Michelle Way is a Senior Product Manager at Jenzabar, a leading technology innovator in higher education serving campus students, faculty, and staff. Michelle leads product direction for System Administration and Core functionality for the Jenzabar One product. She oversaw the development of Jenzabar Communications, an industry recognized software tool unifying campus interactions. The innovative product breaks down departmental silos across campus and builds dynamic constituent profiles to support the community throughout the complete lifecycle. Michelle has over 24 years of higher education experience as a technology leader at two higher education institutions in Connecticut prior to joining Jenzabar five and a half years ago. Michelle resides in Southwest Florida and enjoys beach combing and antiquing.
In Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, the Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (TACRAO) worked with high schools and community colleges across the state to pivot from the traditional in-person schedule of college fairs to a virtual schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. TACRAO paid for the platform to host the virtual fairs through GoToCollegeFairs.com at no cost to the member institutions nor the fair hosts, which consisted of high schools, school districts, and 2-year colleges. The only cost was for recruiting institutions to pay for a one-time virtual booth fee of $150 for the entire season.
The TACRAO High School Relations committee then worked tirelessly to schedule the virtual fairs for every hosting high school, school district, and 2-year college across the state for the entirety of the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 recruitment seasons. For Fall 2020, this resulted in 357 separate college fairs with 386 participating colleges and universities who registered a virtual booth at the fair. Over 87,000 students, parents, and counselors registered to attend the fairs, resulting in 209,592 leads created and 184,912 leads downloaded for participating institutions. This provided institutions an opportunity to safely recruit students and participate in college fairs at a fraction of the normal travel costs associated with attending college fairs. Many schools said this also generated more leads for them than ever before.
TACRAO saved the 2020-2021 college recruitment season for not only the state of Texas, but also for those out-of-state colleges and universities who attended the virtual fairs. High school and community college students were provided an opportunity to learn about 357 different colleges and universities across and outside of Texas as they shopped for where they wanted to continue their education. TACRAO continued this service in Fall 2021 by working with schools, school districts, and 2-year colleges to schedule both in-person and virtual fairs. While some fair hosts wanted in-person, others wanted to remain virtual while COVID cases rose.
In addition, TACRAO hosted its annual meeting in November 2020 virtually free-of-charge to attendees. They also offered the pre-conference SEM workshop free-of-charge as well. As a result, over 1200 registrants attended the 2020 virtual conference, many of whom would normally not have been able to attend a TACRAO conference in the past. In July 2021, TACRAO offered a virtual Community College and University Issues Summer Meeting, bringing in members from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to go over new legislative items from the year's legislative session. This virtual conference was also provided to the membership free-of-charge.
Katie Rendon has been working in higher education for over a decade and is based in Denver, Colorado. She earned a Master’s degree in Classics from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Bachelor’s degree in Antiquities from Missouri State University.
Katie Rendon has been the Registrar of Aspen University for the past four years and was recently promoted to a new role as Assistant Vice President for Student Services and University Registrar, overseeing both Academic Advising and the Registrar's Office. Katie is an active member of AACRAO's Prior Learning Credit and Alternative Credit and Credentials Committee and State and Regional Relations Committee.
In 2022, Katie began teaching for AACRAO's Registrar 101 course and joined the Women's Caucus. Katie is a biannual contributor to AACRAO Connect. She presented at the 2022 AACRAO Annual Meeting in Portland as a Best of the Best winner and is presenting two sessions at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Aurora, Colorado. Katie is also active in her state and regional association, Rocky Mountain ACRAO. Katie has served on the Board of Directors for RMACRAO since 2020 and is currently serving as president-elect of that organization. She credits her colleagues on the RMACRAO board with giving her the confidence to continue to grow professionally and seek out new opportunities.
Katie is honored to receive The Emerging Leader Award and hopes to continue contributing to the AACRAO community at large. Katie lives in Aurora, Colorado, and when she is not working enjoys spending time in the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado sunshine with her family, friends, & their dogs.
I joined the MPCC family 10 years ago (2011) after working in the Non-Profit world for over 15 years. I currently oversee the Admissions and Recruiting Departments, and I am a Gallup Certified ‘Strengths Coach’. My passion is helping students and staff become the best version of themselves, excelling on and off campus and into their next stage of life! I also enjoy the opportunities my role offers in creating and implementing new recruiting and retention programs and events! I have lived in North Platte, NE since 1995, with my husband of 28 years. We have two terrific sons, a beautiful daughter-in-law and two grandchildren!
Bobbi Muehlenkamp has held a variety of positions in higher education over the last 18 years—from admissions and recruiting, to athletic eligibility, to transfer credit evaluation, to her current position as Director of the Learning Commons at Mid-Plains Community College in West-Central Nebraska. Bobbi has been with MPCC for five years and in her role, oversees the Learning Commons Retention and Resources operations on the two main campuses—North Platte and McCook—as well as providing Learning Commons services at four community campuses in Broken Bow, Imperial, Ogallala and Valentine, NE. Bobbi’s area of specialization is retention services like tutoring, test proctoring, testing accommodations and early alerts from faculty. Bobbi is also passionate about student engagement and leadership development. Bobbi and her staff pride themselves on building relationships with students and making the Learning Commons the go-to place for students needing assistance with tutoring, testing, early alerts or other concerns outside of the classroom.
