Appointed Executive Director of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education in 2012, Dr. Estey’s strategic vision for the Consortium is to promote and support college going, access, retention and college success efforts throughout the region through the efforts of the Career Beginnings college access and success program as well as through community wide collaborations with the Hartford School district, other community based organizations and the higher education community.

Prior to serving at Executive Director, Dr. Estey was director of programming for the Consortium, leading Career Beginnings and Director of Higher Education Partnerships of the Graduate!CT program, a partnership with the MetroHartford Alliance. In 2013, through his leadership, the Consortium affiliated with two new programs: Jr. Apprentice, a high school workforce readiness program and the Center for Higher Education Retention Excellence, a thought leader on matters of access and degree completion.

In 2014, the Hartford Consortium, in partnership with the Jobs for America’s Graduates National office and the Connecticut Department of Labor, launched Jobs for America’s Graduates-CT, a long-standing program — now in more than 30 states — that works with severely at-risk youth to improve post-secondary outcomes. In addition, under Dr. Estey’s direction the Consortium has been asked by the Hartford School District to serve as a coordinating body for college access and success programming and to support the Hartford Promise initiative by housing the Executive Director of that program within the Consortium.

A high school English, History, Global Studies and philosophy teacher and an adjunct professor for 20 years before joining the Consortium, Dr. Estey holds a B.A. in philosophy from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Temple University.