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
Michelle is Chief Operating Officer at Motimatic, where she leads strategy and implementation across client engagement, content, ad operations, product/engineering and marketing. She is a nationally recognized expert in designing and researching the impact of innovative educational technologies. Previously a professor of educational psychology at the University of Southern California, Michelle has authored over 100 publications and presentations, and holds a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Maryland and an undergraduate degree in mathematics-physics from Brown University.
Experienced Vice President of Student Affairs with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Educational Technology, Student Development, Critical Thinking, Organizational Development, and Social Media. Strong education with a Master of Arts (MA) focused in Counseling Psychology from California State University- Chico.
After 27 years in Information Technology at ASU, Jeff moved into his current role in 2013. The move was made because of Jeff’s knowledge and promotion of using data to make decisions across campus. Data is key in managing enrollment at any university. This has proved true, as Undergraduate enrollment has increased every year since 2016. Jeff uses his knowledge of data to enable Enrollment Management to use all of its resources in the best possible way for the university.
Susan Gottheil has worked for over 30 years at a variety of Canadian colleges and universities providing leadership in SEM planning and implementation and enhancing student and academic support services to improve diversity and inclusion and student success. She has written and presented on SEM topics at international workshops and conferences and most recently completed a research project with Clayton Smith interviewing Canadian enrolment leaders on the impact of SEM in Canada over the last decade. In 2019 Susan retired from the University of Manitoba where she served as Vice-Provost (Students).
Canadian Enrollment Leaders’ Reflections on the Effectiveness of SEM
Reflections on Achievement, Hitting the Glass Ceiling and Breaking the Mold
Walking the Walk Together: Implementing SEM to Enhance the Student Experience
Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, Ph.D is an Education Consultant and Adjunct Professor at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Cole-Malott’s work supports organizations across the state of Pennsylvania in their efforts to diversify and foster equity in the teacher educator workforce. Dr. Cole-Malott has been instrumental in the development of the Pennsylvania Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) competencies, and their definition being included in teacher guidelines in Pennsylvanian (Chapter 49). Dr. Cole-Malott is also former Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Education in the Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She is a literacy researcher, advocate for BIPOC students, and a co-leader with the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, a grassroots organization centered on diversity and equity in the educator workforce.
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