College of the Canyons Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook has been invited by The Bipartisan Policy Center to join its Higher Education Task Force, which will consist of more than a dozen former policymakers and high-profile individuals in the higher education community to make recommendations toward the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Co-chaired by former Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and former Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the across-the-aisle project will focus on key emerging national issues that are currently impacting higher education, such as state financing policy, accountability, affordability and student loans.

“It is an honor to have been selected to be part of The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Higher Education Task Force,” Van Hook said. “I look forward to working with other leaders in education to make data-driven recommendations to Congress for the much-needed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.”

Van Hook has been the Chancellor of the Santa Clarita Community College District since 1988, which makes her the longest-serving community college CEO in California.

Created in 1965, the HEA intended to strengthen the educational resources of higher education institutions to provide financial assistance for students seeking higher education. Since then, the law—which created the Pell grant tuition assistance program and other programs to help disadvantaged students—has been rewritten eight times. Its most recent reauthorization expired in 2015.

The BPC is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization and think tank that strives to combine the best bipartisan ideas in an effort to promote security, opportunities, and health for all Americans by addressing the nation’s current challenges.

For more information about the BPC, visit its website.