{"id":5460,"date":"2024-08-02T13:47:17","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T13:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:26:50","slug":"amy-laitinen","status":"publish","type":"person","link":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Laitinen"},"template":"","issue_tax":[47],"topic_tax":[48,98,114,170],"program_tax":[112],"project_tax":[],"person_tax":[3167],"fellowship_tax":[],"person_type":[70],"class_list":["post-5460","person","type-person","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","person_type-staff"],"acf":{"details":{"headshot":5461,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Laitinen","title":"Senior Director, Higher Education","description":"","external_link":"","organization":"","helper_social_links":null,"helper_taxonomies":{"issue_tax":[47],"topic_tax":[48,98,114,170],"program_tax":[112],"project_tax":false,"fellowship_tax":false,"person_type":[70]}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":false,"content":"

Amy Laitinen<\/b> is the Senior Director for the Higher Education program at New America, where she oversees the work of the incredible higher education team. Her own work focuses on federal policies to increase quality, transparency, and equity in higher education, along with the politics of higher education reform.<\/p>

Previously, Laitinen held senior roles as a policy advisor on higher education at both the U.S. Department of Education and the White House. She also served as the Senior Program Officer for Postsecondary Policy and Finance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.<\/p>

Laitinen is a product of public higher education, holding a master\u2019s degree in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, a bachelor\u2019s degree from New College of Florida, and an associate degree from Miami-Dade Community College.<\/p>","":null,"drop_cap":false,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_taxonomies","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_taxonomies":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_person_latest","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_person_latest":{"":null,"anchor_id":""}}]},"yoast_head":"\nAmy Laitinen - New America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amy Laitinen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewAmerica\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-17T20:26:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net\/images\/Amy_Laitinen_white_bg.original.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1022\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1125\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NewAmerica\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/people\/amy-laitinen\/\",\"name\":\"Amy Laitinen - 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