Audrey Dow, MPA

audrey@secoya-affect.com
LinkedIn

Professional Highlights

Audrey Dow is a public affairs, media and communications strategist who provides consulting services to leading nonprofit, philanthropic, public and business organizations working to improve the lives of marginalized people in California and the nation.

Dow has over 25 years of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors where she has been focused on bringing policymakers, philanthropy, business, civil rights, student and community coalitions together to find solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing the state of California including access and success in higher education, an aging infrastructure system, racial inclusion in hiring, contracting and university admissions, and ensuring underrepresented groups have a seat at policy-making tables.

For the past fifteen years, Dow served as a member of the Executive Team of the Campaign for College Opportunity, one of the most impactful higher education policy, advocacy and research organizations in California. Dow had broad responsibilities for co-leading the organizations’ strategic direction, robust research agenda, and for leading strategic media, communications, and coalition building efforts. She led successful campaigns to end the use of the SAT/ACT in admissions at the University of California and California State University, ushering in remedial education and transfer reform at California’s community colleges, and reforming financial aid to serve more low-income students. She has been the convener and chief facilitator of the California Undocumented Higher Education Coalition, which has been responsible for the progressive policies adopted by the state since 2016 to ensure college access and affordability for undocumented students.  Audrey has been a principal author and contributed to numerous watershed reports on higher education and racial/ethnic inequity including reports on undocumented Californians and formerly incarcerated Californians.

Dow previously served as a Programs and Policy Director for Hispanas Organized for Political Equality where she trained Latinas to take on elected and appointed leadership roles in the public sector while developing the organization’s first policy advocacy agenda and youth leadership development program. Dow also served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency where she led key outreach and facilitation efforts for the Commission on Building for the 21st Century, a statewide long-term infrastructure planning effort; the Census 2000 Complete Count Campaign designed to reach the state’s difficult-to-reach communities, minimizing the undercount; and the state’s efforts to ensure racial and gender diversity in contracting, hiring and university admissions after the passage of Proposition 209, the state’s ban on affirmative action.

Audrey is a sought-after expert on issues of college access, success, affordability and racial equity, speaking regularly at state and national convenings and is often quoted in local, state and national media. She is an expert facilitator with a track record of moving coalitions, boards, and teams toward shared goals, measurable outcomes and ultimate success.

Dow was appointed in 2022 by Governor Newsom to the CA Student Aid Commission. She serves on the Board of Directors for Excelencia in Education, and is Board Chair of the Alliance for a Better Community.

Audrey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of Southern California and a Masters in Public Affairs with an emphasis in Domestic Policy, and a certificate in Urban Policy, from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.