Anne Thurmer, Ed.D., is Dean for the School of Liberal Arts and Humanities at Minnesota State Community and Technical College (M State), having joined the college in September 2019. Previously, Thurmer served in various roles at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, from Student Success Specialist to Associate Dean of General Education for Student Engagement. Before transitioning to Student Affairs work, Thurmer completed a Master of Arts in English at Winona State University in 2007. She then taught composition and English for Language Learners at public and private for-profit colleges and universities both in-person and online from 2007-2017.
These experiences convinced her that the range of tools available to faculty and staff at colleges and universities were often inadequate to support both retention and teaching and learning goals. After a successful collaboration between faculty and a team of professional advisers dramatically improved student outcomes, Thurmer became convinced that the future of higher education would include stronger collaboration between academic and student affairs. She returned to school to pursue her doctorate in Student Affairs Administration and Leadership at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, completing her degree in 2020.
Outside of work, 2020 renewed Thurmer’s appreciation for long walks in nature, especially those taken with her husband, August, and children William and Abigail. While her relationship to cooking vacillates between enjoyment and obligation, she is a consistent proponent of enjoying good food.
Amy M. Ullrich is a Senior Evaluator, who has worked at Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc (ECE) since 2008. Amy's areas of credential evaluation include Central and South Asia, the Middle East & North African Francophone countries, Eurasia, and U.S.-based country education systems. She enjoys presenting at professional conferences on the topics of international education systems, accreditation, countries in crises & refugee support, transnational programs, and credential fraud.
Laura J. Clark serves as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Success and Professional Development and the Executive Director of the Virginia’s Community Colleges Student Success Center. Her 20 years in higher education have focused on helping students meet their goals and equipping other higher education professionals to do the same. She has worked with international, under-resourced, and historically marginalized student populations. She is a fearless advocate for creating welcoming campuses and classrooms where everyone can chase their dreams. She has equipped over 1500 higher education professionals to be trauma-informed individuals.
Laura is a first-generation college student who earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science in Counseling and Human Development with a specialization in Student Affairs Administration from Radford University.
Dr. Monica Parrish Trent is the Vice President of Network Engagement at Achieving the Dream, a national, nonprofit network of more than 300 community colleges in pursuit of equity-minded reforms and greater economic opportunity for the communities they serve. Monica leads the execution of ATD’s network engagement strategy, services, and program delivery, as well as the national learning events such as the annual DREAM Conference.
With more than 25 years of experience in higher education, Monica brings a holistic perspective and systems-change approach to developing and sustaining efforts to remove systemic barriers for college students. Monica has extensive experience leading faculty, staff, and senior leaders in strategic planning; program and course redesign; enrollment management; developmental education and comprehensive student success reform; culturally responsive pedagogy; and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Tiffany Robinson is an Assistant Vice Provost and University Registrar at The University of Texas at San Antonio. She has served as University Registrar at three separate institutions and has 22 years of experience within the Registrar’s office. In her role at the University of Kansas she provides strategic leadership and partnership to assist with divisional strategic goal setting and establishing metrics associated with the Office of the University Registrar.
She has been an active member at the state (IACRAO, KACRAO, KACRAO) and regional (SACRAO) level by presenting and serving in leadership roles. She served for three years on the AACRAO Board of Directors as the Vice President for Access and Equity and currently serves as the President of the AACRAO Board of Directors.
Alexander Leader is the Chief Impact Officer at Watermark (formerly Aviso Retention).
Prior to Watermark (formerly Aviso Retention), Leader partnered with the Ohio Board of Regents to build Ohio’s e-Transcript exchange system. This effort lowered barriers for student transfer across Ohio’s 36 public two and four-year institutions, ensuring that every student received the credit they deserved through Ohio’s articulation processes. These same institutions approached Leader in 2010 searching for a better way for advisors to prioritize their student outreach, and Aviso Enterprise was born.
Leader holds a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Computer Science & Systems Analysis.
Success Coaching Impact on Retention for Community College Students
Jessa L. Valentine. Ph.D., is Director of Research, Evaluation, and Analytics at DVP-PRAXIS LTD and brings more than fifteen years of research and evaluation experience in higher education and workforce development systems. Since 2015, Dr. Valentine has overseen data collection and analysis for the independent evaluation of a First in the World grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, to measure the impacts of success coaching on students’ academic outcomes across ten North Carolina community colleges. Prior to joining DVP-PRAXIS, she participated as a fellow with the U.S. Department of Education’s Training Program in the Education Sciences, and she was senior researcher at a Wisconsin-based think tank focused on regional higher education and workforce solutions.