Dane Jensen is the CEO of Third Factor, an acclaimed speaker, an instructor at Queen’s University and the University of North Carolina, a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, and the author of The Power of Pressure (HarperCollins).
Dane oversees Third Factor’s delivery of leadership development programs to leading firms across North America including SAP, RBC, Uber, Twitter, the USGA, and others.
He teaches in the Full-Time and Executive MBAs at Queen’s Smith School of Business in Canada and is Affiliate Faculty with UNC Executive Development at the Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill.
In addition to his corporate work, Dane works extensively with athletes, coaches, leaders and Boards across Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic sport system to enhance National competitiveness.
Ana Villavicencio is a Regional Educational Advising Coordinator (REAC) with EducationUSA, based in Quito-Ecuador. She manages the Andean Region portfolio (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela) providing training and support to over 40 advisers in 39 EducationUSA advising centers. Before becoming a REAC, she was the senior EducationUSA adviser at the Fulbright Commission in Quito. Prior to working for EducationUSA, Ana was the international relations adviser for SENESCYT, a government institution in Ecuador that oversees the country’s higher education and scientific development. Ana has also worked for a U.S. think tank, as a program officer, managing programs on increasing U.S.-Asia strategic relations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and environmental studies, a master’s in political science, and an MPA from U.S. universities.
Tatiana McKenna has worked at Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. since 2008. She earned her Specialist Diploma from Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University (Ukraine); the equivalent, in the United States, of a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in English and German languages, with an emphasis on TESOL. Tatiana has 8 years of pedagogical and scientific experience from Ukraine. In addition to acting as an Assistant Professor at Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University for 5 years (teaching English and Methods of Foreign Languages), she spent 3 years working on a scientific dissertation on the Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages at Kyiv National Linguistic University (Ukraine). Tatiana is a native speaker of Ukrainian and Russian, and is also fluent in German. Her countries of specialization include former USSR, Western and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. She participates and presents at various regional, national, and international conferences hosted by WAIE, TAICEP, EAIE, NAFSA, and ECE webinars.
Research & Policy Division David (Dave) Mihalyi has been a professional evaluator of international educational credentials since July 1987. He currently serves as Associate Director - International for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). He is a member of TAICEP (The Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals), has contributed to various publications published by AACRAO and NAFSA, and is co-author of the ECE Presents series volume, The Educational System of Spain.
Dave manages AACRAO’s contracted partnership with the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), provides training and guidance for remote evaluation staff, and contributes expertise to the AACRAO Electronic Database for Global Education (EDGE), while serving as an ex-officio member of AACRAO’s International Education Standards Council (IESC).
Adrienne serves as the University Registrar at The Ohio State University and has nearly 13 years of experience in large, urban public universities. She has been active in AACRAO through committee and workgroup leadership and presentations at conferences. She holds a BA from Point Park University, a MSEd from Baruch College, and an EdD from Northeastern University.
Kristina C. Anderson, Ed.D., is a clinical faculty member in Student Affairs Administration at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. Previously, she spent 25 years in admissions and enrollment management positions within the University of Wisconsin System campuses. She holds an Ed.D. in Leadership, Policy, and Administration from the University of St. Thomas, an M.Ed. in Higher Education from the College of William and Mary, and a B.A. in English from Albright College.
Review of: Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling
Danielle Faucett is Associate Registrar (Curriculum and Scheduling) at the University of Missouri – St. Louis and Chair of the AACRAO Enrollment Management and Retention Committee. With over eight years of experience in the registrar’s office, she has endeavored to make a positive impact on student retention by improving course scheduling processes using technological advancements and policy change. She has implemented course scheduling software to help strategically drive processes at her institution while also providing hands-on support to UMSL’s faculty, staff, students, and campus partners. Faucett has a bachelor’s degree in communication and master’s degrees in communication and adult and higher education from the University of Missouri – St. Louis and is currently pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies there as well.
Sandra Mohr has more than 20 years of leadership experience within higher education, where she has found practical ways of advancing impactful learning. She currently is the Dean of Academic Resources and Administration at the New England College of Optometry.
Remote Learning Adaptations in Optometric Clinical Education
Ryan Fewins-Bliss is the Executive Director of Michigan College Access Network, an organization working to increase college readiness, participation and completion in Michigan among low-income students, first-generation college-going students and students of color. MCAN’s goal is to increase the percentage of Michigan residents with postsecondary certificates or degrees to 60 percent by the year 2030.
Crisis after Crisis: Why We Can’t Give Up Hope amidst the Pandemic
Joe Head was the inaugural director of the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Endorsement Program and served in that role until 2016. He is the former vice president of enrollment for Kennesaw State University. In 2004, Head was the recipient of AACRAO’s APEX Award for Student Success.
SEM Endorsement Program: Ten Years of Growing Enrollment Management Competency
Sarah Tuxbury is a communications and marketing writer who highlights faculty endeavors and research discoveries at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She’s a CASE V award-winning writer and former Gannett journalist whose work has been published in a variety of media outlets, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. She received her Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University.
An Interview with Patricia Smith
Jonathon Goodson is a Business Intelligence Engineer in the Department of Enterprise Applications at the Clayton State University Office of Information Technology Services. He has earned degrees from both The University of Georgia and Clayton State University. His work in data analytics supports the university's mission of increasing enrollment and retention.
The Impact of Student Swirling and Transfer Credit Hours on Earning a Bachelor’s Degree