As Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Western Governors University, Dr. Marni Baker Stein leads all Colleges, supports academic and student success services, and manages their financial sustainability. Under her guidance, WGU develops, implements, and scales programs that improve access and affordability for students, without compromising academic quality.
Prior to WGU, Marni served as Chief Innovation Officer for the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning. She was also Senior Associate Dean of Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education, where she oversaw the school’s academic portfolio and was responsible for the development, design, and evaluation of all online and hybrid programs.
In August 2016, Marni was selected by the Department of Education to serve as a member of the National Technical Working Group charged with expanding the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan and using technology to transform higher education.
Marni has a Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum from the University of Pennsylvania.
Alex Kaplan leads IBM’s global work on the application of emerging technologies as an enabler of lifelong learning pathways and talent transformation. This work encompasses leading IBM’s learning and industry credentials blockchain initiative. As well as work with the US Department of Commerce and the White House on Learning and Education Records. Previously, Alex worked closely with the IBM teams that created Personalized Learning on Cloud, Watson Classroom, and Watson Tutor. Alex has closely collaborated with leading organizations in industry and education, including the White House, US Dept of Education, Apple, Pearson, and Sesame Workshop. He speaks frequently on the topic of the transformational potential of advanced technologies on learning and talent. Alex has spoken at; both the Harvard and Columbia Graduate Schools of Education, the IMS Global Learning Consortium, the Getty Foundation, IBM Research, Blockchain Revolution conference, the National Institute of Standards, and many others.
Alex is the Global Leader, Blockchain and AI for industry credentials in IBM’s Talent & Transformation practice. He is also a Member of the IBM Industry Academy and serves on the board of directors of the IMS Global Learning Consortium.
For more information about Alex Kaplan and to access webinars and papers about his professional work, please visit his LinkedIn account; www.linkedin.com/in/alexkaplanibm.
Andy Trainor is currently the VP of Walmart US Learning. In this role, Andy and his team are focused on the strategy, innovation, content development, and delivery of the training for all of Walmart US. This includes all training for the home office, supply chain, and the store academies, which he led in his prior role.
Previously, Andy spent 4 years as the Sr. Director for China Implementation for International Business Processes responsible for sharing and implementing Walmart global best practices within the China business. In this role, Andy and his team manage a locally based implementation team to work with the business in expanding the capabilities of the business functions within China through leverage and execution.
Prior to this, Andy was responsible for the International Logistics Engineering team where he was responsible for establishing, developing, and working with the logistics engineers in 28 countries to improve productivity and processes within the logistics and transportation businesses. Prior to his international roles, Andy worked in the US logistics division where he worked on the Grocery Industrial Engineering team designing mechanized grocery distribution centers, developing process improvement projects, and managing a team of field industrial engineers. Before Walmart, Andy worked as the Industrial Engineering Manager for Fred’s Inc, a retail store chain based in Memphis Tennessee.
Andy has 19 years with Walmart and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from The University of Memphis and a Master’s Degree in Business from Webster’s University.
Mr. Torres joined the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) as its President and CEO in 2008. Under his leadership the Clearinghouse has continued to successfully extend its mission delivery of access driven service to education, which today comprises over 3,700 higher education institutions and nearly 14,000 high schools, school districts, and 43 states and thousands of outreach organizations, executing over 2.4 billion transactions annually, saving the education community over $850 million a year. Through his leadership the Clearinghouse has grown its education serving transactions by a factor of 8X over the past decade, with a 12% revenue CAGR to support the nation-wide services that the Clearinghouse offers the K-20W community and lifelong learners.
In addition, the Clearinghouse has evolved its non-profit mission execution to the education community by providing accessible innovative technology-based services and data exchange solutions that enable education institutions and organizations to focus on being engines that maximize human potential development. NSC's mission’s intent is to democratize data and information enabling all learners to benefit, including an intentional emphasis on enabling research based vulnerable population trajectory change. The Clearinghouse is a leader in advocating privacy, security, transparency, and responsible use of data to provide better understanding of student educational pathway performance to the benefit of students, institutions, and policymakers.
Facing the challenges of COVID19 on vulnerable populations, today the Clearinghouse is on the leading edge of the future of workforce initiatives through its engagement with industry leaders such as IBM and Walmart in the Interoperable Learner Record (ILR) initiative, which is led by the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, a Federal initiative designed to transform how learners, educators and industry collaborate to enable learners to obtain the right skills at the right time for the right job.
