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Julie Posselt

Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern California

Julie Posselt is Associate Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. Her research examines institutionalized inequities in higher education and STEM disciplines, and organizational efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. Posselt is the author of Inside Graduate Admissions: Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping (Harvard University Press). In 2020 she will release Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education (Stanford University Press). Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, Spencer Foundation, and Mellon Foundation.  Today, she directs two NSF- funded research-practice partnerships: the California Consortium for Inclusive Doctoral Education, and the Inclusive Graduate Education Network’s Research Hub. Posselt was honored with a National Academy of Education postdoctoral fellowship to study graduate student mental health, the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Early Career/ Promising Scholar award, and the American Educational Research Association’s Early Career Award.  She was named one of Forbes Magazine’s 2019 Top Admissions Influencers, and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Higher Education.

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Doug Roper

Results Coordinator, Cambridge Assessment International Education

Doug Roper manages the Results Services team at Cambridge International, sending exam scores to schools and candidates around the world, ensuring students receive the right grade first time, on time, every time. Doug’s team also look after all historic exam scores, helping former students access their grades for credit at university or for successful job applications. Before his current role, Doug managed Cambridge International’s communications with schools.

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David Weeks

Co-Founder and C.O.O., Sunrise International

David Weeks is the Co-Founder and COO of Sunrise International. At Sunrise, David directs Sunrise’s market research team and has personally traveled to hundreds of Chinese high schools and universities to run events. He has presented sessions on the Chinese student recruitment landscape and digital recruitment in China at GMAC, NAFSA, AIRC, and WIEC. He received a BA in Political Science from Swarthmore College in 2010 and speaks Mandarin. Prior to joining Sunrise, he conducted research on the connection between China's foreign policy and its domestic politics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

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Gavin Newton-Tanzer

Co-Founder and President, Sunrise International

Gavin is co-founder and president of Sunrise International. Sunrise hosts over 200 events, tours, and college fairs in China each year, as well as provides cross border digital services to hundreds of universities seeking to better engage the Chinese market. Gavin received his B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University, and has been a visiting fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. An accomplished jazz pianist, Gavin is an avid reader and passionate about foreign languages.

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David A. Jones, CPA - Managing Partner at Jones, Maresca & McQuade, P.A.

David is the Managing Partner of Jones, Maresca & McQuade, P.A. with over thirty years of audit, accounting, and income tax experience in both private and public sectors.  David oversees the not for profit practice for the firm.  The firm presently provides audit services to well over 200 organizations each year, and in total has over three hundred not for profit entities as clients, which include tax and outsourcing accounting services clients.

David graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant since 1984.  He has served as a board member for various not-for-profit organizations and has frequent speaking engagements regarding accounting and tax issues facing not-for-profit organizations.  He is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Maryland Association of CPA’s (MACPA).

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Caroline Cooper

Project Manager, Transformation Team at Cambridge International

Caroline Cooper is a Project Manager within the Transformation Team at Cambridge International. The Transformation Team manages complex programmes and projects, such as the launch of new strategic level products and services for our customers in education. Caroline has 8 years of project and change management experience. Prior to joining Cambridge International in 2018, Caroline worked in the FMCG and hospitality industries, most recently for luxury hotel chain Rocco Forte Hotels, where she worked on the development and launch of a new smartphone application for internal career progression and employee engagement.  

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Ian Stewart

Sr. Account Executive, DIGARC

Ian works work with DIGARC's client base of nearly 800 institutions to help them leverage their current solutions and educate them about new DIGARC solutions. He has a bachelor's in Statistics from the University of Florida. 

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Connie Kiskaden

Curriculum Coordinator, Northern Kentucky University

Connie has served as Curriculum Coordinator for nearly 15 years at Northern Kentucky University, helping to reinvent and streamline processes. She oversees technology used for faculty activity data collection and documentation, and preparation and transmission of the institution’s accreditation report. 

