An Educated Guest

Todd Zipper
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An Educated Guest is a podcast that dives deep into the innovations and trends shaping the future of education. The host is Todd Zipper who has over two decades as an entrepreneur, executive, and investor across K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce Development. He brings together visionaries, innovators, and operators from the education industry to explore the solutions that are transforming learning and work.

  1. Oct 21

    Ep.95 | Solving Healthcare’s Staffing Crisis with the CEO of Dwyer Workforce Development

    What does it take to turn an entry-level job into a pathway to the middle class? In Ep.95 of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper speaks with Barb Clapp, CEO of Dwyer Workforce Development, about a model designed to address two connected challenges: limited access to economic opportunity and persistent healthcare staffing shortages. After selling her communications business, Barb partnered with entrepreneur and philanthropist Jack Dwyer to launch the nonprofit in 2021. At the time of the interview, the organization was serving 16,000 scholars across 11 states. Barb explains why covering training costs is only one piece of the solution. Dwyer combines personalized case management, support with everyday barriers, employer connections, and ongoing career guidance to help scholars build stability and advance. Starting with certified nursing assistant training, participants can pursue additional credentials and healthcare careers. The guiding philosophy is simple: “Once a Dwyer scholar, always a Dwyer scholar.” The conversation also explores the organization’s unusual funding model, including how an acquisition of skilled nursing facilities helps support its workforce mission. Todd and Barb discuss bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to nonprofit leadership, the licensing and educational bottlenecks that can stall career progression, and the potential to apply this approach to other industries. With a goal of reaching 100,000 scholars by 2030, Barb offers a practical perspective on connecting education, employment, and lasting economic mobility.

  2. Oct 14

    Ep.94 | Have We Reached Peak Higher Ed? Reinvention, AI, and the Future of College with Futurist Bryan Alexander

    Has American higher education already reached its peak? And if so, can colleges and universities reinvent themselves before it's too late? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper welcomes Bryan Alexander, senior scholar at Georgetown University, author, and higher education futurist, to examine the demographic, economic, technological, and societal forces reshaping the sector. Drawing on his books Academia Next and Peak Higher Ed, Bryan explains why higher education's decades-long expansion has given way to financial pressure, institutional consolidation, and a growing crisis of public confidence. He also reflects on his forecasting successes, including anticipating the impact of a global pandemic on higher education. Todd and Bryan unpack some of the industry's most uncomfortable questions. Why do colleges struggle to control costs? Is administrative bloat really the problem? How can institutions rebuild their value proposition when tuition prices approach $100,000 annually at some schools and public confidence in college continues to decline? The conversation also explores what Bryan calls the current state of AI in higher education: "pandemonium." From faculty resistance and inconsistent institutional policies to the promise of personalized learning, AI presents both an existential challenge and an extraordinary opportunity to rethink how students learn. Despite these challenges, Bryan believes higher education has the intellectual capacity and creativity to reinvent itself. He makes the case for improving student support, investing in human and durable skills, confronting the world's biggest challenges, and rebuilding public trust by delivering better outcomes rather than simply telling a better story. Todd and Bryan close with an optimistic vision of how colleges and universities can leverage AI, embrace innovation, and emerge stronger from this period of disruption.

  3. Oct 7

    Ep.93 | Why K–12 Is So Hard to Disrupt with Clayton Christensen Institute’s Thomas Arnett

    Why do promising new models of education emerge, demonstrate results, and then struggle to scale? In Episode 93 of An Educated Guest, Todd sits down with Thomas Arnett of the Clayton Christensen Institute to explore why K–12 education has proven so resistant to disruption and what it will take to create meaningful, lasting change. Thomas and Todd dig into some of the biggest experiments happening in education today, including Alpha School, mastery-based learning, microschools, school choice, and the growing role of AI. They explore the difference between simply bolting AI onto the existing education system and using technology to fundamentally redesign how students learn. Thomas also explains why human relationships will remain essential even as technology takes on a larger role in instruction. The conversation ultimately asks what school could look like five or ten years from now. Thomas makes the case for a more unbundled, mastery-based, experiential system where funding and learning opportunities become more flexible and new models have room to emerge, prove themselves, and grow. Rather than trying to transform education through top-down mandates, the future may depend on nurturing promising experiments at the margins and allowing students and families to choose what works.

  4. Sep 30

    Ep.92 | Rethinking Assessment for the AI Era with ETS CEO Amit Sevak

    What if the future of assessment is not simply about creating better tests, but about measuring what truly matters? In Episode 92, Todd Zipper speaks with Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS, about the organization’s evolution from the Educational Testing Service into a global measurement and talent-solutions organization. Amit explains why ETS acquired ACT, how WorkKeys can strengthen pathways from high school to employment, and why the education-to-workforce pipeline remains far too fragmented. Todd and Amit examine what traditional assessments capture and what they miss. They discuss falling math and reading performance, lessons from the latest international PISA results, and how AI could make communication, collaboration, curiosity, and other historically difficult-to-measure human skills more visible. Amit also makes the case for connecting formative and summative assessment into balanced systems and for using exit measures to hold colleges accountable for learning and employment outcomes. The conversation then turns to AI literacy and workforce adaptability. Amit offers a practical framework for understanding, applying, evaluating, and ethically navigating AI. Drawing on the ETS Human Progress Report, he explains the “adaptability paradox”: workers know they must continually adapt, but many do not know which skills to pursue or how to begin. He asks whether adaptability itself should become the next essential skill that educators and employers define, teach, and measure.

