Only 26% of working U.S. adults with college experience strongly agree that their education is relevant to their work and day-to-day life, according to the May 2018 report “From College to Life: Relevance and the Value of Higher Education” released by Gallup, Inc. and Strada Education Network.

For the past two years, the two organizations have collaborated in surveying more than 250,000 Americans about their post-high school experiences and education paths to gain insights that the report notes could “result in more people completing postsecondary programs that lead to successful careers and fulfilling lives.”

In this week’s edition of Thursday Thoughts, Facebook Live, July 12, 1 p.m., ET—Listening to Student Voices . . .

 Learn more about the research findings, the links between relevance and higher education's perceived value, and the scalable solutions that the Gallup-Strada study points to when University of Maryland University College Chief Academic Officer Alan Drimmer interviews Brandon Busteed, executive director of Education and Workforce Development at Gallup, Inc.

More About This Week’s Guest

 Aside from his role as executive director of Education and Workforce Development at Gallup, Brandon Busteed is also an educational entrepreneur, speaker, writer and university trustee. Busteed integrates Gallup's research to measure the educational outcomes that matter most, connect education to jobs and job creation, and promote a paradigm shift from knowledge mastery to emotional engagement in education.

He is the founder and former CEO of Outside The Classroom, a company that pioneered adaptive online education in alcohol abuse prevention. An internationally known speaker and author on education policy, Busteed has frequently written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Trusteeship Magazine, The Huffington Post, Fast Company and other publications. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today and on NPR and the NBC News “TODAY” show, among others.

More About Thursday Thoughts Series Moderator

An award-winning teacher, entrepreneur, innovator and results-oriented academic leader, Alan Drimmer has more than two decades of experience in improving access, retention, and the quality of higher education for nontraditional students.

He spent more than seven years in key leadership roles with Apollo Education Group, successively as president of Western International University, provost and executive vice president of University of Phoenix, and chief academic officer of the entire Apollo Education Group from 2013 to 2016, where he led multiple initiatives that involved adaptive and competency-based learning, analytics to improve student success and operational efficiencies, as well as student motivation projects to improve retention.

Drimmer more recently served as chief executive of PromotED, an education startup that helps employers position personalized coaching, education and technology as employee benefits to reduce frontline turnover and absenteeism.

He holds B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from the University of Chicago, as well as an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He joined University of Maryland University College as senior vice president and chief academic officer in March 2018.