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Lynette Lindsey

Director of Undergraduate Admissions Operations, The Ohio State University

Lynette Lindsey serves as the Director of Operations in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at The Ohio State University. In this role, she is responsible for providing strategic leadership for application operations for all six Ohio State campuses. This includes application processing and credentials evaluation for over 70,000 domestic and international undergraduate applicants. Lynette also serves as a key leader and business partner for technology and business process re-engineering initiatives.

Prior to her current role in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Lynette led outreach and engagement efforts to recruit undergraduate transfer students, as well as access and diversity initiatives to increase the recruitment and enrollment ofunderrepresented minorities.

Lynette has over 25 years of higher education experience. She hold a bachelor’s degree in English from West Liberty University and a master’s degree in Labor and Human Resources from The Ohio State University.

 

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Dr. Cedric Howard

Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management (Seattle Colleges District)

Dr. Cedric B. Howard is an esteemed professional with nearly 30 years of experience in higher education. He has held various senior-level administrative positions such as vice president, vice chancellor of Enrollment and Student Services, and dean of Student Affairs. Dr. Howard has a strong track record of prioritizing student achievement and has achieved measurable results throughout his career.

Dr. Howard recently joined Seattle Colleges District from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), where he successfully re-established the Division of Student Affairs and contributed to increased enrollment at UNC. His role as a Senior Student Services Officer has been marked by significant contributions, including increasing student housing occupancy, overseeing upgrades to student services facilities, and developing a restorative justice sanctioning process for student conduct.    

During his tenure at SUNY Fredonia, Dr. Howard implemented an SEM framework that resulted in a remarkable 30% increase in first-year student enrollment. Previously, at the University of Washington Tacoma, he effectively more than doubled the campus's overall enrollment as the Vice Chancellor for Student and Enrollment Services.

Dr. Howard's expertise extends to consulting and leadership roles, having worked with multiple colleges and universities to develop SEM plans and marketing strategies. He has also been involved in various projects aimed at enhancing student success and SEM planning in higher education systems.

Dr. Howard's career is marked by valuable partnerships with high schools, community organizations, and military installations. He has received national recognition for his outstanding work in enrollment management and student affairs, including prestigious awards such as the NASPA Pillar of the Profession Award and the Scott Goodnight Award (national - 2018 and western regional – 2014).    

With a wealth of knowledge and collaborative leadership, Dr. Howard has made significant contributions to higher education. His professional achievements have been honored with prestigious awards, including the NASPA Pillar of the Profession Award and others. Dr. Howard holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, a master’s in education in Educational Administration, and a doctorate in education in Educational Leadership and Management.

Kelsey Simonson

Registrar and Director of Community Standards, Tufts University

Slate Position: 2025-2026 Nominations and Elections Committee

Position Statement:

Having been a part of AACRAO for a number of years now, I would like to gain a deeper understanding of the organization and lend my skills and talents to helping AACRAO be the best it can be. I believe that I bring a unique and valued perspective as a young professional and as chair of the young professionals caucus, and can help steer decision making to help young people and new professionals enter the organization and find their place within it. I would like to use a position with nominations and elections to support that goal of generating the next generation of leaders in AACRAO.


Kelsey serves as the Registrar and Director of Community Standards at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She is the current chair of the Young Professionals Caucus, and sits on the Graduate and Professional Schools subcommittee and Member Engagement subcommittee.

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Tiffani Robertson

Director, Academic Services at Governors State University

 

AACRAO Bio

This year marks Tiffani’s 18th year in higher education. She started her career as a student worker at DeVry University.  After graduating with her Bachelor degree in Networking and Communications Management, she obtained her first full time position at DeVry as a Transfer Credit Coordinator.  Within her five years there, she was promoted to Senior Transfer Credit Coordinator and then Team Lead and also earned her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing.  Tiffani then went on to be the Coordinator of Articulation and Degree Audit at NEIU, where she built the institutions first major degree audits, articulation agreements, and transfer guides.  She began her journey with Governors State University in the role of Admissions and Records Supervisor in 2013 and then the role of Associate Director of Admissions in 2016.  Tiffani is now an Associate Director for Enrollment Management, focusing on transfer technology and enrollment data.  In addition to her full-time position at GSU, she is also an Adjunct Faculty member at GSU and Southern New Hampshire University and a doctoral candidate in the Educational Administration Foundations – Higher Education PhD program at Illinois State University.  She is currently working on her research proposal with hopes to begin her study in the fall. 

