Commissioner Ortega

Noe Ortega, Ph.D., was sworn in as Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education on November 1, 2022. He has led the Department of Higher Education (DHE) through a time of historic investment by the state legislature and Healey-Driscoll Administration in affordability and access for all learners in the Commonwealth. Dr. Ortega is dedicated to closing equity gaps through the Board of Higher Education’s four strategic priorities: Student Success and Affordability, Economic Mobility, Public Good, and Innovation.

During Dr. Ortega’s tenure, Massachusetts has more than doubled its investment in the state’s financial aid programs. These investments have made the Commonwealth’s public community colleges free and made its public four-year colleges and universities tuition and fee free for Pell Grant-eligible students, while reducing costs for middle-income students.

Prior to serving as commissioner in Massachusetts, Dr. Ortega served as the secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He led amid a global pandemic and fostered collaboration among educational stakeholders, including leaders, faculty, unions, staff, students, and families. In his prior role as deputy secretary and commissioner for Pennsylvania’s Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education (OPHE), he led efforts to close postsecondary attainment gaps and to diversify Pennsylvania's educator workforce, while ensuring that students had access to educators trained in culturally responsive and culturally relevant teaching.

Dr. Ortega also spent eight years at the University of Michigan, where he held several academic and administrative roles. As assistant director and senior research associate at the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), Dr. Ortega helped to enhance the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the university. Additionally, he served as managing director for the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, playing a pivotal role in a nationwide network to strengthen ties between higher education and societal advancement.

Prior to his years in Michigan, Dr. Ortega spent nearly a decade working in the areas of financial aid and enrollment management at public and private universities in Texas and also served as a P-16 specialist for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Dr. Ortega began his education career by spending seven years as director of Kogakusha, a language institute in Osaka, Japan where he trained teachers in early childhood language acquisition.

Dr. Ortega received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from St. Edwards University, a Master of Science in School Counseling from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and his Ph.D. in Higher Education Policy from the University of Michigan. His research has focused on postsecondary success for historically underserved students and higher education finance at American public colleges and universities.