Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy
CJ Powell serves as AAU’s Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy. CJ oversees the higher education portfolio which includes topics such as student aid, graduate education, and education research and programs managed by the Department of Education. Prior to joining AAU, CJ was the Director of Advocacy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) where he led the organization’s advocacy efforts for its 25000-plus membership including college admission professionals and school counselors. Before his time at NACAC, CJ served as a Biden-Harris appointee at the U.S. Department of Education (ED). While at ED, CJ served as Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education and oversaw the daily operations for the Office of Postsecondary Education.
Prior to his government service, CJ was the inaugural higher education program analyst at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. In this role, he led the higher education civil rights coalition, a table of almost 50 national civil rights and policy organizations, in federal policy advocacy. CJ began his career in education as a college adviser in the College Advising Corps, assisting students in rural North Carolina in planning their postsecondary lives. Following graduate school, CJ helped open a public high school in Nashville, Tennessee by serving as the founding director of college preparation.
CJ earned a B.A. in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S.Ed in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.