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
Dr. Michelle Brown-Nevers, known widely for her leadership skills, supports institutions of higher education in enrollment management, change management, innovation, service improvement and other operational areas. Engagements involve reviewing, assessing and refining policies and processes used to recruit, enroll and retain students.
Her experience crosses public and private institutions from community colleges to Ivy league universities. She held progressively responsible positions throughout her career including vice president of enrollment management and student success at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). Under her leadership, NOVA has made great progress in the ongoing advising redesign work, begun the NOVA Corps student internship program, and established their first strategic enrollment management plan, among other accomplishments. Prior to joining NOVA, Brown-Nevers served as associate vice president for student services at Montgomery County Community College, associate vice president for student registration and financial services at the University of Pennsylvania, and associate vice president for student administrative services at Columbia University. She began her higher education career at New York City College of Technology, formerly New York City Community College. Michelle is currently President of MHBN Consulting, LLC.
She has been a strong advocate for student success. She is known for making transformational change through streamlining and automating processes, improving front line services; creating enrollment and retention initiatives and, developing staff to work across boundaries. She created and supported strategic enrollment management plans to help ensure every student succeeds. She believes that students do not attend higher education institutions to learn the administrative processes; therefore, these processes have to be as intuitive as possible for them.
Brown-Nevers is an active member of the higher education community. She served on advisory committees for the CommonApp, is currently a mentor for the AACRAO ASCEND program, has been an instructor for the U.S. Department of Education and is a charter member of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education. She has been a consultant to the National Student Clearinghouse and to various universities, including Sullivan County Community College, Lafayette College, Ithaca College, George Washington University and McGill University.
Michelle’s personal interests align with her professional success. She dedicates her time to supporting young people pursue higher education through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She served as the chair of the Scholarship Committee for the New York Alumnae Chapter. In that role, she initiated mentoring support for these young adults in addition to the funding provided to them. Many of the students awarded scholarships under her leadership completed their programs and have pursued professional careers.
Brown-Nevers holds Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Education from Baruch College (CUNY). She also completed certificate programs at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Columbia’s Business School. She further completed the Leadership at Penn Program at University of Pennsylvania and the Civitas Leadership Development Program at MCCC.
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
Kate Dyki is the Enrollment Program Management Specialist at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She holds a B.A. in English from Alma College and a M.A. in higher education administration from the University of Michigan. Dyki has more than thirteen years of experience working in higher education. As a first-generation student, she is passionate about student preparedness, access, and success. In her most recent role, Dyki leads initiatives including enrollment, retention, and support programs for admitted and continuing students, admitted student outreach, resourcing initiatives, and programs focused on providing working professional adult learners with pathways to a university education.
Dawn Medley, Ed.D., is the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at Stony Brook University. Prior to joining Stony Brook, she was the Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management at Wayne State University (WSU). Prior to WSU, Medley served as a vice president at St. Andrews University, Warren Wilson College, Forest Institute and was chief enrollment officer at the University of Arkansas. She worked in enrollment and financial aid at Missouri S & T and Southeast Missouri State University. Medley has a B.S. in English education from University of Missouri, a Master’s in administration from Southeast Missouri State University, and an Ed.D. from Lindenwood University. Medley is expert in financial aid, access, innovative support systems for students, technology for student engagement, and is a nationally recognized leader in financial aid solutions and technology adoption for enrollment management.
Julie Teague is a Senior Analyst Programmer for the Bloomington Assessment and Research office at Indiana University-Bloomington. She has more than 35 years of experience in systems development and in providing data research and solutions in the higher education setting. She has co-authored articles for peer-reviewed publications and presented research results at national conferences such as Educause.
Data-Driven Decisions: Using Network Analysis to Guide Campus Course Offerings
Linda Shepard is the Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Director of Bloomington Assessment and Research at Indiana University. Linda provides leadership for the campus in the development of institutional resources used to inform campus policy and strategic initiatives. Linda has served in numerous professional capacities, as a faculty member, in leadership roles at IU, and institutional research professional organizations both locally and nationally. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Indiana University in Educational Psychology with a minor in Psychology.
