Nicole Engelbert is vice president of product strategy for student systems at Oracle. She is responsible for engaging the industry ecosystem to develop thought leadership and best practice with cloud technology and to use those insights to guide the development of Oracle’s higher education solutions including its Student and Campus Solutions product suites. Prior to Oracle, Nicole served as the Director of Research & Analysis at Ovum where she spent the last decade advising institutions globally on critical areas such as cloud migration, legacy modernization, emerging technologies, and student experience. A sought after presenter on the higher education technology conference circuit, Nicole is also regularly quoted in publications such as the NY Times, University Business, Campus Technology, and the Wall Street Journal. Nicole holds a BA in classics from Union College and an MEd in educational administration & policy analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Raymond Todd Blackwood, Vice President of Product Management for Student Information Systems at Anthology, has spent over 25 years inventing technology solutions that run college campuses. His passion for technology and bringing people together to create efficiencies on college campuses can be heard on a variety of webinars, podcasts, papers, and presentations throughout the world. Raymond holds an MBA in technology management and lives in Boca Raton, FL, with his wife, Cat, daughters Alabama, and Samantha, and dog Cooper.
Zachary Pardos is an Associate Professor of Education at UC Berkeley studying adaptive learning and AI. His early scholarship focused on formative assessment using Knowledge Tracing, the predominant model used for estimating skill mastery in computer tutoring system contexts. His recent work designing Human-AI collaborations to pave pathways to and between systems of higher education has been published in venues such as SIGCHI, NeurIPS, The Internet and Higher Education, and Science. This work has included the development of high-quality AI-assistive tools used by tens of thousands of students, administrators, and faculty to support transfer, articulation, and STEM subject learning at community colleges and universities.
Founder and principal of Couturier Consulting LLC and a principal at Sova, conducts research and works at the intersections of policy and institutional practice to ensure equitable recognition of learning and career outcomes, particularly for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American students and learners from low-income backgrounds.
Lara has worked with community colleges and open access four-year institutions for over two decades. Lara brings a keen understanding of the power of policy and advocacy for transformation, as well as the hard work needed on the ground to advance institutional change. Over the course of her career, Lara has been deeply engaged in both policy and implementation work for some of the most promising areas of reform, including guided pathways, developmental education redesign, and transfer.
Lara’s focus is on working to achieve equity, particularly for historically and persistently racially minoritized and marginalized populations. Lara continuously seeks to build her equity skills through a variety of strategies including pursuing training and professional development; intentionally working on projects with mentors who can challenge and stretch skills; serving on councils and committees focused on race, power and privilege; and maintaining a robust schedule of reading, attending learning sessions, and engaging in self-reflection.
The majority of Lara’s portfolio seeks to enhance transfer, credit mobility and recognition of learning as a key lever for equity. Key roles include facilitating or leading:
Her previous work experience has included serving as a principal at HCM Strategists; a director at Jobs for the Future; and the interim principal investigator for the Futures Project at Brown University. In those roles, Couturier has fundraised for and managed multi-million dollar portfolios, supervised teams of staff and served on organizational leadership teams. Lara holds a certificate in equity coaching from the National Equity Project; a certificate in Mindful Outdoor Leadership from Kripalu; a Ph.D. in history from Brown University; a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond.
Request Dr. Alfred Mueller as a speaker
For the last ten years, Dr. Alfred Mueller has served as Dean of Arts and Sciences at Neumann University, overseeing the university’s core curriculum. As a self-professed “retention evangelist,” Dr. Mueller worked with the Biology program to increase freshman-to-sophomore retention by 25.8% in three years and to earn recognition as a Howard Hughes SEA-PHAGES program. He helped draft a $2.1 million Title III grant, which funded the creation of a University Writing Center and a team of academic coaches to aid in student persistence. In 2018, Dr. Mueller led a team of faculty and staff to the AAC&U’s Institute for High-Impact Practices and Student Success, which resulted in a reinvigorated Communication and Digital Media major that emphasized experiential learning. He worked with his campus Registrar and the Vice President for Academic Affairs to develop “Maymester” and “Winterim” terms and coordinated with the Academic Advising Center to develop a “Drive for 30” program to help first-year students reach Satisfactory Academic Progress. He also initiated partnerships with the Delaware County Municipal Police Academy, Wilkes University’s Nesbitt School of Pharmacy, Drexel University’s College of Engineering, and high schools throughout Neumann’s service area.
Dr. Mueller’s passion is undergraduate education. He served for over 11 years at Penn State Mont Alto, which offered the first two years of instruction to students in over 120 majors before they transferred to State College. At Neumann, Dr. Mueller oversaw the university’s First-Year Experience program, Honors program, Writing Across the Curriculum program, and summer bridging programs. He also served as Quality Matters Coordinator for the campus, helping 75% of the full-time faculty and 34% of the part-time faculty earn national certification to teach online. Neumann’s online course in Developmental Psychology was selected by Quality Matters as a training course for Peer and Master Reviewers, one of only six courses nationwide to earn that distinction.
