Josh Dodson knows higher ed. As a university’s director of digital marketing,, a web analytics strategist, a co-founder/ chief innovation officer of a higher-ed marketing firm, and a professor, Josh has helped many institutions modernize their enrollment and marketing programs. He has delivered countless presentations, keynotes, and workshops at national conferences and has taught more than 500+ students as a former faculty member.
As the Vice President of Innovation at VisionPoint, Josh brings his uncanny ability to design strategy, execute tactically, and measure ROI to our clients. Before joining VisionPoint, he led digital marketing efforts at Bentley University, Southern New Hampshire University, Eastern Kentucky University, and Lincoln Memorial University. He’s also served higher ed from the agency side in roles with Converge and Stamats. His experience both inside the university and working with them from the outside gives him a unique perspective that clients find invaluable.
John Panzica is a Product Solutions Specialist at CollegeSource who has served in higher education for more than 25 years. From Financial Aid to Enrollment Management, Information Technology to Admissions and Records, and then on to University Registrar, John’s breadth of experience at both 2-year and 4-year institutions gives him a unique perspective when it comes to the student journey.
Chris Starkey is a uAchieve Customer Engagement & Training Specialist with CollegeSource and has been with the company for over ten years. Currently, Chris is responsible for developing training materials and courses for uAchieve products.
Amber Cellotti is an Interim Director & Deputy Registrar at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is a member of the Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (UMACRAO) and has served as Program Chair and President. Amber currently serves as the Chair of AACRAO State & Regional Relations Committee.
Traci Sorell writes award-winning trade published fiction and nonfiction works for young people. Born and raised in northeastern Oklahoma, she is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lives on her tribe's reservation near Fort Gibson Lake. Her work focuses on combating the erasure and invisibility of Native Nations and their citizens while centering their humanity, sovereignty, histories, cultures and languages in trade published literature for young people.
Traci's nonfiction books include We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga (2018); Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer (2021); and, We Are Still Here: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know (2021). Her fiction books include At The Mountain’s Base (2019); Indian No More (2019); and Powwow Day (2022).
Traci earned a JD from the University of Wisconsin, a MA from the University of Arizona and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. A first generation college graduate and former federal Indigenous law and policy advocate, she now serves as a 2021-22 Tulsa Artist Fellow, focusing on writing in formats new to her.
I have been a member of IACRAO for over 4 years and during that time I have presented at conference, held the position of East Central District Chair, and currently hold the title of Professional Activities Officer. I have been working in higher education for ten years and I am currently the Interim Associate Director of Admissions at Parkland College. Previous to my current position I have worked on both the recruiting side as an Admissions Advisor and the records side as a Student Records Advisor. I am a huge proponent of professional development and along with being an IACRAO member I have been an IACAC member and have served on their board for the last 4 years. When I am not working I like to spend time with my dog Pearl, listening to true crime podcasts, and obsessing over Christmas!
Executive Director at Cooperating Raleigh Colleges | CACRAO Past President
Sara CW Sullivan is a Senior Associate Registrar, Strategic Initiatives, at the University of Iowa. She holds a B.A. from the University of Iowa, M.Ed. from Upper Iowa University, and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Maryville University. Sullivan has served UMACRAO and AACRAO in varying positions since 2015.
Sara has co-authored the following articles:
Commencement Matters
When COVID-19 Crashed Commencement
If You Build It, They Will Come: The University of Iowa’s FERPA TeamInterview with Melanie Ho which was featured in the AACRAO Connect article Underrepresented vs. Underestimated
And she was on the following For the Record episodes:
Women Supporting Women
In Memoriam Tina Falkner
Hill Day
Her LinkedIn is:
www.linkedin.com/in/saracwsullivan
www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-kiefer
Dr. Kiefer serves as the Director of Admission + Financial Aid at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. As a first-generation college student with a student-centered approach to support students in meeting their individual educational goals and career objectives, Dr. Kiefer is guided by the principles of transparency, authenticity, and equity, and celebrating the unique characteristics of the students she serves.
Capstone Project: The Enrollment Funnel: Why Prospective Graduate Students Stop at the Application Stage
A significant amount of research exists to illustrate the SEM issues facing undergraduate institutions and graduate programs, yet little information can be found on professional schools of architecture. Often decentralized within a larger university structure with limited recruitment resources, graduate architecture and design schools, as a niche market, face unique challenges attracting potential students. This study explored reasons for why prospective graduate students did not progress in the enrollment funnel to the application stage. Specific focus centered on the differences for not applying between students who had attended recruitment events and those who did not engage during the recruitment cycle.
Deborah Agee currently serves as the Interim Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management at the University of California at Davis. In this role, she oversees Undergraduate Admissions, Enrollment Management Analytics, Financial Aid and Scholarships, and the University Registrar. Deborah joined UC Davis in June of 2013 as the Executive Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships. Immediately prior to joining UC Davis, she served as Assistant Director in the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Texas at Austin.