Dr. Valentine holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a master’s in Latin American studies from the University of California at San Diego, and bachelor’s degrees in economics and Spanish from Stanford University.
Derek V. Price, Ph.D., is Principal and Founder of DVP-PRAXIS LTD. Over the past sixteen years, his firm has evaluated projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, including the FITW Study that is the focus of this article, as well as private philanthropies such as Lumina Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Ford Foundation, and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Price is a national leader in strategic thinking for institutional transformation and systems change and works on a broad range of policy and practice issues around postsecondary education and workforce development. Previously, he served as director of higher education research at Lumina Foundation and helped launch the national initiative, Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.
Dr. Price holds a Ph.D. in sociology from American University, a master’s in Russian and East European studies from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s in comparative area studies from Duke University.
M. J. Knoll-Finn is the Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management who leads all undergraduate enrollment functions for New York University’s schools and colleges in New York as well as degree-granting campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, in addition to offering strategic consulting to the graduate schools.
Knoll-Finn drives evidence-based enrollment strategies that focus on attracting and shaping classes of diverse and academically promising students who will thrive at NYU and beyond.
She is a thought leader in the industry, with more than 30 years of experience. Prior to joining NYU, Knoll-Finn served as vice president of enrollment for Emerson College and dean of admissions at Northeastern University School of Law. She is an active member of The College Board, currently serving on its board of trustees as well as several key committees.
Knoll-Finn earned her B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and her M.B.A. from Northeastern University.
What It Means to Be a Global University During a Pandemic
Amy Hutton, Ph.D., served for many years as the Director of Enrollment Research and Evaluation at Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as an adjunct professor of statistics in the Ph.D. in Education program. She has extensive expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, as it relates to strategic enrollment management. For her innovative approaches to leveraging research in higher education, she was awarded the National Student Clearinghouse Outstanding Research Award at the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Conference in 2020. Prior to her work in enrollment research, Dr. Hutton served as a professional stage manager, assistant professor of theatre, and director of admissions. Dr. Hutton holds a Ph.D. in Education: Research and Evaluation and a M.F.A. in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as a B.M.A. in Music and Communications from DePauw University. Dr. Hutton’s research interests focus on improving success outcomes for underrepresented student populations, developing personalized marketing strategies, and effectively leveraging financial aid to improve student success. Dr. Hutton currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management at The University of Alabama.
Putting “Strategic” in Strategic Enrollment Management
Robert S. Hornberger, Ed.D., is Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Services at Missouri State University. In this position, he oversees the coordination and implementation of the university’s strategic enrollment management (SEM) plan, and provides executive leadership to the admissions, career center, enrollment services, registrar, scholarships, student financial aid, and veteran student center areas. Also in this role, Dr. Hornberger serves on the vice president for student affairs leadership staff, provost staff, academic leadership council, student affairs council, SEM council, higher learning commission advisory committee, enterprise risk management and compliance committee, and federal and state legislative teams, among other groups. Furthermore, He teaches courses in the MSU management and information technology department and serves on dissertation committees within the educational leadership doctoral program.
Dr. Hornberger has served as the president and a vice president of the Missouri ACRAO. As AACRAO’s Group 1 Coordinator, he coordinated the national committees within the area of admissions and enrollment management for the association and now serves as vice chair of AACRAO’s program committee. He has also served on AACRAO’s nominations and elections committee, as one of the three registrar content experts to represent the national organization on the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education’s Registrar Standards Revision Committee, and as the Enrollment Management and Retention Committee chair.
Dr. Hornberger earned a Doctor of Education in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Missouri, a master’s in computer information systems from MSU, and a bachelor’s in communication—socio-political from MSU. His research interests have primarily focused on predictors of academic success for conditionally admitted students, strategic enrollment management, and retention and persistence of various student populations.
A University’s Journey in Developing a SEM Plan
Heidi Nicholas is the Executive Director of Enrollment Management & Operations at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. Previously she held several positions at Tri-C, including completion manager and interim assistant dean of students at both Eastern and Metro campuses. Prior to Tri-C, Nicholas worked in admissions and recruitment at several private colleges. Her achievements include the 2018 Cuyahoga Community College President’s Award and the 2013 Innovation of the Year Award by the League of Innovation. Nicholas is active in the Kent State University Alumni Association and is a College Now Greater Cleveland professional mentor. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree from Kent State University and her master’s degree in adult learning and development from Cleveland State University. She has completed coursework toward a doctorate in community college leadership from Ferris State University and is currently A.B.D.
