Elayne Vaughn coordinates recruitment and admissions for the Master in Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Vaughn identifies as a Black first-generation college graduate from Detroit, MI. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Grand Valley State University, where she worked in admissions as a student employee. Shortly after, she earned her master’s degree in organizational leadership from the University of Oklahoma. Prior to joining Taubman College, Vaughn began her admissions career at the University of Oklahoma in the admissions and recruitment department.
Review of: Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping
Trista Wdziekonski, a higher education administrator for 22 years, is currently Executive Director of Graduate Enrollment Management at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She holds a master of arts in higher education from the University of Michigan and has previously worked at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Harvard School of Public Health, and Northwestern University.
Review of: A Problem of Fit: How the Complexity of College Pricing Hurts Students—and Universities
Neil W. Birt is the Assistant Director of Learning Skills and Assessment in the Office of Learning Enhancement and Academic Development (LEAD) at Western University of Health Sciences. Prior to his ten years with WesternU, he spent five years with an online sustainable MBA program at Bainbridge Graduate Institute. His long history in higher education began in Japan where he was an assistant professor for six years after working for ten years at various colleges and corporations there.
Bolstering Graduate Healthcare Student Success Through Emotional Intelligence
Diane VanDyke is the Director of Strategic Communications at Montgomery County Community College, where she has worked in the marketing and communications department since 2010. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Ursinus College and is completing a master’s degree in communications and digital media from Southern New Hampshire University.
A Tale of Two Community Colleges: A Dual Enrollment Recruitment Outreach Strategy
Eric Devlin is the Public Relations and Communications Coordinator at Montgomery County Community College. He brings with him more than ten years of experience in journalism and public relations. A graduate of La Salle University, he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in strategic communications from Penn State University.
Stepheni Anderson, Interim Executive Director of Admissions, for HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College, is an alumna of HACC. Her passion for helping future students to attend community college, comes from her personal experience. Stepheni graduated from Penn State York Campus in 2008 with an undergraduate degree in business administration and achieved her M.B.A from Walden University in 2015. She has worked in the admissions department at HACC for almost nine years.
Tiffany Webber, Director of High School Programs & Educational Partnerships, for Montgomery County Community College, is a first-generation graduate in her family with 20 years of higher education experience. Tiffany graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication. She continued her educational journey earning a master’s degree in organization management and is currently an Ed.D. candidate for Wilmington University’s Doctorate of Education (higher education administration). Born and raised in the very county that she currently services, it is her passion to promote accessible postsecondary education.
Michael Sparrow, Ed.D., is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership in New Jersey City University’s Community College Leadership Ed.D. program. His research interests include student onboarding and acclimation, student success initiatives, SEM, and equity in educational access and outcomes. Prior to joining the faculty at NJCU, Dr. Sparrow worked for more than a decade in administration in both student and academic affairs, and he most recently served as the dean of enrollment management and retention at Northampton Community College.
Supporting Adult Students with Improved Community College Enrollment Practices
Jennifer DeHaemers is Vice President of Student Recruitment and Retention at Central Michigan University. She has worked in higher education for more than 35 years, holding positions in domestic and international admissions and enrollment management at a community college and three public four-year institutions in Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan. An Interview with Jeff Selingo
David R. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. His research agenda examines how universities are shaped by changes in their institutional environments, especially as it relates to capitalism, religion and politics. His most recent work appears in Educational Researcher, Harvard Educational Review, and Innovative Higher Education. Departure from College: The Role of the Social Network of Students
Leah Adinolfi is the Dean of Student Engagement and Director of Assessment in the Division of Student Life & Enrollment at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). She also serves as Adjunct Faculty in the Departments of Counseling and Human Services and Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis with ETSU’s Clemmer College. Dr. Adinolfi has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and non-profit organizations managing projects, developing resources and mobilizing young people and community volunteers. Since earning her Doctorate in Educational Leadership & Policy at Vanderbilt University in 2020, her research has continued to explore factors influencing college student persistence and success, with particular focus on the effects of relationships with faculty, staff and peers for diverse student populations and campus environments.
Departure from College: The Role of the Social Network of Students
A native of the Dominican Republic, Angela Batista grew up in Brooklyn, New York. A first-generation college student and professional, she is an experienced and successful educator and leader and the former vice president of student affairs and institutional diversity and inclusion at Champlain College. Batista has worked in K–12 and higher education institutions across the United States and held senior level positions at Oregon State University, the University of Southern Indiana, and Mills College. She also worked at the University of Vermont and Lynn University, is a former marriage and family therapist, and an experienced high school teacher, counselor, and administrator. Batista founded Batista Consulting Services (BCS) in September 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. BCS is an international executive coaching, speaking, and consulting firm providing expertise and customized resources and services to individuals, teams, and organizations in higher education and in the private and non-profit sectors.
