John C. Burkhardt founded and now serves as a faculty affiliate with the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, an effort to make higher education more responsive to the needs of a changing society. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities, he recently served as director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) (2013-2016) and also holds the title of special assistant to the provost for university engagement. The work of the National Forum has received substantial attention and investment from major national foundations for its work in repositioning education in US society. While higher education plays an important role in strengthening regional and the national economy and prepares individuals for employment, it is also important to recognize the ways in which education strengthens civic, cultural, and community life and paves the way for participation in a changing democracy. Burkhardt joined the Michigan faculty in September of 2000 after serving eight years as a program director at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. At Kellogg he coordinated leadership grant making and projects in education and leadership development around the world. During his tenure, the foundation invested over $250 million in projects to promote engagement between higher education and communities and funded several national efforts to renew the public service missions of land grant institutions, community colleges and research universities. Burkhardt was part of the Kellogg team that directed the ENLACE initiative and also helped organize projects to promote leadership development for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI's), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) and Tribal Colleges. He was also responsible for leading the Kellogg Foundation's efforts at higher education transformation in Eastern and Central Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.