  5. Sep 23

    Ep.91 | From Struggling College to Thriving University: Marian’s Dan Elsener on Thinking Big

    When Dan Elsener became president of Marian University in 2001, the institution had roughly 1,100 students, significant financial challenges, and what he calls “one foot in the financial grave and the other on a banana peel.” More than 25 years later, Marian has become a growing, ambitious university built around a simple conviction: universities should not exist merely to survive. They should take on big problems and advance human flourishing. In this episode, Dan explains how Marian built a championship football program, launched Indiana’s first new medical school in more than a century, and developed a broader healthcare ecosystem spanning medicine, nursing, engineering, research, and workforce development. He also shares how Marian is working with neighborhood schools to improve childhood literacy, creating earn-and-learn pathways for students who cannot afford to stop working, and expanding college access through prison education. Dan and Todd also discuss the future of higher education, including the promise and risks of artificial intelligence. Dan believes AI can enable individualized learning, improve student retention, and make universities more responsive and human. But he warns that it can also become a shortcut around the discipline required for genuine learning. This conversation offers a powerful model for how universities can combine ambitious leadership, long-term thinking, and service to the common good.

  6. Sep 16

    Ep.90 | Funding Students, Not Schools: Stand Together’s Adam Peshek on the Future of Education

    What if instead of funding schools, we funded students and families—and gave them the power to build an education around what each child actually needs? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Adam Peshek, Vice President of Education at Stand Together, to explore that idea and why the traditional one-size-fits-all model of education is increasingly being challenged by families, educators, and entrepreneurs. Adam explains the rapid expansion of school choice and Education Savings Accounts, the rise of microschools and other alternative models, and why funding families could create a more dynamic education marketplace with greater personalization and lower costs. They also discuss troubling signs from the current system, including declining student engagement and academic performance, and why simply giving families choice isn't enough—we also need great new education options for them to choose from. The conversation also gets personal. Adam discusses raising a son with autism and how that experience reinforced his belief that educational outcomes should look different for different children. Todd and Adam explore what it would mean to "de-risk high school," give teenagers more exposure to careers and real-world learning, and ultimately create an education system where families have the resources and agency to assemble the learning experiences their children need to thrive.

  7. Sep 9

    Ep. 89 | From Hours to Outcomes: Fixing Work, Unlocking Productivity, and Reimagining the Essential Workforce with Array’s Fouad ElNaggar

    What if the biggest problem with the way we manage people is that we're measuring the wrong thing? In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper sits down with Fouad ElNaggar, co-founder and CEO of Array, to explore his provocative argument that the workforce needs to move from hours to outcomes. Rather than treating workers as interchangeable units of labor, Fouad believes employers should understand the value individuals actually create, reward high performers accordingly, and use technology, training, and better management to unlock dramatically greater productivity. Fouad brings a remarkable perspective to the conversation. He has been an entrepreneur, venture capitalist at Redpoint Ventures, Chief Strategy Officer of CBS Interactive, co-founder of Sapho, which was acquired by Citrix for $220 million, and a board member at Yahoo. At Array, he's applying lessons from technology, investing, and company building to what he sees as one of the world's largest broken marketplaces: labor. Fouad explains Array's model of combining software, staffing, and services and its framework of identify, amplify, and coordinate to find motivated workers, help them become more productive, and connect individual performance directly to business results. Todd and Fouad also dig into the disconnect between education and employment, workforce churn, the importance of grit and persistence, and what AI will actually mean for American workers. Fouad offers a fascinating distinction between the knowledge economy and the "essential economy," arguing that AI could disrupt white-collar work much faster than jobs requiring people to interact with the physical world. Ultimately, the conversation comes back to the American dream and a powerful question: What if greater productivity could simultaneously create better businesses, higher wages, and more opportunity for workers?

  8. Aug 19

    Ep.88 | Beyond the Sticker Price: Rebuilding Public Trust, ROI, and Value in Higher Ed with Strada’s Justin Draeger

    In this episode of An Educated Guest, host Todd Zipper sits down with Justin Draeger, Senior Vice President of Affordability at the Strada Education Foundation and former President & CEO of NASFAA. Drawing on decades of experience at the center of federal financial aid policy, Justin offers a nuanced, insider perspective on the real drivers behind the $1.7 trillion national student debt burden, the erosion of public trust in higher education, and why fixing affordability requires looking far beyond top-line sticker prices. Together, Todd and Justin explore how postsecondary institutions can restore confidence by focusing on true value and workforce alignment. They dive deep into Strada's research on what makes a credential "worth having," the hidden costs associated with time to completion, the transformative impact of paid work-based learning, and how innovative models like Direct Admissions are removing traditional friction points for first-generation and low-income students. Finally, Justin shares his perspective on the future of federal policy, state-level governance, and non-degree credentials in a rapidly changing economy. Despite current headwinds and skepticism, Justin outlines a compelling vision for how higher education can fulfill its promise as the primary engine of social mobility and the American Dream.

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About

An Educated Guest is a podcast that dives deep into the innovations and trends shaping the future of education. The host is Todd Zipper who has over two decades as an entrepreneur, executive, and investor across K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce Development. He brings together visionaries, innovators, and operators from the education industry to explore the solutions that are transforming learning and work.

Information

  • Creator
    Todd Zipper
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    95
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 An Educated Guest
  • Show Website
    An Educated Guest