Eric Lugo currently hold joint roles as National Director of the College Renaissance Corps, a new, national service corps focused on recruiting diverse participants into high-demand industry training programs at community colleges and as Senior Advisor with City Colleges of Chicago, supporting the system’s innovation and economic mobility agenda. Before rejoining the City Colleges, Eric held the role of Director, External Relations for Discovery Partners Institute, leading efforts to build partnerships with key systems, corporate, community and civic organizations in scaling efforts to support and develop technology talent across the city, region, and state. Prior to DPI, Eric served as Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff at City Colleges of Chicago. In this capacity, he oversaw advancement, community and legislative affairs, economic and workforce innovation, institutional branding and strategic marketing, and special initiatives. Eric played a leadership role in securing over $30 million in new private and public resources for innovative initiatives, supporting scholarship distribution growth by 300%, launching a 5-year strategic plan with Chicago Public Schools; scaling work-based learning and apprentice opportunities with the Chicago Apprenticeship Network; building new credentialing programs to meet industry demand with leading technology companies; and launching the Fresh Start Debt Forgiveness program.