Jennifer oversees the Office of the First-Year Experience, which provides support and resources for new students to make a successful intellectual and social transition to the institution by delivering programs that encourage student engagement and success. During her career in higher education, Jennifer has served in support roles for transitioning students at a private women’s college, a community college, large research universities, and a faith-based private institution. Through positions in the first-year seminar, first-year experience, new student orientation, student leadership development, and residence life, she has developed a thorough understanding of the needs and challenges that face students in transition. Formerly the associate director for University 101 Programs at the University of South Carolina, Jennifer is a regularly invited presenter for institutes and conferences sponsored by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Her recent publications include a chapter in Jossey-Bass’s 2012 publication, Peer leadership in Higher Education and her book, Providing Academic Support Through Peer Education.
Mike McCready has more than 11 years of experience as a web professional and has spent the past four years focusing on web strategy and digital marketing, including social media. He has been blogging about social media and marketing for four years at www.mikemccready.ca. Mike is the web and social media strategist at Lethbridge College, where he engages and trains the campus community on effective social media use and strategy, while also providing strategic direction on technology and trends related to marketing and communications. Additionally, Mike provides social media consulting, training, and presentations to businesses, individuals, and nonprofit agencies.
Andrea has more than 10 years of event planning and fundraising experience. She leads a team of three who are responsible for Marquette’s alumni reunion giving program; affinity giving; parent programming and fundraising; Marquette’s faculty and staff giving campaign; and student philanthropy programming. She meets with approximately 120 donors and volunteers throughout the year and manages an annual portfolio of 100 constituents. Andrea worked for the LPGA and Leukemia Research Foundation prior to joining Marquette University in 2006. Andrea earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Minnesota and an MBA from Marquette.
Taylor oversees direct marketing of annual giving opportunities and digital strategy, as well as phonathon, reunion, young alumni, and student giving programs. Taylor also collaborates closely with colleagues in alumni and parent engagement to ensure strategic fundraising opportunities are infused within programming. In her previous role, Taylor oversaw the alumni engagement team and developed programming in conjunction with campus partners to engage, steward, and cultivate donors to advance university priorities. For Taylor, the experience she gained leading the alumni engagement team has provided the opportunity to strengthen collaboration across University Advancement to build the base of alumni, parent, and student donors. Taylor began working at Marquette in 2009 and has presented on a number of programs through Academic Impressions and CASE offerings. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.
Molly has worked in higher-ed development for more than fourteen years and joined Colorado College in 2013. Prior to this, Molly was executive director of annual giving at the College of William & Mary from 2008-2012 and worked in annual giving at the University of Michigan from 2000-2008. During her time at William & Mary, Molly expanded the role of the annual giving office to provide strategy, analysis, and phone/mail solicitation services for units across campus in addition to raising unrestricted funds for the college. During Molly’s tenure, the number of alumni donors increased for four consecutive years, with phone solicitation playing a key role in the success achieved.
Kim is Vice President of Annual Giving with the Georgia Tech Alumni Association in Atlanta, GA. She oversees Roll Call, Georgia Tech’s annual fund, which just concluded its landmark 75th year, as well as data analytics, gift processing, and stewardship. Prior to her time at Georgia Tech, Kim worked in Development and Alumni Relations at Emory University, as Executive Director of Annual Giving (2010-2019), Senior Director of Annual Giving (2004-2006), and Associate Director of Development and Alumni Relations for Emory’s School of Nursing (2004-2006). Before working in higher-education fundraising, Kim was the Membership Operations Supervisor at the High Museum of Art at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, where she was responsible for membership acquisition, renewal, and upgrade campaigns. She also managed special projects targeting current members for additional support during the Museum’s capital campaign. She began her work in fundraising as Managing Director of Actor’s Express Theatre Company in Atlanta after working as a Stage Manager and Production Manager. Kim received her BA in English and Theater Arts from Furman University and her MBA from Emory University. Kim previously served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Annual Giving Directors Consortium and has been a presenter with AASP, Academic Impressions, CASE, […]
In addition to teaching and writing, Carolyn directs and teaches in the Preparing Future Faculty program in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. She has been selected as one of the 2012 inductees into the Central States Communication Association’s Hall of Fame. She is author of Empathy in the Global World: An Intercultural Perspective (2010); coauthor of Intercultural Communication: A Text/Reader (2007) and Intercultural Communication: Roots and Routes (1999); and co-editor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Sermonic Power of Public Discourse (1993). Carolyn’s awards include a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship to Nigeria in West Africa, a Carnegie scholarship, and the Distinguished Alumni award from Grambling State University. In 1999, she was the recipient of the National Communication Association’s Robert J. Kibler Award for “dedication to excellence, concern for others, a vision of what can be, and acceptance of diversity.” She has given hundreds of speeches and talks across the globe.
Dr. Evans is currently researching how campuses across the country provide academic and linguistic support programs for international students. He has a book under contract with Routledge publishers which addresses how institutions can better understand and respond to the challenges ESL readers and writers face in higher education and is the co-author of International Students: Strengthening a Critical Resource (American Council on Higher Education). Dr. Evans is the faculty coordinator for the MA TESOL program and director of the English Language Center at Brigham Young University. In his previous professorship at BYU-Hawaii, he chaired a committee on helping students be successful after graduating and returning to their home countries, and he was named University Teacher of the Year in 1999 and 2003. He has spent much of his career working with international students in a variety of capacities as an English language teacher, writing center coordinator, ESL program administrator, and TESOL teacher trainer. Dr. Evans presents on these topics regularly at national and international conferences, roundtables, and speaker engagements.
Stew Markel coordinates the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program at the University of Notre Dame Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. He is responsible for the EAP workshop and consultation programs, oversees language testing, and teaches coursework intended for international graduate students looking to refine their academic English language skills. Before coming to Notre Dame, Stew taught English language coursework at universities and community colleges in the US, China, and Korea. Most recently, he served as associate director of Cornell University’s International Teaching Assistantship Program where he also taught ESL. Stew is a member of TESOL and has presented at the national TESOL conference in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Ethel coordinates academic orientations for the Daniels College of Business and University College in addition to teaching academic English classes to undergraduate and graduate students who have just begun their academic studies. She has 25 years of teaching experience, including as a private language trainer and as curriculum coordinator at a South Korean language institute. She also spent 10 years managing a business English program for professionals from all over the world and has had the opportunity to teach business communication, train teachers, and lead cultural learning projects in places like Algeria, Burkina Faso, Curacao, Indonesia, Jordan, Senegal, Togo, and Turkey. With a background in writing and sociology, Ethel approaches teaching and the rest of life from an ethnographic point of view. She enjoys learning about the geographic and ethnic cultures represented in her classes, as well as the academic, political, and corporate cultures where her students work. By learning about these cultures, Ethel helps students focus on and apply effective communication strategies to succeed in their degree programs and the workplace.
