the many immigrant frontline workers who are risking their lives during this pandemic. They deserve access to health care, fair wages, sick leave, and other basic rights.

In a rapidly reimagined virtual workshop, officials from five states work on ways to strengthen college in high school programs, which will have an important role to play in a post-COVID-19 world.

President Biden’s student debt relief plan will only temporarily reduce the country’s overall student debt burden. To avoid a return of the crisis, JFF urges policymakers to take bold steps to fix what’s broken in higher education and find new ways to pay for postsecondary education and training.

A fifth year of high school can enable students to earn an associate’s degree at no cost while beginning to blur the lines between high school, college, and career.

JFF and the College in High School Alliance call on the Biden administration to transform the federal government’s approach to helping young people navigate the tricky transitions to college and the workforce.

Workforce development has not received the attention it deserves from U.S. policymakers. JFF urges Congress to pass a comprehensive legislative package that will increase U.S. competitiveness and prepare students and workers for the good jobs available now and those coming soon.

Support for career and technical education is growing, and federal policymakers must maintain that momentum, because CTE can play a key role in efforts to build an equitable economic recovery.

It’s hard to deny that immigrant workers are and will continue to hold up the U.S. economy, particularly in this time of crisis.

Impact Story

Federal Policymaker Networks

Design

Invest

Influence

JFF’s Congressional Staff and Executive Branch Networks on Economic Advancement connect federal policymakers with practitioners from across the country to learn about evidence-based, replicable, and innovative practices happening on the ground that meet the nation’s most complex education and workforce challenges.

This brief illustrates the power intermediaries have to influence policy, so they can be more effective in supporting their partners and driving positive change in their communities and across their states.

With the country seeking a path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it caused, JFF calls on the Biden administration to work toward three goals: helping all people rebound and advance, revitalizing regional economies in an inclusive manner, and redesigning education and workforce development systems.

In response to historic inequities that have only been exacerbated during times of crisis, JFF urges policymakers to think about COVID-19 recovery differently. This recovery must be equitable, with a vision that ensures systemic transformation, fosters community revitalization, and provides individuals from all backgrounds with career and educational opportunities, as well as the supports they need to succeed. JFF invites policymakers, business and civic leaders, and their community partners to use this Road Map to guide their states’ recoveries from the pandemic-induced downturn and to establish a longer-term vision for resilient, diversified, and inclusive economies for a better and brighter tomorrow.

JFF urges policymakers to envision an equitable economic recovery from COVID-19. It must ensure systemic transformation, foster community revitalization, and provide individuals from all backgrounds with career and educational opportunities, as well as the support they need to succeed. To realize that vision, JFF has created this policy framework for Equitable Economic Recovery, which includes a set of three policy pillars and four guiding principles that provide a road map for how the country can deliver on the promise of economic advancement for all.

Impact Story

The Big Blur

Design

Invest

Scale

Influence

An argument for erasing the boundaries between high school, college, and careers, and creating one new system that works for everyone.

JFF’s policy team offers fresh ideas on education, poverty alleviation, and workforce issues that prepare students and workers for the jobs of the future and boost our nation's economy.

This paper argues for a radical restructuring of education for grades 11–14—by erasing the arbitrary dividing line between high school and college—to open opportunities for the learners our current systems leave behind. We make the case for an entirely new type of institution—neither high school nor college—designed specifically to better meet the needs of young people after 10th grade and help prepare them to succeed in the world of work.

A Step Closer to High-Quality, Industry-Aligned Career and Technical Education Programs

Recently, the House passed the bipartisan H.R. 2353, “ The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act,” which updates the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

What does today, March 5, mean to you? For more than 700,000 young immigrants benefiting from DACA, it's a reminder of the administration's decision to end protections for Dreamers, Congress' failure to find a solution, and the continued uncertainty that threatens all they know.