With over 30 years experience working in the higher education field, Deborah has held a wide variety of roles over the course of her career. She began her professional life at Texas Guaranteed, a public non-profit corporation that supported the Federal Family Education Loan Program. During her tenure, she rose through the ranks from Policy Specialist to Associate Vice President of Strategy and Planning. From there she moved on to Sallie Mae where she served as a Senior Vice President in its consulting organization, Campus Solutions.
Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Texas A & M University, Commerce, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Texas Tech, Center for Public Service, where she was a Jacob Javits Fellow.
Jerry Bracken has made significant contributions to electronic data exchange (EDX) for many years. He is a founding member of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) and has continued to be active since 2000. He has served as an active member of the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee since 1993, longer than any current member. He has also served on the ANSI Accredited Standards Committee X12 from 1993 to 2004 and on the AACRAO Board of Directors and as the VP of Information Technology from 2005 to 2008. Bracken is retired from Brigham Young University where he focused on Java web development, application design, and data modeling.
Jeff Elliott is a Data Architect at the University of Missouri Kansas City. Previously, Elliott was with the University of Missouri System for more than ten years as the senior manager of Enterprise Data Warehouse and Reporting, supporting UM System and four campuses across the state. He represents the data domain on the Division of IT Enterprise Architecture Review Board and has been involved in electronic messaging and data exchange, first in public health and now in higher education, for more than fifteen years. Elliott was actively involved in the SPEEDE Committee and PESC.
Monterey Sims is a Director of Admissions and Evaluation at the University of Phoenix where she has worked for more than 25 years. She spearheaded efforts to implement electronic transcript exchange at the University of Phoenix, earning recognitions from Southwest Alliance for Excellence – Showcase in Excellence Award for the Transcript Acquisition Process and the PESC Best Practices Award for the Electronic Transcript Acquisition Process. Monterey has been a member of the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee since 2008 and is actively involved in AACRAO, PACRAO, and PESC.
Matt Bemis is an Associate Registrar at the University of Southern California and is responsible for degree progress operations. He serves as the administrator over degree audit and transfer credit applications, is responsible the certification of student athlete academic eligibility, and is the project lead for the electronic data interchange (EDI) initiative. Bemis has been responsible for many process innovations via collaboration with several service providers and has been active within the AACRAO and PESC communities for many years.
Joey LaConte has worked as an IT professional for more than fifteen years at the University of Colorado. As the Associate Registrar for Technology, Communication and Data Reporting, he helps to automate business processes in the registrar’s office. He oversees operational reporting for student records and enrollment communications. In a former role as the technical lead for web services on a campus, LaConte is familiar with XML standards and structured data. Currently he is helping to provide resources as Colorado’s institutions of higher education embark on the adoption of electronic data exchange (EDX).
Craig Karlin has been with Fort Hays State University for 30 years and is currently the Registrar managing records and registration processes, supporting systems, and the admissions processes for all undergraduates. Karlin serves at the functional lead for admissions, records and registration for implementation of Workday as the university’s ERP and is active in AACRAO through the SPEEDE and KACRAO (Kansas) committees. He also serves on the Kansas Board of Regents Transfer and Articulation Committee that governs the state’s efforts with system-wide transfer and Kansas Core Outcomes initiatives.
Patrick S. Elliott, Ed.D., has more than fifteen years of experience in higher education working with electronic student records and reimagining student services. He spent more than eleven years at University of Maryland University College, leading electronic content management, electronic transcripts and business process workflows initiatives while serving in several functional and technical positions – including senior associate registrar. In 2017, he joined Harford Community College as the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, overseeing the admissions, registration and records, financial aid, and testing functions as well as leading strategic enrollment management for the college. Partnering with the local school district and central IT resources, he recently led his team through implementing data exchange for dual enrollment students.
Jim Feigert, Ed.D., is Registrar at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA, one of the 116 California Community Colleges. Feigert is responsible for the admissions and records operations for the college and its 26,000 students. Jim previously led the student records area in the Office of Academic Records and Registrar at the University of Southern California for more than ten years. While at USC, he oversaw the launch of USC’s PDF transcript product in 2009, one of the largest universities to send PDFs at the time. He currently serves as the chair for the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee and has been active within the AACRAO community for more than ten years. Feigert earned his Ed.D. from USC in 2014.
Doug Holmes is the Manager of eTranscripts at the Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC), a centralized admissions application processing service for the universities in Ontario, Canada. Originally a software developer, he was part of the team that developed OUAC's EDI-based postsecondary transcript exchange system in 1996 and later augmented that system for PESC XML transcripts (both high school and postsecondary). He has worked with calculating GPAs from incoming electronic transcript data and has supported the OUAC's various proprietary admissions application exchange systems. Holmes was also part of the team that mapped and implemented PESC XML standards for both the admissions application and test scores, as part of the OUAC’s data exchange process with their university partners. He has served as the Association of Registrars of Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC) representative to the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee from 1998 - 2005 and from 2011 to present, and is also co-chair of the Canadian PESC user group.