Tiffani has been a member of IllinoisACRAO (IACRAO) for several years and has served as the chair-elect for her district, Equal Educational Opportunities Officer, and Communications Manager. For AACRAO, she has served as the Chair for the Nominations and Elections Committee and the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Policies and Practices Committee and is a member of the Black Caucus, Member Engagement and Outreach Committee, and a founding member of the Women’s Caucus. Currently, she is the President-Elect for IACRAO and Vice-President for Leadership and Management Development for AACRAO.

Interview with Zachary A. Pardos

Interview with Liz Cheron

AACRAO Role: Vice President for Leadership and Management Development - Board of Directors

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Jennifer Love

Director, Texas One Stop for Enrollment Services, University of Texas at Austin

Jennifer Love is the Director of the inaugural Texas One Stop for Enrollment Services at the University of Texas at Austin which will officially open in Spring 2020. Before her tenure at UT, she was the Director of the Student Service and ID Center at Columbia University in the City of New York, and worked at the One Stop Student Services at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities.

 

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Romesh Vadivel

Assistant Registrar & Director of Service Point, McGill University

Romesh Vadivel has worked at McGill University since 2005, currently serving as Assistant Registrar & Director of Service Point in McGill’s Enrolment Services division (www.mcgill.ca/students/servicepoint). He has worked in the Canadian higher education sector for more than twenty years in a variety of challenging roles at each of Concordia University, Dalhousie University and now at McGill, in areas implicated in or touching directly upon enrolment management and student success. Romesh has served on the ARUCC Executive since 2014 and on both the ARUCC Groningen & Student Mobility Task Force and now Steering Committee. He is a leader of change and possesses a strong understanding of the student experience.

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Wintley A. Phipps

Founder, President, and CEO, U.S. Dream Academy, Inc.

Mr. Phipps is an education activist, motivational speaker, author, pastor and world-renowned vocal artist. For more than thirty-eight years, he has delivered messages of hope, advocacy, and equality to thousands during his travels around the world. 
 
Wintley Phipps is the founder and CEO of the U.S. Dream Academy, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides mentoring and tutoring to children of incarcerated parents and children falling behind in school who are living in high-risk environments. Since its founding in 1998, the Dream Academy has served more than 10,000 students in some of America’s most blighted communities. The U.S. Dream Academy's overall vision is to build an army of inspired, skilled, and character-driven young people to become global leaders.
 
The mission of the U.S. Dream Academy is to inspire and transform the lives of children of incarcerated parents and vulnerable young people through high-performance relationships with caring adults.  Distinguished as one of the oldest afterschool and mentoring organizations, we provide this target population with quality services focused on programming pillars to build dreams, character, perseverance, and academic skills.  Today, the Dream Academy serves youth from grades 2 through 12 in Learning Centers located in seven (7) cities of San Bernardino; Houston; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, DC; Orlando; and West Valley City, in a designated local Title I elementary, middle and high school. 
 
Mr. Phipps currently serves on the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Board of Directors. He has also brought his considerable skills to a number of organizations where he served formerly including the Scholarship America Board of Trustees; the Council for Religious Freedom; and Prison Fellowship Ministries.  
 
For his work at the U.S. Dream Academy Mr. Phipps has received numerous service awards. Among them: The Excellence in Mentoring for Program Leadership Award from MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership; the Oprah Winfrey Angel Network Use Your Life Award; Philanthropist of the Year Award from The National Center for Black Philanthropy, Inc.; the Distinguished Service Award from Loma Linda University; Promise Hero Award from America’s Promise; and the Ambassador Andrew Young Award for Distinguished Service. In recognition of his positive global impact through speaking, The National Speakers Association awarded Wintley the prestigious Master of Influence Award.
 

