Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Andrew Griffin received his officer’s commission from The Citadel in 1978. He served in US Army Intelligence, retiring in 2000 after 22 years of military service. From 2000-2010 LTC (Ret) Griffin served with the Department of Military Science at Northern Arizona University (NAU) where he provided campus liaison, student services, and leadership instruction. Since March 2010 Andrew has been serving as the director of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs (OMVA). In this position, he serves as the senior advocate for military and veteran students and their families, providing service and support towards educational transition, retention, graduation, and post-graduation career services. Under his leadership, NAU was ranked by the Military Times as the 2013-2015 top university within the American Southwest for its service and support to the military and veteran student in higher education. In addition to his duties leading OMVA, Andrew has held the positions of director of emergency management and director of scholarships and financial aid, and more recently has been appointed as a commissioner for the Arizona Governor’s Veterans’ Advisory Commission serving the 550,000 military veterans residing in Arizona
For over thirty years, Donna Younger has served as a practitioner, consultant, and researcher in the field of adult learning and development, with particular emphasis on assessment. As a consultant for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), Donna has worked to train practitioners in prior learning assessment and has consulted with two- and four-year institutions in designing policies and systems to support PLA. Most recently, she served as the PLA coach for Arkansas institutions participating in the Complete College America grant. Her work as a PLA practitioner began as a faculty member at DePaul University’s School for New Learning soon after completing an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on adult development at the University of Memphis. Donna’s research in assessment has focused primarily on the development of assessment abilities in faculty and in identifying qualities and principles of effective and ethical assessment in the field adult learning.
As an associate general counsel, Jack’s primary areas of responsibility include intellectual property, academic freedom and speech, privacy, security, computing and cyberlaw, media rights, student rights, affiliation agreements, and disability law. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Jack was an academic administrator and instructor at Macalester College, Saga Daigaku (Japan), and the University of Michigan. He teaches at the University of Michigan’s Schools of Law, Education, and Information, as well as at the Ford School of Public Policy. He is currently chair of the University of Michigan Council for Disability Concerns. In 2009, Jack received the American Library Association’s (ALA) L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award, as well as the First Decade Award from the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). He has also been a Spence Fellow and a researcher at the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement. He received his J. D. from the University of Michigan Law School and Master’s in Higher Education from the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.
David is responsible for all legal issues affecting the UNC School of the Arts, a unique degree-granting public university of arts conservatories that trains young people of talent in dance, design and production, drama, filmmaking, and music. Prior to becoming General Counsel at UNCSA, David was Associate Vice President for Legal affairs at the seventeen-campus University of North Carolina, with a focus on intellectual property, research, online education, media, nonprofits, and the entrepreneurial campus. Harrison is also Adjunct Professor of Law at UNC Chapel Hill School of Law, teaching Copyright and the Music Industry. David is a former law clerk to Justice James H. Brickley in the Michigan Supreme Court, and partner of a Grand Rapids, Michigan, law firm. He is licensed to practice law in both state and federal trial and appellate courts in Michigan and North Carolina, and as a member of the Tribal Bars of the Saginaw-Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Tribe. David also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). He is also a recipient of the First Decade Award from the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).
Julia is the Director of Annual Giving Strategy at Tufts University, where she works with colleagues from across the Advancement Division to develop innovative strategies that enable the annual fund teams to be both more efficient and creative with their resources. Specifically, she provides strategic and tactical support to the school-based annual fund directors and their staff, analyzes the results of each fund’s direct marketing efforts, researches and disseminates best practices, manages presidential annual fund solicitations, and provides management oversight for the centralized Tufts Telefund program. Julia has also served as the director of prospect management and annual giving strategy for Tufts, where she managed a team developing internal strategies for moving donors through the entire development pipeline from annual fund to the completion of a major gift. Prior to that, she spent seven years in the annual fund at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the last five years as annual fund director. There, she had a track record of double digit annual growth and securing five-figure annual fund leadership gifts. She has an integrated understanding of major gift fundraising as it relates to annual fund support and recognizes the importance of working with donors, volunteers, and colleagues […]
Rachel Laquidara is currently the senior associate director of communication and donor retention for the Tufts Fund at Tufts University. She has 13+ years of experience in annual giving within higher education with a special focus in multichannel marketing and fundraising in annual giving. Blending all forms of content (direct mail, email, web, video) to truly impact and enhance the donor experience. She understands the importance of analysis and data, segmenting and measuring for the best return on investment of both time and money of all annual giving tactics. Prior to Tufts University, Rachel was the director of annual giving at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and held multiple positions within the office of annual giving at Boston University. Rachel holds a master’s degree in higher education administration, planning and policy from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in communications and business from Stonehill College.
Angela began her career in international education in 2002 and began working for Drexel in 2010. As the assistant dean for the international students and scholar services (ISSS) office, Angela is responsible for overseeing ISSS programs and services including immigration, cultural, and academic services for approximately 4500 international students, scholars, staff, and faculty. She is also responsible for advising and serving as the signatory for H-1B and permanent residency applications for scholars, professional staff, and faculty. Angela is currently an active member and presenter for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Philadelphia Area International Educators’ Network, and NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international politics and received her master’s degree in leadership development from Penn State University. Angela anticipates completing her doctorate in educational leadership from Drexel in 2015.
Gary Pavlechko’s primary responsibility is to oversee the daily operation of the Office of Educational Excellence that supports on-campus teaching through faculty development, like the Interactive learning space initiative for active learning teaching. Pavlechko has presented and written about this faculty development model at the National Forum on Active Learning Classrooms, at the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference, and in the soon-to-be-published Learning in Higher Education Anthology, Learning Spaces in Higher Education.
In her role as assistant director, Jacobi coordinates the development and delivery of faculty development programs for on-campus instructors as well as offers teaching consultation services to individual faculty and groups. Jacobi has presented conference sessions regarding various elements of faculty development for several professional organizations including Higher Education Teaching and Learning (HETL), Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, and the Lilly Conferences on College and University Teaching and Learning. She is co-author of the chapter, “Faculty Development: Precursor to Effective Student Engagement in the Higher Education Learning Space,” to be published in Learning Spaces in Higher Education.
Dr. Gregory Eells holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology and is a licensed psychologist in the State of New York. He has worked in higher education mental health for twenty years and has served as a director of a university counseling service for the past sixteen years. Dr. Eells regularly publishes articles in scholarly journals and presents frequently. His areas of interest include leadership, staff morale, mental health delivery systems, student self-injury, and providing care to challenging students. Dr. Eells is a member of various professional organizations, is the chair-elect of the mental health section of the American College Health Association (ACHA) and a past president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD). He received a Presidential Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from AUCCCD and has been a strong advocate for college mental health issues, appearing on CNN, ABC News, and National Public Radio.