Mr. Torres has been an active board member of the John Tyler Community College Foundation for the past 19 years and serves on the Board of the National College Access Network (NCAN). He also sat on the Board of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) from 2012 to 2016. He was a founding member and sits on the Executive Committee of the Groningen Declaration Network Group, a multi-national group of leaders dedicated to developing a trusted international data exchange ecosystem. In 2017 and 2018, Mr. Torres was selected as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for the Mid-Atlantic region. He was a recipient of the Washington Business Journal’s 2013 Minority Business Leader Award. Mr. Torres holds an MBA in International Finance from Georgetown University and undergraduate degrees in both Marketing and Management from Manhattan College.
Role: President
Dr. Kevin Pollock is President of Central Carolina Technical College, a position he began in January 2021. Prior to this role, he served as the fifth President of Montgomery County Community College. Dr. Pollock has more than 40 years of education experience at four-year private and public colleges as well as community colleges. His diverse roles include college administration, strategic planning, leadership, and enrollment management. He is a national expert on student success models, a frequent national speaker who has spoken more than 130 times at conferences and colleges. He has authored more than two dozen book chapters and articles.
At Montgomery County Community College, Dr. Pollock oversaw the implementation of a new core curriculum, including math reform, and the creation of pathways for all College programs. During his tenure, the College created a new vision, mission, and strategic plan, and updated its brand and marketing strategies. The College implemented an integrated holistic advising approach, developed through the Gates Foundation iPass grants, and opened a new $31M Allied Health Building. In addition, the College enhanced its student success models by creating short-term enrollment goals, moving to a virtual bookstore platform, and creating a 24/7 tutoring model.
Before arriving at Montgomery, Dr. Pollock served as President of St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Michigan, from 2009-2016. During his tenure, the institution experienced record enrollment, embarked on new student success initiatives, created early and middle college programs, increased its grant funding, became a leader in green initiatives, and strengthened its connections with the community. The institution also adopted a new vision, mission, and data-informed strategic plan, that was tied to national best practices.
Prior to assuming a presidential role, Dr. Pollock spent nine years as Vice President of Student Services at West Shore Community College in Scottville, Michigan. Prior to that, he held roles at Lake Superior State University, Lawrence Technological University, and Kettering University, where held leadership roles in admissions and recruitment. He taught middle and high school English early in his career. Dr. Kevin Pollock has also served as an AACRAO Senior Consultant.
Dr. Pollock holds a Ph.D. in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts in Education and Bachelor of Science in Education from Central Michigan University.
Request President Tomikia LeGrande as a speaker
AboutTomikia P. LeGrande, Ed.D., became the ninth president of Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) on June 1, 2023. Her career in higher education is marked by successive leadership roles and professional achievements.
Before joining PVAMU, Dr. LeGrande served as vice president for strategy, enrollment management and student success at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she led the development and implementation of the university’s strategic plan, priorities, and goals to influence national prominence, strategic partnerships, and student access and success. Other senior level leadership roles prior to VCU include vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at the University of Houston-Downtown, and associate vice chancellor for enrollment management at Winston Salem State University.
Throughout her career, Dr. LeGrande’s focus has been on advancing equity, accessibility, and affordability in higher education. She works to create and sustain engaging and supportive cultures for faculty, staff and students resulting in positive institutional outcomes. She has been prolific in securing resources to support innovation and accelerate progress. In all of her career endeavors, Dr. LeGrande has created “cultures of care” utilizing her expertise in strategic planning, new technology implementation, change management, and policy and business process redesign. With a personalized approach, she engages at all levels of an organization– forming, deploying and managing cross-organizational teams that find solutions to impediments that may impact university progress.
As a two-time graduate of HBCUs, and having earned a doctorate in higher education leadership, Dr. LeGrande understands the transformative power of education in helping students dismantle class, social, and cultural barriers. She believes that centered and effective leadership in higher education can amplify and accelerate the social mobility of all students, but especially of those from communities that have been underserved and underrepresented.
At the national level, Dr. LeGrande is actively engaged in issues of access, parity, higher education policy and leadership development. She is a sought-after thought leader, and a regular presenter and facilitator on the topics of enrollment management, educational equity and student success. She testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor in 2019 during a hearing on “Innovation to Improve Equity: Exploring High-Quality Pathways to a College Degree.” She was also the recipient of the Governor’s “Champion for Change Award” for the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2021.
IMS Global Learning Consortiumjbohrer@imsglobal.orgJeff Bohrer’s career has focused on supporting the mission of educational institutions through academic technology administration, support, and training. Jeff serves as a program manager for digital credentials initiatives at IMS Global Learning Consortium, a non-profit, member-driven organization whose mission is to enable the adoption and impact of innovative learning technology. Jeff leads a variety of projects and programs related to digital badges, comprehensive learner records, and the interoperability of learning technologies. Jeff is also co-chair of the EDUCAUSE Microcredentials and Badges Constituent Group.Prior to joining IMS, Jeff was an academic technology manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison responsible for leading teams that support university-wide systems for learning management, media delivery, collaboration, content development, assessment, and analytics. Jeff also served on numerous committees at the campus, state, and national levels. Additionally, Jeff has held academic technology positions at Dartmouth College and in the Mahtomedi (MN) Public Schools. Jeff holds a master's degree in technology for learning and development and a bachelor's degree in secondary education, both from the University of South Dakota.