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Maureen O’Mara Carver

Role: Registrar

Maureen O’Mara Carver is Registrar at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and a Senior Consultant with AACRAO Consulting (AC).  Ms. Carver’s 30 years of experience in higher education and numerous assignments with AC, have allowed her to work collaboratively with all levels of faculty and administration to tackle such issues as defining the role of a Registrar, and the scope of responsibility appropriate to the position in light of the mission and goals of a college and/or university.  This work encompasses the areas of records retention, grading practices, personnel management, integrated student service implementation, and numerous other areas of policy and procedure. 

In addition, Ms. Carver has a proven record of leveraging technology to deliver better student services without increasing the need for additional personnel. 

 

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Dr. Brent Gage

Role: Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management

Brent A. Gage currently serves as the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management at the University of Iowa. In this role, Dr. Gage oversees all recruitment and enrollment functions including Admissions, Financial Aid, Communications, Enrollment Operations and Undergraduate Scholarships. Dr. Gage works cooperatively with the Academic Deans and the Office of the Provost to facilitate the university’s enrollment functions in an effort to achieve institutional goals, and serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet.

 
Before arriving at Iowa, Dr. Gage served The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Northern Illinois University as the institutional leader of Enrollment Management and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. He is credited with transforming recruitment and processes to grow enrollment and create significant operational efficiencies throughout his career in higher education.  He is also heavily involved in the development and implementation of predictive analytics to shape enrollment while minimizing institutional costs.
 
Dr. Gage currently is also a senior consultant for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers (AACRAO) in which he has consulted on a variety of Enrollment Management issues at over 20 institutions both in the United States and abroad.  He is actively involved and a frequent contributor to a variety of higher education professional organizations such as the National Association of College Admission Counseling, AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management and the American College Test (ACT) Enrollment Planners Leadership Group.  Dr. Gage also serves as Chairman of the Iowa College Access Network Board of Directors.
 

Dr. Gage holds degrees from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Eastern Illinois University and a Ph.D. from Indiana State University in Educational Leadership, Administration and Foundations.

Review of: Becoming a Student Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success

 

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Jody Gordon

Senior Managing Consultant, AACRAO

Request Jody Gordon as a speaker   

About
Jody Gordon is Senior Managing Consultant at AACRAO. Recently she served as the Associate Vice-President, Students at Langara College in Vancouver, Canada. Ms. Gordon provided oversight and leadership to the Student Services division that includes, Student Engagement, Financial Aid and Awards, Varsity Athletics, Counselling (personal, career, and academic support and academic advising), Mental Health Initiatives for students and employees, Health Services, Accessibility Services, Registrar and Enrolment Services, Student Recruitment and Intramurals. Previously Ms. Gordon served as the Vice President, Students and Enrolment Management, at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), Abbotsford, Canada. She led the development of the first ever Strategic Enrolment Management Plan for the University. Prior to this she held the position of Associate Vice President, Students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), Surrey, Canada where she led the institution wide review of the first-year experience where she oversaw 9 working committees and developed a comprehensive plan for improving the first-year experience. 

Ms. Gordon has worked in post-secondary since 1992, beginning her career at Simon Fraser University before joining KPU in 1998, UFV in 2012 and Langara College in 2020. She has held progressively responsible positions as an Academic Advisor, Associate Director of Advising and Enrolment Services, Registrar and Chief Student Affairs Officer. In addition to Ms. Gordon’s administrator roles, she has taught first-year criminology students. Her broad experience in the classroom, in recruitment, enrolment and registrarial services, and in student affairs has allowed her to lead post-secondary institutions in developing SEM plans. Ms. Gordon is very familiar with the university and college systems both in Canada and the U.S. and has broad experience in India, Thailand, Britain and China working closely with a technical training institute over multiple campuses.
 