Sue Reyes is an Analyst/Programmer in the Administrative Information Systems department at San Diego State University. She earned her M.S. in Business Administration - Information Systems from San Diego State University. In her nineteen-plus years at SDSU, Sue has played a key role in paperless application processing and electronic transcript processing. She is the technical lead for EDI transcript processing as well as the lead developer for SDSU’s OnBase ECM software. She has also served as an Oracle Application Developer, EDI Developer, SQL DBA and is a Certified OnBase System Administrator and OnBase Workflow Administrator. Reyes joined the AACRAO SPEEDE committee in 2012 and was the acting chair from 2017-2018. Sue has represented AACRAO on the PESC Change Control Board and as a member of the PESC Seal of Approval Committee.
Tuan Anh Do has more than 24 years of IT experience, of which more than 19 has been dedicated to mid- to senior-level IT production/operation management and consultation. Do's current role is in central ITS as Senior Director of ERP & Business Intelligence, overseeing PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, HRMS and Finance. Do has been with the university for more than 23 years and has been active in the AACRAO SPEEDE Committee since 2003. Do served as vice president and president of the Singularity Users Management Team (SUMiT) as well as an active member of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC). Most of Do’s efforts have been through providing webinars, presentations, and workshops, as well as being a contributing author to the AACRAO EDX primer.
Nancy Umphres is a Senior Business Systems Analyst with California State University’s Office of the Chancellor and is the functional lead for the advisement and transfer credit modules within PeopleSoft since 2016. In her current role, she works with EDI and is on the eTranscript California steering committee. Previously, she was with the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she held various positions within the Office of the Registrar, lastly as a Business Analyst. She was heavily involved with SACRAO, the national Oracle/Peoplesoft user group community (HEUG), and co-founded a regional users’ community (SCHRUG). She joined the SPEEDE Committee in March 2020.
Electronic Transcripts 2021: The Landscape and Future of Electronic Document Exchange
Amy M. Adams, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Planning & Advancement at Marion Technical College, where she has served since 2016. Previously she served in various roles at Capital University, Xavier University, and Northern Arizona University. She has presented on various topics related to both enrollment and fundraising at the national and state level.
Increasing Community College Enrollment When Everything Says You Shouldn’t
Kris MacDonald, Ed.D., works at SUNY Corning Community College as the Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence, Director of Online Programs and is the campus Electronic & Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility officer. She also works as a Resume Editor for Indeed and Curriculum Developer for Switch Vehicles, Inc. Prior to her current roles, she taught in higher education for ten years. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Management from Drexel University, a MSed in secondary education with Pennsylvania teaching certification in English for grades 7-12, and a B.A. in communications/journalism from Shippensburg University.
Gauging Accessibility in an LMS: Finding an Ally in Blackboard Ally
Alex Patturelli, M.S., is an admissions professional at Regis College in Weston, MA. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. His research is centered on improving the college admissions process for low-income students. With more the five years of experience in enrollment and communication, he has been a leader on the strategy development pursuant to the institutional goals of increasing higher education access for first generation and low-income students.
Text Messaging: The Enrollment Management Strategy for Increasing Enrollment and Promoting a Sense of Belonging for Low-Income Students
Michelle Brown-Nevers, Ed.D, has more than 30 years of experience in higher education in both public and private institutions. She is currently the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and has responsibility for Recruitment and Admissions, Enrollment Services, Engagement and Retention, Student Supports, Student Rights and Responsibilities, Student Success and Athletics.
Leading Change during a Pandemic
Capstone Abstract:
This study compared retention rates of students who experienced a strengths-based freshman seminar curriculum to those who did not. Whether enrolled in a freshman seminar or not, freshmen who did not take the StrengthsFinder® assessment had a retention rate 28 percentage points below those who took the assessment and were enrolled in the strengths-based freshman seminar. This same percentage difference applied to students who took the StrengthsFinder® assessment and enrolled in a non-strengths-based freshman seminar. Students who took the StrengthsFinder assessment but were not required to enroll in a freshman seminar course per their program or admission requirements had a higher mean ACT score but were retained at a rate 20 percentage points lower than those in the strengths-based freshman seminar/learning community.
John Knific is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Wisr, a digital community for higher education founded to help students “see their future self,” enabling authentic peer-to-peer interactions that bolster enrollment outcomes. Wisr was acquired in March 2021 by Education Advisory Board (EAB) where it is being integrated into a next generation recruitment ecosystem for universities. Based in Cleveland, OH, Knific has co-founded two Education Technology and lead five early stage capital raises. He is a 2009 graduate of Case Western Reserve University and continues to support student entrepreneurs as an advisor and angel investor.
Measuring Outcomes of Virtual Enrollment Yield Programming