Collaborative Decision Making and Shared Responsibility
Tim Dorsey, Ph.D., serves as Dean of Student Affairs at the Western Campus of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Previously, he served as director of dual enrollment programs and district director of enrollment management at Tri-C. He has been with the college for thirteen years. Prior to his employment at Tri-C, Dr. Dorsey worked at Lakewood City Schools (Ohio) as a teacher and administrator for ten years.
Vanessa holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and International Relations from the Lebanese American University and a Masters degree in International Public Policy. Vanessa has been part of EducationUSA Lebanon since 2016, and she is currently the educational advisor. Vanessa has represented EducationUSA in several conferences such as EducationUSA Forum, EducationUSA MENA Forum, AACRAO.
In 2017, Vanessa was acknowledged by Marianne Craven, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs in Educational & Cultural Affairs Bureau, for reaching out to thousands of students in high schools all over Lebanon.
Vanessa also works with under-privileged students to attain admissions and scholarships to U.S. universities. During her position, Vanessa has secured admissions for over 40 students with a total financial aid and scholarship amount of over 10 million dollars. Vanessa finds her work exciting, she strongly believes in the power of international education.
Education & Member Development Division
Becky has extensive experience in marketing, project management, and operations in the nonprofit and for profit sectors. Prior to her career in business, Becky worked as a professional musician in the DC Metro area.
Becky received a Master’s Degree from Louisiana State University in Horn Performance, studied psychotherapy at New York University, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
A California native, Becky enjoys reading, long-distance road trips, the outdoors, and spending time with her husband and four children.
Becky leads and manages logistics related to the execution of AACRAO meetings and events, including contracting and sourcing meeting venues, registration process design, marketing, and materials procurement.
Jay Goff currently serves as the chief enrollment management officer and vice provost for enrollment and student success at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has more than 25 years of experience as a university administrator, enrollment management leader, and higher education researcher. As an active member of the global enrollment management community, Jay has also functioned as a consultant with over 30 institutions in ten countries and a coordinator for AACRAO's Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) conference.
An Interview with Jay Goff
Paige currently works as a Customer Success Manager at Unibuddy, but before this job she held various roles within the Higher Education space. She worked at a large, public institution, where she managed a 120 person ambassador program, as well as overseeing recruitment events on campus. Additionally, she recruited for a small, liberal arts institution, while also managing the ambassador program on campus. She has a deep passion for access to education and, through her work at Unibuddy, hopes to continue to help students find their right fit when it comes to higher education.
Mark N. Cohen is a Product Manager at the California Community Colleges Technology Center (CCCTC) with a portfolio that includes eTranscript California, CCC Data (systemwide Data Warehouse), SuperGlue, and the Multiple Measures Placement Service. Mark is involved in the standards setting community, representing the CCC Tech Center at PESC (the PK20 Electronic Standards Council) where he serves as Co-Chair of the EdExchange Steering Committee and JSON Transcript Workgroup. Previously, Mark Co-Founded Parchment where he led product development for the company's first 10 years before serving as SVP Market Strategy with a focus on new initiatives.
Louis Soares serves as the Chief Learning & Innovation Officer at ACE. Soares incubates and scales ACE’s executive leadership networks, as well as catalyzes compelling research and innovation initiatives across the Council. Working with colleagues, Soares integrates the work of ACE’s leadership, research and innovation teams to optimize membership value for colleges and universities by developing programs and services to advance the success of senior leaders, diversify the executive talent pipeline, and facilitate partnerships to enhance institutional performance. While at ACE, he published landmark papers, including The Post-traditional Learners Manifesto Revisited: Aligning Postsecondary Education with Real Life for Adult Student Success and Evolving Higher Education Business Models: Leading with Data to Deliver Results.
John Panzica is a Product Solutions Specialist at CollegeSource who has served in higher education for more than 25 years. Starting out in Financial Aid, John progressively took on additional duties within Enrollment Management, making his way into Admissions and Records, College Registrar, and then on to University Registrar. John’s extensive experience on a variety of campuses gives him a unique perspective on transfer-related issues. Having worked at both 2-year and 4-year institutions, the issue of student transfer is central to John’s experience.