By Dr. Tina DeNeen, Associate Executive Director, Education and Member Development, AACRAO
Brian Gann has attended the AACRAO Conference on Strategic Enrollment Management for more than a decade. After the November 2026 conference, he will take on a new role in that community as conference director, succeeding Jack Miner.
“I’m excited to take on this role because the SEM Conference has long been one of the places where enrollment leaders come together to learn from one another and to make sense of what is changing across our field,” Gann said. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to help shape the conversation and build on the strong foundation AACRAO has established.”
Experience shaped by community colleges
Gann is Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina. A first-generation college student and community college graduate, he has spent 24 years working across five community colleges in three states.
His leadership experience spans enrollment and student services, recruitment, retention, and student success. Before joining Wake Tech, he served as Vice President of Student Services at Jackson State Community College in Tennessee. He has also presented at multiple AACRAO SEM conferences.
Building on Jack Miner’s leadership
The 36th Annual AACRAO SEM Conference this November in Baltimore will be Miner’s final conference as director. He welcomed Gann to the role, saying, “As we think about the evolution of the SEM Conference and past directors, Brian will bring such a wonderful new and fresh perspective, especially with his connection and experience with Community Colleges.”
“Jack has helped make the SEM Conference a place where enrollment professionals learn from one another and find a community of colleagues,” said Dr. Tina DeNeen, AACRAO Associate Executive Director for Education and Member Development. “I’m grateful for his leadership and for the support he has given Brian during this transition. Brian brings deep experience in student and enrollment services and a perspective grounded in community colleges. I’m excited to see how he will build on that foundation.”
Looking toward the next 50 years
Gann takes on the role as the field marks 50 years of SEM as a strategy. He sees a growing set of challenges for enrollment leaders, including changing student demographics, new technologies, affordability, access, and the increasing number of paths students take into and through higher education.
“More students are working, raising families, balancing lives with education,” he said. “Those factors are our competitors as much as the college next door or across the country.”
Gann wants the conference to help attendees respond to those immediate realities while also considering the future of the profession. “My goal is for the conference to remain deeply practical while also looking to the future,” he said. “I want attendees to leave with ideas they can take back and use at their institutions, but I also want us to create space for the larger conversations that will shape enrollment management and higher education over the next years and decades.”
He is also thinking about what happens after attendees return home.
- How can AACRAO help first-time attendees become continuing members of the SEM community?
- How can the ideas and relationships formed during the conference keep growing throughout the year?
For Gann, those questions are part of shaping a conference that serves enrollment professionals well into the next 50 years of SEM.
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