A visionary leader who is passionate about Christian higher education and the role it plays in the common good, Shirley V. Hoogstra became the seventh president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities in September 2014.Having received a bachelor’s in education at Calvin University (Grand Rapids, MI) and a Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of Connecticut School of Law, Hoogstra spent more than a decade practicing law as a partner at a firm that specialized in litigation in New Haven, Connecticut. She served as the president of the New Haven Country Bar Association and was a founding board member and officer of the Bridgeport Rescue Mission. She then returned to the world of Christian higher education and became Calvin’s vice president for student life in July 1999, a role she served in until she became president of the CCCU.As CCCU president, Hoogstra has overseen the introduction of a variety of new, innovative initiatives, including an online course-sharing consortium, insurance consortium, accreditation steering council, and doctoral education council. She has focused on expanding diversity and inclusion on CCCU campuses and making education available, accessible, and affordable to all students. Hoogstra continues to be an advocate for increasing access to education for incarcerated individuals and supporting undocumented students as they seek to complete their education.Hoogstra serves on the steering committee for the Washington Higher Ed Secretariat, is a leader for the Evangelical Immigration Table, and serves on the boards of the American Council on Education, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Trinity Forum. She received honorary doctorate degrees from Gordon College and Nyack College and was the recipient of the Nina Griggs Gunter Servant Leadership Award, the Lifetime Education Impact Award (National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference), and the Keepers of the American Dream Award (National Immigration Forum)