Stefano Fiorini Ph.D., is a Social and Cultural Anthropologist with the Bloomington Assessment and Research (BAR) at Indiana University. He has extensive applied research experience in the area institutional research and learning analytics in which participatory approaches are applied to place the stakeholders at the center of the analytic provision. He has published in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings and presented at national and international conferences (e.g. AIR Annual Forum, CSRDE, LAK), earning best paper awards from INAIR, AIR, and SoLAR.
Gina Deom is a Data Scientist with the Bloomington Assessment and Research (BAR) office at Indiana University. She has over five years of experience working in higher education data and research. Gina has published work in conference proceedings and has presented at many national conferences, including but not limited to the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, the SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference, and the NCES STATS-DC Data Conference.
Janail Silver's expertise is in registrar services and support, communicating openly and routinely with faculty, staff, students, and management, as well as student information system implementation and records management. She currently serves as the Director of Records and Registration for the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. As the founding Director of Records and Registration, she works diligently to establish key relationships with the offices across campus serving as the School of Medicine’s liaison on matters related to medical student enrollment.
Prior to coming to Oakland University, Janail Silver worked as an Enrollment Services Specialist and Registrar Staff Assistant at Lawrence Technological University.
Janail is a licensed, nationally certified counselor and earned a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Oakland University. She also earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and a Master's in Business Administration from Florida A&M University.
W. Steven Peterson is a leader in higher education, serving seventeen years in admission, recruitment, marketing, and enrollment process. Mr. Peterson joined Howard University in 2015 as a Data Retention Analyst in the Office of Undergraduate Studies helping to increase retention and graduation rates along with student success. Peterson was asked to serve in 2016 as the Associate Director in the Office of Admission. While serving as Associate Director, he helps oversee the undergraduate applicant review process, recruitment team efforts, and admission processing. Peterson helped facilitate Howard’s increase in over 30,000 undergraduate admission applications this year and a record increase in undergraduate enrollment for the past three years with Fall 2021 being the largest incoming freshman class in its history.
Peterson currently serves as Vice-President of the Howard University Staff Organization which helps to improve the overall employee experience. Peterson was invited 2019 to join the President’s leadership group Howard Forward. He was recognized for his commitment to service and received the provost distinguished service award this year. Before joining Howard University, Peterson served as Admission Processing Center Coordinator, Associate Director of Admission, and Interim Director of Admission at Central State University. During his ten-years he helped reimage the admission office for success. He led the initiative to create and implement reciprocity agreements for in-state tuition for Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan students with the Ohio Board of Regents. Peterson currently serves on AACRAO’s Black Caucus and has served on numerous committees. Peterson worked with Michelle Obama’s White House initiative “Reach Higher” in 2019, which helps high school students transition seamlessly to college. Peterson has received numerous distinguished awards honoring his leadership, service, and contributions to his profession.
Kayla St. Clair serves as Senior Associate Director of Operations in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Virginia Tech. She oversees the data integrity and processing unit, the visitor experience team, and communications. Kayla began in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions as a student worker in the mailroom and has earned progressively responsible roles since then. As a first-generation college student, she avidly supports college access initiatives and her foundation in college admissions was built through serving as the lead for diversity, equity, and access programming. This foundation now serves as a critical lens when overseeing operations within the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
In 2020, Kayla served as the implementation contact for Common App, which led to a 36% increase in first-year applications – totaling over 42,000. With this increase, Kayla worked with her teams to adapt current processes and procedures to account for the higher volume of applications. She has implemented a new domicile review workflow, communication request system, and transitioned the Applicant Portal and decision release process into Slate. Kayla actively participates in professional development opportunities by taking further coursework related to research methods in education, presenting at national and regional conferences, taking online courses through AACRAO, and participating in programs through Virginia Tech. She also previously served as college fair coordinator and later as the Vice President of Admissions and Enrollment for VACRAO.
Kayla earned her associate degree from Virginia Western Community College and then transferred to Virginia Tech, earning both her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs. She lives with her fiancé and their nine-year-old dog – a beagle named Lexie Grey. In her spare time, Kayla can be found traveling, making pottery, spending time outside, reading, or listening to podcasts.
Writer and Educational Consultant. Previously with Missouri Department of Higher Education, and Oregon Office of Degree Authorization