Ms. Gordon completed a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in 1992 and a Master of Arts degree in 1996 from Simon Fraser University. She was selected as the recipient of the 2009 Strategic Enrolment Management Leadership Award of Excellence in the Canadian Institutions category, an award cosponsored by AACRAO and Education Systems Inc. Ms. Gordon presents regularly at higher education conferences across North America and has published articles on such topics as enrolment management, student success initiatives, the mobile transfer student and leadership in higher education.

Recently Ms. Gordon co-authored the book SEM in Action: Implementing and Sustaining your Plan, the third book in the SEM series.

An Interview with Jay Goff

Jody's Role at AACRAO

Jody works in the Business Development & Strategic Partnerships Division, where she provides direct consulting services to client institutions, solicits new clients and follows-up on inquiries from prospective clients, develops and executes training programs for consultants, contributes research and knowledge to the profession, and develops and assists with partnerships with companies and agencies.

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Stanley Henderson

Stanley E. Henderson retired from the University of Michigan-Dearborn where he served as Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Life from 2005-2015.  In that role he provided leadership to campus enrollment efforts that resulted in nearly a 30% increase in freshman enrollment  as well as record growth of students of color and international students while increasing quality indices. He was also instrumental in developing a public-private partnership for student housing. 

He served as associate provost for enrollment management at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign from 2003-2005 and as associate vice president for enrollment management at the University of Cincinnati from 1995 to 2003.  Previously, he was director of enrollment management and admissions at Western Michigan University and director of admissions at Wichita State University.  His roots in enrollment began as an admissions counselor at Michigan State University in 1970-1971.

Henderson has long been a national leader in developing new models for universities to better recruit and retain students.  At the University of Michigan-Dearborn his work resulted in the integration of 10 student service offices around common student success goals and championed a spirit of community to grow student engagement to new levels.  His leadership in designing an enrollment facility at the University of Cincinnati helped to create a widely studied model of One-Stop service and integrated recruitment and retention delivery.  He was known on his campuses as a collaborator with faculty and Honors Programs for the recruitment of scholarship level students.
 

He also has been deeply involved at the national level of AACRAO, where he served as the association’s first vice president for enrollment management in 1991-93 and as president in 1995-96.  He was a founder of the Association’s national SEM Conference, now in its 30th year.  He is a frequent contributor to AACRAO publications, including the first history of enrollment management, as well as a frequent presenter at state, regional, and national levels.  He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and the Founders Award for Leadership.  AACRAO has presented Henderson a Lifetime Achievement Award for “Outstanding Leadership in the SEM Profession” and awarded him Honorary Membership in 2015.

Henderson continues to serve the association as a senior consultant for AACRAO Consulting.   His approach is one of “coaching” faculty and staff to develop data-informed enrollment goals and strategies that best fit their campuses rather than prescribing templates.  He is recognized for reading the culture of campuses and building institution buy-in to the planning process.  His expertise includes SEM assessment, SEM planning, student success, graduate enrollment management, leadership coaching, enrollment and student affairs collaboration, and building student engagement.  
 

 

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Pamela Horne

Senior Consultant at AACRAO

After 43 years in higher education, Pam Horne retired from full-time work in 2017 as Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at Purdue University where she managed strategy and operations for admissions, financial aid, early college outreach, registrar, and student data analysis and reporting. Previously she served Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and the University of Kansas.  She now consults and speaks to professional organizations.

A former president of the Association of Chief Admission Officers of Public Universities, Horne also served as a Trustee and Regional Council Chair for the College Board. She served on committees of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers. She has presented frequently at topics such as the gap between college aspiration and preparation, the future of enrollment management, effective use of business intelligence and technology in enrollment management, creating an internal enrollment management brand, college financing, and the impact of changing demographics on higher education.  Since her retirement from full-time work, Pam has consulted with a variety of institutions, including Mount Holyoke College, Washington University, Utah State University, and Florida Atlantic University.