He also served as Executive Director of the Eastern Communication Association. In that role, he initiated changes necessitated by the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including changing the way the organization filed 990’s and creating policies that governed everything from document retention and destruction to whistleblowing.
Dr. Mueller received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and three Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication, History, and Philosophy from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He authored two books; published 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters; presented over 50 refereed papers at regional and national conferences; and served as co-editor of an international journal. Dr. Mueller is certified as a Master Reviewer and Program Reviewer for Quality Matters, a national non-profit organization that promotes quality assurance in online education, and is currently pursuing certification in Agile project management.
He is nationally known for his workshop, Achieving Work-Life Equilibrium, which he has conducted for the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the American Council of Academic Deans. For 30 years, he has trained enrollment management teams and aspiring executives to Deliver More Effective Presentations with Less Fear. And he offers custom keynotes and master classes on mindset changes that develop Leadership with Kick among emerging leaders and helps your enrollment management team and your academic affairs team EMBRACE (Enrollment Management Building Relationships with Academic Colleagues Experience) one another.
Request Kevin Windholz as a speaker
Kevin Windholz has spent over 20 years working in the higher education sector. Currently, he serves as the Vice President for Enrollment Management at Oklahoma City University (Oklahoma City), a role he has held since 2012. In this role he has led domestic and international admissions, financial aid, student accounts and University marketing and communications. As a member of the President’s cabinet, he has served on various University planning committees of which tasks have included authoring the University Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plan, assisting with development of the University’s master strategic plan, reviewing University academic program offerings and examining University Employee and Board of Trustees organizational structures. Among his proudest achievements in this role has been discount management and developing a system to accurately predict net revenue to be generated from future enrollment. Prior to coming to OCU, Windholz worked in Enrollment Management at Washburn University (Topeka, KS) from 2001 to 2006 and Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO) from 2006 to 2012. Since 2023, he has served as an affiliate consultant for enrollmentFUEL, in addition to his work at OCU.
Beginning his career as a television news reporter and substitute anchor, Windholz is a naturally trained speaker. He has been a regular presenter at the American Association for Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) SEM Conferences. He has also been a past presenter at the former Recruitment Plus Users’ conference, the ACT Enrollment Planners’ conference and the Missouri Association for Collegiate Admissions Counselors (MOACAC) conference. Some topics have included, A Paperless Admissions Office, How to Search the Right Students, Lowering Tuition Discount and Maximizing New Student Revenue, How to Manage Enrollment During a University Prioritization Process, and How to Accurately Predict Institutional Net Revenue. Windholz has also served as a facilitator and panelist for Academic Impressions and Campus Living Villages. His work has also been published in the AACRAO Strategic Management Quarterly Journal.
Windholz received his B.A. in Information Networking and Telecommunications from Fort Hays State University (Hays, KS) in 2000 and his Master of Liberal Student (MLS) from Washburn University (Topeka, KS) in 2005.
Request Femi Ogundele as a speaker
In his capacity as Associate Vice Chancellor of Admissions & Enrollment, Femi provides vision, strategy and leadership in the recruitment and evaluation of California's public flagship. For the last decade Femi has been a vocal thought leader in the college access and college admission industry. He is a member of the Chancellor’s Cabinet and oversees the Office of Undergraduate Admission, the Financial Aid Office, the University Registrar, the Visitor’s Center, and the Center for Educational Partnerships which provides college access support in high schools and Community Colleges across the state of California.
His vision and leadership in undergraduate admissions outreach to the state’s underrepresented, undocumented, underserved and first-generation students have resulted in four consecutive years of the most ethnically and geographically diverse classes of students to Berkeley in 3 decades.
Prior to Berkeley, Femi has been successful at building outreach and evaluation processes that have resulted in greater diversity at Stanford University, Cornell University, University of Delaware, and Ithaca College. He sits on national college access boards and has done work to establish higher education pipelines for students, educators and refugees throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
In his role as Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment, Femi has been committed to lowering the cost of higher education and closing the graduation gap among diverse communities.With degrees from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and Ithaca College, Femi remains committed to the scholarship of equity in education as he is also currently pursuing a doctoral degree at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education.
Request Michael Pierick as a speaker
Michael prides his work in solving systematic problems through innovative academic programming aimed at increasing access and reducing barriers. He is driven by constructive dissatisfaction as a foundation and principle of continuously improving upon current designs, models, performance, and abilities. As the Director of Strategic Initiatives at UC Merced Extension, he is responsible for the design, implementation, and execution of rigorous college and career readiness programs for lifelong learners, including teacher credentialing, pre-college dual enrollment pathways, micro-credentialing, and industry-aligned certificates.
Michael is also the Director of the UC Merced Degree Completion Program where he has led the development and implementation of the University of California’s first general degree completion efforts to re-enrolling and graduating students who left a UC campus without completing their degree. Michael earned his Bachelor of Science in Management from UC Merced and Master of Arts in Educational Entrepreneurship from the University of the Pacific Benerd College of Education.
