SCHEV board member hired as new director

Less than a year after joining the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s board, A. Scott Fleming will be SCHEV’s next director, the state agency announced Thursday.

Fleming, whom Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed to the SCHEV board in July 2023, stepped down from the body this week after accepting the job as director. He begins his new post May 28, about a year after longtime SCHEV director Peter Blake announced he would step down as the agency’s head at the end of 2023. 

Since the start of 2024, Alan Edwards served as interim director. SCHEV’s seven-member search committee received 58 applications and conducted interviews in October 2023, December 2023 and February. At a news conference on Thursday, Fleming said he asked to be considered for the position in January.

“It’s kind of that careerlong affinity for public policy and public policy issues that that got me interested in the role in the first place and also the fact that I spent the last 20-plus years professionally in and around higher education and workforce policy issues,” Fleming said. “This seemed like a great opportunity that was an adjacent fit to what I’ve done professionally, but would be an opportunity to stretch my own skills for leadership and management in a spot that really could be impactful for the state and for the families that depend on it.”

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University, Fleming most recently was chief strategy officer at Teaching Strategies, a company that provides curricula for early childhood educators, and his résumé includes C-suite roles at postsecondary education nonprofit Strada Education Network and education tech company Fishtree, as well as senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and senior education policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Fleming said Thursday during a press availability that he will follow Blake’s example of working closely with the Youngkin administration. “I think it would be remarkably shortsighted not to work closely with the governor’s office, and so I expect to be able to do that and hope to be able to work with whoever the next governor is as well,” Fleming said.

Youngkin’s administration has drawn criticism recently by requesting syllabi from instructors at George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth universities who teach courses on diversity, equity, inclusion and race for review by Education Secretary Aimee Guidera, who was among the SCHEV search committee’s members.

When asked about the topic, Fleming said equity, diversity and access to higher education is something that has always been valued in Virginia’s higher education institutions. “I don’t see that changing,” he said. “I think it’s important to have communities that are traditionally underrepresented as individuals to see opportunities for success, and that is reflected in the opportunities that they see for themselves. As a state, the commonwealth needs to be able to help these populations succeed in postsecondary education if we’re going to be competitive in a global economic environment.”

Virginia’s coordinating agency for higher education, SCHEV makes public policy recommendations to the commonwealth’s lawmakers and leaders, tackling tasks that include approving public institutions’ new degree programs and overseeing most of the state’s programs for need-based financial aid. 

Fleming said Thursday that as a SCHEV board member, he had only a few conversations about the search before throwing his hat in the ring, and was not part of the search committee. “While I was aware of the search process,” he said, “I was not directly involved.”

Fleming did not attend the March 18-19 SCHEV council meeting, according to Laura Osberger, a spokesperson for the agency. Fleming resigned from the board on April 10, she said.  

Keeping technology at universities up to date and addressing rising tuition costs will be among his priorities, Fleming said Thursday. “I think what we need to do is take a look at the financing systems that we have in place, consider whether those are the most effective and see if we can create some different approaches that support affordability.”