SEMQ Announces New Editor-in-Chief

AACRAO is pleased to announce Dr. Clayton Smith as the new editor-in-chief of SEM Quarterly Journal. Dr. Smith takes over for Dr. Tom Green, who served as editor-in-chief from August 2014 to January 2022. Dr. Smith begins this role on March 1.  

Dr. Smith is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. He is also a senior consultant with AACRAO Consulting and currently serves as AACRAO’s Strategic Enrollment Management Conference director. 

I greatly look forward to enhancing our ever-growing conversation on the role of Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) in connecting practitioners and scholars in building a body of scholarship to support student success, institutional wellness, and operational efficiency at our postsecondary educational institutions, Dr. Smith said. 

Dr. Smith is a leader in enrollment management, with expertise in institutional SEM readiness, implementing SEM, enrollment planning, change management, international student affairs, marketing and student recruitment, and student success and retention. He has worked at various higher education institutions, including residential and commuter, rural and urban, and two-year and four-year schools, and has consulted at nearly 30 colleges and universities.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. in Political Science from Drew University, an M.P.A. in Public Administration from the University of Maine, and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from Florida State University. In addition, he has an extensive professional and academic writing background. 

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Smith to the SEMQ community, said Managing Editor Heather Zimar. His experience and expertise will benefit the journal as it continues to advance research on enrollment and student success.

Dr. Smith’s first issue will be Vol. 10, Issue 1, which will release in April 2022. 

I am especially hopeful that SEMQ will dive deeper to learn more about ways enrollment management can be applied to address contemporary higher education issues, Dr. Smith said. We need to critique lessons learned from COVID-19 and the approaches we have taken to achieve equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campuses. And we need to expand our understanding of the ways SEM is being developed beyond North America.