Karen Thurmond’s responsibilities include advocacy for academic advising initiatives and for academic advisors serving in a faculty, peer, or professional role. She also coordinates the day-to-day operations of the general education program (core curriculum), degree audit system (DegreeWorks), and an 24/7 system for academic advising appointments (AppointmentPlus) at the University of Memphis, and is a staff member of the Center for Academic Transition, where transfer students are advised in their first semester. Ms. Thurmond has written for the NACADA monograph on advising transfer students (on four year to four year transfer), and for the NACADA New Advisor Guidebook (on the environment of higher education). She chaired the NACADA Webinar Advisory Board, served on the Administrator’s Institute Advisory Board, and served as a member of NACADA’s Emerging Leaders Development team, and served as NACADA Region 3 (TN, KY, WV, NC, SC) Chair. Ms. Thurmond most recently completed work with a team to automate the graduation process at The University of Memphis. Ms. Thurmond manages the six-year graduation project at the University of Memphis, where intrusive advising initiatives increased a cohort’s six-year graduation rate by 8%.
Debra has piloted a staff iPad project in an effort to provide library staff a Mac experience in an enterprise environment. She presented on staff iPad use at ALA Annual in Anaheim in June 2012. Her work on this project has inspired her to research other computer form factors for staff use. Prior to Duke, she was the Web Development Coordinator for the UNC-Chapel Hill University Libraries. She has a B.A. In English from Arizona State University and an M.S.L.S. from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her professional interests include interface design and usability.
Amy plans, implements, and assesses faculty development programs for the improvement of teaching and learning and manages personnel and other resources for the Center for Instructional Technology. Since fall 2010, she and her colleagues have offered an iPad loaner program for Duke faculty, providing classroom sets of iPads for exploration and innovation in teaching and learning. Through these programs, many faculty and hundreds of students from across the university have been able to experiment with iPads and explore the impact of tablet-based computing in their classes. Amy’s other interests are in course and program design, curriculum mapping and assessment, engaging teaching strategies for student learning, and e-textbooks and open learning materials.
As director of institutional research and registrar until May 2015, Loralyn focused on increasing the institutional effectiveness of Paul Smith’s College. She helped design and implement the college’s highly successful Comprehensive Student Support Program winner of the 2013 Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award and the Starfish 360 Award as well as an inaugural winner of the University Business Models of Excellence Award. Demonstrating improved student success through increases in percentage of students in good academic standing, increased graduation rates and generating over $6 million in increased student revenue due to improved retention in just 5 years, the PSC program includes both proactive and reactive early alert strategies, the targeted use of data analytics and is assessed by multiple key performance indicators. Loralyn’s interests include using data, innovative technologies and change management to bridge the gap between research on best practices in student success and actual, boots-on-the-ground initiatives.
Dr. Simons has worked in higher education since the early nineties in a wide range of academic affairs divisions including academic advising, learning support, TRiO, developmental education, and interdisciplinary studies. Besides overseeing the many departments in the University College at ASU, she leads the campus Academic Retention Consortium which reviews and reports on student success patterns through institutional data exploration. Her passion is early retention initiatives such as the first year experience and early warning programs. Jill’s dissertation focus was early alert program models.
Dr. Fletcher has worked in higher education in institutional research at The University of Memphis and in the Registrar’s Office and Information and Technology Services at Arkansas State University. She has managed websites for many Academic Affairs offices and created homegrown software applications, such as the Early Alert program, a program assessment software, a graduation tracker for students, and an online course evaluation software. She is focused on simplifying antiquated processes with technology and in communicating information to students in plain English in an effort to remove some of the institutional barriers to student success. Darla’s dissertation focus was early alert program models at the community college level.
Mr. Green received his MLS from Indiana University Bloomington, and has both an MS in Information Systems and Certification in Web Design from DePaul University. He has held library administrative positions at various institutions over the past 20 years, including Temple University Japan, Loyola University Chicago, and Roosevelt University. Green has authored and led numerous grant projects, the most recent of which is the Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) Project. The goal of the project is to develop more user-centered libraries by better understanding how students do research, and how relationships between students, teaching faculty, and librarians shape that process.
Mr. Moore has worked almost exclusively with libraries for 25 years, is an accomplished speaker and lecturer on library design and sustainability and is responsible for the design of many award-winning libraries throughout the Southeast. He has also authored numerous building programs, feasibility studies, and master plans for academic, public and private institutions with an emphasis for identifying strategies to increase efficiency, functionality, and capacity. Such clients include Clemson University, Lander University, Clayton State University, The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, and numerous public library systems. Moore has presented at Public Library Association conferences in Seattle, Boston, and Portland; he has been a featured speaker at the regional and national SCUP Conference in Atlanta and Chicago and has spoken at numerous South East regional conferences including SCLA, SELA, FOSCL, CSLA, NCLA, TLA, FLA, and COMO conferences.
At her prior institution, University of Southern Mississippi, Ms. Wall became part of the building committee that oversaw a 100,000 square foot addition and complete renovation of the Joseph Anderson Cook Library. Completed in 1997, the state of the art facility featured carefully designed space in keeping with the transformative nature of libraries. At Clemson, Kay and David worked together to create a “road map” for the library that allowed a renovation of the library to align with institutional initiatives. Their phased-in, realistic approach increased the efficacy of the space without adding square footage, and did it with a reasonable price tag. The renovation includes high density storage, a learning commons, and numerous collection changes indicative of transformation to a twenty-first century library. Kay will discuss their approach to renovation, how they were able to get faculty and administrative buy-in, and how they approached the fundraising process.
Dr. Rubin is professor emeritus of communication studies, language and literacy education, and linguistics at the University of Georgia. He is also academic director of the institution’s study abroad program in Northern Territory, Australia. He serves as research director for the Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying Abroad Research Initiative (GLOSSARI). GLOSSARI, which has been funded by the Georgia Board of Regents and by the U.S. Education Department, is regarded as one of the most ambitious efforts to assess the impact of education abroad. Rubin has taught intercultural communication and English for Academic Purposes for three decades. He is a Fulbright Specialist and former editor of the journal Communication Education.
