Kamala D. Harris, a Black woman, is the vice president-elect of the United States. A range of other Black women helped to make this happen: Stacey Abrams, who is responsible in large part for the unprecedented voter turnout in Georgia, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta.

They all have one thing in common: They received their education at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

An election noisily settled. Word of a COVID-19 vaccine. Hopeful jobs numbers. There’s room for optimism about 2021, but we’ll need everyone pulling together to make it a year of real economic recovery.

Our challenge now is to provide broad opportunities for learning to ensure that everyone can develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do the work only humans can do—human work, writes Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis in this essay.