Michael brings nearly a decade of program design, development, and implementation across multiple sectors and program types with foundational experience in Enrollment Management.
List of Topics:
Designing degree completion programming
Creative early college pathways for high school student matriculation
Strategic recruitment and outreach initiatives for stop-outs
Reentry data analysis and policy review
College and career readiness pathways
Enrollment coaching for reentry students
One-stop modeling for reentry students
Certification and credentialing design and implementation
Industry-university collaboration (education and training)
Shifting culture to persistence and retention
Understanding and defining stop-out students
Joseph Drasin, D.M. is an accomplished practitioner and educator in the areas of change management, process improvement, and technology leadership. Currently, he is the Assistant Vice President of Service Strategy at the University of Maryland’s Division of Information Technology and serves as a member of the faculty. Dr. Drasin’s expertise has been developed over an impressive 25-year career in organizational development, change management, process engineering, enterprise system implementation, and technology leadership. He has consulted with many public and private organizations where he works to identify shared objectives and facilitates cross-organizational process designs to break down existing technological and organizational silos. A believer in the professionalism of management and leadership, his practice work is paralleled by publishing, speaking, and education on a broad number of topics.
He received his Doctorate of Management from University of Maryland, University College, a Masters of Science in Business and a post-graduate Certification in Competitive Intelligence from Johns Hopkins University as well as Bachelor degrees in Management Science & Statistics, Logistics & Transportation, and Economics from The University of Maryland, College Park.
When not working or spending time with his family, Dr. Drasin is a certified SCUBA rescue diver, a Lego enthusiast, and a superfan of women's college basketball (Go TERPS!)
AACRAO Competency: Change Management
Michael Moore, Ph.D., currently serves as the Senior Associate University Registrar for the Office of the University Registrar at Wake Forest University. Moore earned a Ph.D. in higher education from Old Dominion University, a M.B.A. from Strayer University, and a B.A. in creative writing from Ohio University. Right-Sizing the Registrar's Office
Bridgett Milner is Director of Institutional Effectiveness of Institutional Analytics, formerly the Senior Associate Director of Planning & Research in the Office of Enrollment Management at Indiana University Bloomington. Demonstrating the Value of a College Degree: Holistic Financial and Academic Support Toward Accelerating Student Success
Doug Anderson is Senior Director of Planning & Research in the Office of Enrollment Management at Indiana University Bloomington. Demonstrating the Value of a College Degree: Holistic Financial and Academic Support Toward Accelerating Student Success
Mercedes Randall is Assistant Vice Provost & Executive Director of Administration in the Office of Enrollment Management at Indiana University Bloomington. Demonstrating the Value of a College Degree: Holistic Financial and Academic Support Toward Accelerating Student Success
Mary Stephenson is Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success at Baylor University, formerly the Director of the Groups Scholars Program at Indiana University Bloomington. Demonstrating the Value of a College Degree: Holistic Financial and Academic Support Toward Accelerating Student Success
David B. Johnson, Ed.D., is Vice Provost of the Office of Enrollment Management at Indiana University Bloomington.
Demonstrating the Value of a College Degree: Holistic Financial and Academic Support Toward Accelerating Student Success
Nathan J. Daun-Barnett, Ph.D., is Chair of the Educational Leadership and Policy department within the Graduate School of Education at State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Barnett is a nationally recognized expert on college access and choice for low-income, first generation, and under-represented students. An author of several books and scholarly articles, he is currently funded to examine the design and implementation of the Florida College Access Network and has conducted similar research in Michigan. He works closely with Say Yes to Education Buffalo to coordinate efforts to address students’ transitions from high school to college. Managing the Maze: High School Student-Athletes’ Navigation of the College Choice Process
Darren C. Treadway, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Niagara University and Specialty Chief Editor at Frontiers on Psychology – Organizational Psychology. Dr. Treadway is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and his work has been highlighted in popular outlets such as Time, Forbes, Business Week, SHRM, and BBC. He is an organizational development consultant for both profit and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he has focused on capacity building for youth sports organizations. Managing the Maze: High School Student-Athletes’ Navigation of the College Choice Process
Bridget E. Niland, Ph.D., J.D., is the Dean of Niagara University’s College of Hospitality, Sport, and Tourism Management. Dr. Niland has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, sport law, philanthropy, and tourism management. A tenured professor, published author and former college athletics director, she has taught, researched, and practiced topics involving hospitality, sport, and tourism. Bridget began her professional career as a confidential law clerk within the federal court system and attorney at the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., followed by management positions within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
Managing the Maze: High School Student-Athletes’ Navigation of the College Choice Process
David Clingenpeel, Ed.S., currently serves as the Associate Registrar for the School of Business at Wake Forest University, an Adjunct Instructor of Sport Management at Liberty University, and an Education Advisory Board Member for Forbes Advisor. Clingenpeel earned an Ed.S. in higher education from Appalachian State University, a M.S. in sport management, and B.S. in kinesiology from Liberty University. He is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in educational leadership from Appalachian State University. Right-Sizing the Registrar's Office