Joni Finney is Vice President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, located in San Jose, California and Washington, D.C. The Center, established in the Fall of 1997, is an independent, non-partisan organization, created by national foundations to ensure educational opportunity, affordability and quality higher education.

Dr. Finney directs the National Center’s research and policy studies program. The Center focuses on both state and national higher education policy. Dr. Finney’s interests and publications focus primarily on the finance, governance, and performance of American higher education. Finney directed the National Center’s project to develop the nation’s first state-by-state report card for higher education, Measuring Up 2000.

Prior to her position at the National Center, Dr. Finney held senior policy positions with The California Higher Education Policy Center and the Education Commission of the States (ECS). Dr. Finney has also served in administrative positions at The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Southern Colorado.

Dr. Finney has consulted closely with state policy leaders and speaks frequently to legislative leaders, education associations, and regional and national organizations. She has worked closely with several states to improve state higher education policy. Dr. Finney testified to the US House of Representatives' Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities.

Dr. Finney is a co-editor and author of Public and Private Financing of Higher Education: Shaping Public Policy for the FutureDesigning State Higher Education Systems for a New Century (ACE/Oryx Press, 1999). She has also authored policy reports and book chapters on public policy and higher education issues. Dr. Finney has written articles and opinion pieces for AGB Reports (Association of Governing Boards); The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Point of View”, State Government News and Spectrum (The Council of State Governments); Change Magazine, AAHE Bulletin, Education Week, the Peabody Journal of Education and the Review of Higher Education.