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Dan Alig is the Chief Information Officer of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He leads Wharton Computing in delivering IT resources to faculty, students, staff, and alumni and developing strategies to enhance the School’s mission with technology. He began working at Wharton in 1999, supporting technology for the Graduate Division and has since moved through a variety of job functions with progressively increasing responsibility. Dan led the team that built the implementation of Course Match, which doubled student satisfaction with course registration and cut schedule inequality in half. His leadership brought together an inter-disciplinary and multi-function group from the registrar's office, IT, and faculty to realize Wharton's largest increase in student happiness in 20 years.
Matt Boulos is the founder and CEO of Cognomos, the company that supports the continued development and wide-spread deployment of Course Match in higher education. He is an experienced founder with a track record of creating solutions for the social sector and higher education. Course Match is a registration platform that uses an algorithm to distribute class schedules based on student preferences. It is the only registration method in production that is simultaneously fair, efficient, and strategy-proof. Its underlying concepts were first developed at Harvard and Carnegie Mellon (in economics and computer science) to find a practical way to improve the process of course enrolment for higher education institutions. The research was adopted by the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 for the flagship MBA program of its Wharton School. After this success, the University of Pennsylvania received considerable inbound interest from other academic institutions hoping to deploy the Course Match technology. It chose to form a separate company called Cognomos (in which it maintains an ownership stake) to deploy, support, and develop the product, with the goal of ensuring the long-term stability of Course Match.
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2020 SEM-EP Graduate
Tricia joined the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business in 2019 and is currently serving at the Director of Enrollment Management for Graduate Management Programs. She joined Tippie after 12 years of experience within enrollment management positions at her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. From UW-Platteville she earned bachelor’s degrees in history and Social Sciences, as well as a master’s degree in Organizational Change Leadership.
Capstone Project: "Test Optional: Recruitment to Graduation" This research study examined what effect test-optional practices had on overall application numbers and on class diversity. The study also examined the impacts on selectivity, class profile, retention, and graduation rates.
Dr. Mews serves as Vice President for Enrollment & Student Affairs at Lake-Sumter State College. In his role, Mews provides strategic direction and oversight of new and continuing enrollment and student services, including marketing, recruitment, admissions, financial aid, student success, career services, and data analytics. His professional and research interests include organizational behavior, leadership, change management, strategic assessment and planning, and adult learning.
Capstone Project: "Selecting Student Success Models" detailed various criteria that should be considered when assessing or planning for a student-centered success model. The research provides insight on varying student needs—specifically highlighting differences between two- and four-year campuses, and modality of course instruction and attendance.
Review of: Transfer Website Strategy Guide: How to Create and Sustain a Transfer Student-Centered Web Presence Review of: History of American Higher Education A-Z: A Primer for Enrollment Managers
Cindy Donohue has worked in higher education since 2011, and has served as the Registrar for Emily Griffith Technical College (EGTC) since 2015. Cindy manages the Registration department and oversees Student Records, schedule development, the Catalog, and FERPA compliance. Her experience includes leadership, organizational effectiveness, collaborative decision making and process implementation. She has headed multiple initiatives that led to improved departmental efficiency with cross functioning teams.
Capstone Project: Beyond Drop for Non-Payment - Evaluating the Impact of Timely Outreach on Re-registration examined the results of providing outreach to EGTC students who were dropped for non-payment and not re-registered after 30 days. In addition to the students who were contacted, a control list was created of 100 students during the same time period who had not been contacted. Though the impact of outreach on total enrollment was negligible, presentation of the findings in this report led to several collaborative discussions and initiatives that offered increased support at the admissions stage for all of our Career Technical Education students.
2019 SEM-EP Graduate
For over a decade, Dr. Ruger has led data-informed recruitment, admissions and student program initiatives for Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM) where she serves as the Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Life. During her tenure at MSUCOM, she has led multiple initiatives to improve departmental efficiency, increase the enrollment of mission-fit candidates, and enhance the overall applicant and student experience.
