Karen oversees a team of 15 analysts that conduct research and assign credit rating to more than 750 colleges, universities, and other not-for-profit organizations in the United States. She is a member of the rating committee for the higher education and not-for-profit, healthcare, and state rating teams and has direct analytical responsibility for a diverse portfolio of institutions, including Ivy League universities, large public university systems, complex academic medical centers, and nationally prominent, not-for-profit organizations. Karen has authored publications on topics including governance and management of US universities, rating migration trends in the higher education sector, and privatized student housing and debt capacity. Karen received her B.A. in political science from Brown University and an M.P.A. from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Moody’s, she worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology and interned at Monsanto.
With Paul’s leadership the Student Money Management Center has received national and state awards of excellence from NASPA, AFCPE, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Paul joined UNT’s Student Affairs Division in October 2005. Since that time, he has witnessed the center grow from a staff of one to a dynamic team of four full-time professionals and seven student employees serving more than 10,000 students annually. Prior to his current position, Paul’s professional experience included program and account management positions in the private, public, and governmental sectors.
Dennis Mekelburg has extensive experience in collegiate retailing and auxiliary services, having managed institutional operated, private, and contract-managed collegiate stores with a wide variety of sales levels over his 40-year career. Dennis is currently the associate director of ASU Bookstores in Tempe, Arizona. Previously, Dennis was a co-president of Matthews Medical Books and served on the Board of Directors for College Bookstores of America. As a volunteer, Dennis has been president of the National Association of College Stores. He currently chairs the NACS Media Solutions Board of Directors and has served on the board of directors for NACSCorp and PartnerShip. Dennis also has presented numerous sessions for NACS’ regional associations in the United States and has worked as a consultant for numerous institutions.
Mike has been a faculty member and/or directed teaching centers at four universities. He has developed, implemented, and managed student ratings systems at two institutions and installed ratings systems at a score of other institutions. Mike’s scholarship includes more than 260 books, monographs, papers, presentations, and workshops on college teaching, faculty evaluation and development, student ratings, the professoriate, teaching improvement, and organizational development. He has consulted to scores of institutions in the U.S. and in Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore. His primary research is on faculty evaluation, professional development, organizational development, and student ratings of teaching. He has been chair of the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group in Faculty Teaching, Evaluation, and Development (AERA-SIGFTED); a member of the Executive Committee of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD); and president of POD.
Lauren has been the registered dietitian for Housing and Dining Services at UC Boulder for 23 years. Over time, she’s witnessed changes in the university customer base, and has developed nutritional programs to address changing needs. Increasingly, she’s talked to customers with a variety of food allergies and realized the need to provide comprehensive food allergy information. Through implementation and continuous improvement of the A9 Allergen Project, CU Boulder’s Dining Services has been able to meet the needs of the majority of those with food allergies, intolerances, and avoidances.
