AACRAO & ELLUCIAN HONORED AS PESC FOUNDERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AACRAO & ELLUCIAN Honored as PESC Founders

Founder Awards Recognize Exceptional Membership and Board Leadership

Washington, D.C. ~ The Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) is pleased to recognize and honor the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) and Ellucian as “PESC Founders.” With continuous Annual Membership in PESC and successful, continual election to the PESC Board of Directors since PESC’s founding, AACRAO and Ellucian will be presented with PESC Founder Awards at the April 2022 Data Summit in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2022.

We are honored and humbled to accept this award. Evolving technology and the management of data is a major component of every AACRAO profession, and data standards enable the interoperability required to serve our students and our institutions. We strongly support the continued development of standards from within the user community. Our partnership with PESC is more than strategic, it is foundational to the work of our members and higher education community as a whole.

• Melanie Gottlieb, Interim Executive Director

As we celebrate the milestone anniversary of The Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council, we are honored to be recognized as a founding partner and are grateful to this community for the service to furthering higher education. PESC standards are integral to the solutions Ellucian delivers to our customers and we value our role and participation in the creation of these standards. We appreciate the leadership of PESC and the other members, particularly at a time when data exchanges are growing and expanding for institutions around the world.

• Mariam Tariq, Senior Vice President, Product Management, Ellucian

The expertise, knowledge, guidance, commitment and collective wisdom AACRAO and Ellucian bring to PESC and to the education community are immeasurable. AACRAO and Ellucian are among the very best in higher education in every aspect and PESC is honored and grateful for 25 years of support and partnership at every level. Their continued contributions and collaborations within the community solidify AACRAO and Ellucian as leaders in technology and standards.

• Michael Sessa, President & CEO, PESC

Representatives from both AACRAO and Ellucian have participated in every PESC standards development effort with several serving as Chairs and/or Co-Chairs. Jerry Bracken (representing AACRAO), Pete Nalli, Bill Hollowsky and Rick Skeel (representing Ellucian), have been elected and served as Chair of the PESC Board of Directors. Additionally, the following representatives are recipients of PESC’s Distinguished Service Awards:

• AACRAO – Mike Reilly 2020, Janie Barnett 2018, SPEEDE Committee 2011, Jerry Bracken 2003
• Ellucian – Rick Skeel 2017, Ed Hauser 2006, Mark Bolembach 2005

The PESC Founder Awards Ceremony will take place at the April 2022 Data Summit being held in-person in Washington, D.C. April 25-27, 2022. Accepting the Founder Award on behalf of AACRAO is Melanie Gottlieb, Interim Executive Director, AACRAO; while accepting the Founder Award on behalf of Ellucian is Rick Skeel, Product Manager, Ellucian. For more information about the April 2022 Data Summit, please visit www.pesc.org.

About AACRAO
AACRAO is a non-profit, voluntary, professional association of more than 11,000 higher education professionals representing approximately 2,600 institutions in more than 40 countries. Its commitment to the professional development of its members includes best practice guidance on admissions strategies to meet institutional diversity objectives, delivery of academic programs in innovative ways to meet the needs of a changing student body, and exemplary approaches to student retention and completion.

About Ellucian
Ellucian is charting the digital future of higher education with a portfolio of cloud-ready technology solutions and services. From student recruitment to workforce analytics; from fundraising opportunities to alumni engagement; Ellucian’s comprehensive suite of data-rich tools gives colleges and universities the information they need to lead with confidence.

Working with a community of more than 2,700 customers in over 50 countries, Ellucian keeps innovating as higher education keeps evolving. Drawing on its comprehensive higher education business acumen and suite of services, Ellucian guides its customers through manageable, sustainable digital transformation—so that every type of institution and student can thrive in today’s fast-changing landscape. To find out what’s next in higher education solutions and services, visit Ellucian at www.ellucian.com.

About PESC
Established in 1997 at The National Center for Higher Education, the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) operates as an international 501(c)(3) non-profit, community-based, umbrella association headquartered in Washington, D.C. of: Data, Software, Technology Service Providers and Vendors; Schools, Districts, Colleges and Universities; College, University and State/Provincial Systems; Local, State/Provincial and Federal Government Offices; Professional, Commercial and Non-Profit Organizations; Non-Profit Associations and Foundations.

PESC leads the establishment and adoption of trusted, free and open data standards across the education domain by serving as an open standards-development and open standards-setting body (governed by a voluntary, consensus-based model), independently funded by annual membership dues, meetings and sponsorships, enabling PESC to support, publish and maintain PESC Approved Standards and technical information free and without charge. For more information, please visit www.pesc.org.