Stephen Barkanic
Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF)
Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer
Stephen Barkanic, BHEF's senior vice president and chief program officer, joined the organization in 2011. In this role, Barkanic provides overall leadership for BHEF's National Higher Education and Workforce Initiative aimed at bridging industry and higher education to increase the persistence and diversity of students who go on to earn degrees or credentials in key emerging fields, and align undergraduate education with workforce needs. He also provides leadership in BHEF's work in Deeper Learning, or 21st century workforce skills and competencies that focuses on the business need for such skills as critical thinking, creative problem solving, and teamwork in the workforce of the future, and advocating for the importance of those skills on a national level.
Prior to joining BHEF, Barkanic was senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where his work encompassed an array of policy and programmatic areas focused on improving student readiness and success in college. At the Gates Foundation, his responsibilities included managing grants portfolios in STEM education, early college high schools, and initiatives linking public and private stakeholders in local and state-wide education reform. In STEM, he worked at both the national and state levels to catalyze networks of companies, K-12 and higher education, government agencies, and other organizations to improve education outcomes for all students.
He is former director of undergraduate science education and grants management at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he led the design and implementation of grants programs in STEM higher education, particularly in the biological sciences. A major focus of these programs, which included the HHMI Professors, the Exceptional Research Opportunities Program, and multi-faceted awards to research universities, colleges, and minority-serving institutions, was to help bring the creativity and rigor of research into undergraduate teaching and support hands-on laboratory research experiences for students. He was program officer and director of grants management at the Charles A. Dana Foundation, which included managing a national grants program in support of liberal arts education, and served as a consultant to the Ford Foundation and other organizations, and as a teacher at the Istanbul International Community School in Turkey.
Barkanic has served as chair of Grantmakers for Education, a national philanthropic affinity group; was a member of the CBE-Life Sciences Education editorial board, and was a member of the Maryland Governor's STEM Task Force.
Prior to joining BHEF, Barkanic was senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where his work encompassed an array of policy and programmatic areas focused on improving student readiness and success in college. At the Gates Foundation, his responsibilities included managing grants portfolios in STEM education, early college high schools, and initiatives linking public and private stakeholders in local and state-wide education reform. In STEM, he worked at both the national and state levels to catalyze networks of companies, K-12 and higher education, government agencies, and other organizations to improve education outcomes for all students.
He is former director of undergraduate science education and grants management at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where he led the design and implementation of grants programs in STEM higher education, particularly in the biological sciences. A major focus of these programs, which included the HHMI Professors, the Exceptional Research Opportunities Program, and multi-faceted awards to research universities, colleges, and minority-serving institutions, was to help bring the creativity and rigor of research into undergraduate teaching and support hands-on laboratory research experiences for students. He was program officer and director of grants management at the Charles A. Dana Foundation, which included managing a national grants program in support of liberal arts education, and served as a consultant to the Ford Foundation and other organizations, and as a teacher at the Istanbul International Community School in Turkey.
Barkanic has served as chair of Grantmakers for Education, a national philanthropic affinity group; was a member of the CBE-Life Sciences Education editorial board, and was a member of the Maryland Governor's STEM Task Force.