Dr. Robin Holmes-Sullivan is the 26th President of Lewis & Clark College, the first woman and person of color to serve in that role in the institution’s 155-year history. She began her tenure as president in July 2022 after serving as the college’s vice president for student life and dean of students for three years. During her time as vice president and dean of students, Holmes-Sullivan demonstrated a commitment to creative leadership, secured funding for an improved student experience and developed a comprehensive plan for the division of student life. Holmes-Sullivan came to Lewis & Clark from the University of California, where she served as vice president for student affairs with responsibilities across the 10-campus, 200,000-student system. Prior to that, she spent 25 years at the University of Oregon, ultimately serving as vice president of student life, a position she held for nine years. Holmes-Sullivan has also maintained a private clinical psychology and consulting practice for more than two decades.
Dr. Sumun L. Pendakur (Sumi) believes that we have infinite capability to imagine and enact a more just, equitable, and compassionate world. Pendakur is a scholar-practitioner, an activist-educator, a skilled facilitator, and a mom. With nearly 20 years in the field of higher education and a decade as a DEI speaker and trainer, Pendakur's work and research focuses on helping campuses, corporations, non-profits, and other organizations build capacity for social justice and racial equity by empowering individuals at all levels to be transformational agents of change in their spheres of influence. Most recently, Pendakur was the Chief Learning Officer and Director of the USC Equity Institutes at the USC Race and Equity Center, dedicated to advancing racial justice in higher education and other sectors. Prior to that position, Pendakur held roles as the assistant vice president for diversity and inclusion at Harvey Mudd College, serving on the President’s Cabinet and directing the Office of Institutional Diversity, and as the director for USC Asian Pacific American student services.
Art Coleman is Managing Partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC. He provides policy, strategic, and legal counseling services to national non-profit organizations, school districts, state agencies, and postsecondary institutions throughout the country, where he addresses issues associated with:
I am a part of a family of educators, my grandfather was the president of Selma University, my dad is a retired high school teacher/counselor, and my husband is a middle school principle. So it only makes sense that I became a teacher and eventually moved to higher education. I have worked in higher education for over 10 years, holding roles in scheduling and degree audit. While learning and working in higher education, I maintained a focus on students and have gained a focus in technology by accepting the position of Product Manager in Information Technology at The Ohio State University. In this role, I assist with enhancing the student experience through our web and mobile applications. In addition to student focused work, I also work in fostering an environment of diversity and inclusion and served as the Chair of my department’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. In this position I have presented content for staff to learn and apply to their respective areas, created a D&I Book Club, and organized outside guest to speak on different subject matters. In addition to my career, I am a step-mom of two wonderful step-sons and a mother of a budding pre-teen daughter. My time outside of work is dedicated to the three of them. Between school and sporting events, they keep me busy.
Courtesy of a Corporation for a Skilled Workforce
Melissa Goldberg is the Director of Competencies & Credentials leading CSW’s portfolio of work focused on dramatically expanding the use of competencies and non-degree credentials within learning and talent management systems to increase economic mobility for low-wage workers and address racial disparities. Melissa will continue to position CSW as a leader in a growing national movement to advance the use of competencies as essential currency within education and labor markets through the use of tools such as CSW’s CompXchange, by building systems of incremental credentials, and ensuring competencies and nondegree credentials increase equity and worker advancement.
For more than 20 years, Melissa has advised state policy makers, industry executives and college leaders on leveraging the strengths of these sectors to improve outcomes for students, workers, and businesses. She has counseled community college workforce leaders on improving student outcomes, facilitated state and regional strategic planning efforts, authored studies of effective workforce development practices, and provided technical assistance to foundations, federal agencies, businesses, and community colleges across the country.
Prior to joining CSW, Melissa’s work has taken her to national consulting organizations, Volta Learning Group and Workforce Strategy Center, as well as higher educational institutions. At Southern New Hampshire University she leveraged her research to inform the development of College for America, a set of online, competency-based certificate and degree programs targeted to working adults. She also spent eight years leading workforce development and business outreach at community colleges in the New York metropolitan region. Melissa received her master’s degree in public policy analysis from New York University’s Wagner School for Public Service and her bachelor’s degree in international affairs and Spanish from the University of Maine.