Capstone Project: In the spaces of higher education leaders are increasingly working to align institutional mission, vision and values by shifting strategy as a result of the evaluation of market needs and expectations. Many publications and references to strategic enrollment management (SEM) practices focus on both undergraduate and graduate programs and institutions. A gap exists in SEM within professional schools—such as medical colleges—many of which may be stand-alone institutions or function independently within a larger college or university structure. Hence, SEM may not be as prevalent in the medical college industry. Just like other undergraduate and graduate school enrollment, medical college enrollment is affected by changing student populations, diversity challenges, increased competition, and one’s perception of return-on-investment when alternative career options are available. This study provides a summary of how some medical colleges are responding to these challenges using SEM principles.
Diverse higher education experience in academic and enrollment management at state public institutions. Areas of expertise include records and registration, strategic planning, data analysis, and business process design. Laurie holds a Juris Doctor, M.S. in Sport Management and B.A. in Communication.
Capstone Project: This capstone literature review analyzes the research surrounding the impact of organizational culture on SEM development, implementation and maintenance.
Angela M. Hamilton has 15 Years of Higher Education Experience in Admissions, Registrar, and Enrollment Management functions at a Community College exceeding 4,000 annual enrollments, offering 60 Associate’s Degrees. She has expertise in Records, Registration, Process Improvements and Leadership. Ms. Hamilton holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pittsburgh, Bachelor’s Degree from Robert Morris University, and Associate’s Degree from the Community College of Beaver County.
Capstone Project - "2019-2024 Strategic Enrollment Management Plan"
Cié has held various positions in Enrollment Management currently serving as the Associate Vice Provost for Career-Engaged Learning and a clinical faculty member at the University of Texas San Antonio. Outside UTSA, she is active in TACRAO, SACRAO, and AACRAO and served as the President of SACRAO in 2019. Cié is an award winning presenter and frequent contributor to various higher education publications. She holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Interpersonal Communication and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.
Capstone Project - This Capstone takes a case study approach to suggest a SEM project management system for organizing and maintaining SEM implementations and maintenance. Through the practical application of SEM concepts to an active SEM implementation plan occurring at my institution, I offer a model of a project management methodology. First, an institutional profile along with a detailed explanation of my institutional SEM journey is discussed. Second, Scrum project management methodology is introduced, which was the inspiration for the proposed SEM project management tool. Third, a discussion of how this project management tool has been piloted at my institution, along with suggestions for future adaptation is provided.
Read about Cié's Capstone Project in the January 2020 issue of SEM Quarterly
Jonathan Clayden is the Director of Graduate and Professional Education Programs and Services and Assistant Dean, Program & Enrollment Management, at Tseng College, California State University, Northridge. With a focus on long-term enrollment management goals, he has responsibility for the ongoing excellence and distinction of graduate and professional education programs in the College of Extended Learning. Prior academically related posts include Director of Post-Graduate and Professional Studies at Emerson College, Los Angeles, and Chair of the Higher Education Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.In the private sector, Jonathan held a 15-year tenure as president of PSI Records (an entertainment-focused label with clients including NBC-Universal, Disney, Fox, MGM, DreamWorks SKG, CBS, FX, Sony, and Activision), and is currently a consultant, helping organizations to facilitate best process, program impact, strengthened human capital, and robust fiscal outcomes. His consultancy expertise includes change management, process streamlining, onboarding, and mapping out the metrics needed to best facilitate actionable data and data-informed decision making.Academically, Jonathan holds a MA (Hons) in Work-Based Learning, from Middlesex University, London. He is an active member of various higher education associations (NAGAP, UPCEA, UEDA, etc.), and his latest scholarly article will be published in Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly this July.
Capstone Project - "Public-Private Partnership Case Study," a case study of the impact of a limited-scope public private partnership on various aspects of the enrollment management funnel for a target set of academic programs at the graduate level in a college of extended learning at a large public university. This project was adapted for publication in AACRAO's SEM Quarterly Journal - read it here
Teresa Borrenpohl is currently serving as the founding Enrollment Services Center Manager leading a team responsible for the face-to-face, email, and phone service to students for the Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar, and Student Finance offices. In addition, Borrenpohl serves on the Strategic Enrollment Management Steering Committee, and the chair of the SEM-Recruitment Committee. Borrenpohl is President-Elect of the Idaho AACRAO chapter, IACRAO.
Capstone Project - "NIC Connect: Purposeful High School Recruitment Gets Results" piloted a study of five purposeful high school visit engagements including 1. Applying to NIC; 2. Learning about the senior year expectations of the enrollment process; 3. Applying for scholarships and Financial Aid; 4. Completing academic assessments, and; 5. Registering for courses. This program resulted in a 25% increase in service area seniors matriculating to North Idaho College over the previous academic year. Success of this program was attributed to meeting students where they are in the high school classroom and where they are in the enrollment process.