Dr. Mark Allen Poisel currently serves as Vice President for Student Affairs at Georgia Regents University, focusing on student success. He previously served as the Associate Provost for Student Success at Pace University, enhancing academic support and retention for all students including transfer, first-generation, international, honors, and veterans. Prior to his role at Pace, he was the Associate Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Services at the University of Central Florida establishing a transfer services center, a student success center, a sophomore and second year center, and a veterans’ academic resource center. His focus on student success at UCF also included building new facilities, improving classroom and class scheduling, implementing policy and a variety of other initiatives in student development and enrollment services. Dr. Poisel has also worked for the Florida Legislature, Florida Division of Community Colleges, and Indiana State University.
In her twelve-year career in higher education, Kim has overseen grants administration, student accounts/cashiering, and regulatory compliance of financial aid programs. Since 2009, Kim has overseen the college’s financial literacy program which won the 2013 NACUBO Innovation Award.
Mike founded the Austen Group in 1998 in response to the need for more effective institutional research at small and medium-sized private colleges. Since then, the Austen Group has helped dozens of institutions analyze the effectiveness of their curricular and co-curricular offerings through its Curriculum and Costs Analysis tool and the Austen Sports Index; and helped hundreds of colleges and universities with financial and key indicator benchmarking through its work with the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and the Association of Business Administrators of Christian Colleges (ABACC). Mike is a frequent presenter at the CIC President and Chief Academic Officer Institutes. Numbers matter, and the quantitative side of program review is essential, but Mike’s background in the humanities and the faculty informs his approach to this topic. The Austen Group’s experience finds that without mutual respect and trust, effective communication, and transparency and fairness, even the most careful analysis cannot effect the necessary change. Mike enjoys partnering with senior administration and faculty to help institutions become stronger and more effective through institutional research.
In Jennifer’s current role she provides strategy and direction for the ways in which Lehigh engages with its 80,000 alumni around the globe. She came to Lehigh in early 2016. To her delight, many of the staff members on her team and in the Advancement division have used survey information to better inform their decisions and communicate with alumni; the trick is to systematize the processes and start sharing the information more regularly with the Lehigh University Alumni Association and other volunteers. Previously, Jennifer worked at Cornell University for nine years as the Senior Director of Metrics and Marketing. Prior to arriving at Cornell, she ran a copywriting and resume writing business in Seattle, and spent seven years in Portland, OR and New York City working at advertising agencies on accounts including Microsoft, MasterCard, AT&T Wireless, Popeye’s and Loews Hotels.
Jillian Kinzie conducts research and leads project activities on effective use of student engagement data to improve educational quality and serves as senior scholar on the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) project, an initiative to study assessment in higher education and assist institutions and others in adopting promising practices in the assessment of college student learning outcomes. She served on the faculty of Indiana University and coordinated the University’s master’s program in higher education and student affairs, and worked as a researcher and administrator in academic and student affairs at Miami University and Case Western Reserve University. Jillian is co-author of Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter (Jossey-Bass, 2005/2010); and One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional and Innovative Models of Student Affairs Practice (Routledge, 2008/2014).
As an emerging leader who is passionate about empowering Gen Y with tools to ramp up their professional careers, Emili Sperling speaks nationally about the power of Millennials in the workforce. Her career in higher education began in enrollment management at Indiana University which is also her alma mater. She was recruited by the Indiana University Alumni Association to lead a new initiative in recent graduate enrichment and young alumni programming where she now serves as an Alumni Programs Officer. Emili finds a balance between student affairs and alumni relations, collaborating with student affairs practitioners, alumni relations and development officers to engage young Indiana University alumni and transition them from their student experience.
Christopher P. Long is Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Education and Professor of Philosophy and Classics in the College of the Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of a the enhanced digital book, Socratic and Platonic Politics: Practicing a Politics of Reading (Cambridge 2014), in addition to two other books, Aristotle on the Nature of Truth, (Cambridge, 2011) and The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy, (SUNY, 2004). Over the past ten years, he has been a leader in using social media technologies to cultivate communities of learning and research in philosophy and the digital humanities. To learn more about his scholarly work, teaching and administrative life, including his podcast, the Digital Dialogue, visit his blog: http://www.cplong.org.
Chris serves as provost for academic affairs at Salt Lake Community College, a large urban community college serving over 60,000 students annually at five full service campus locations. He supervises over 300 full-time and 1500 part-time faculty and manages a budget of over $120 million. He has served as an invited member of Utah Governor Herbert’s Trade Commission, accompanying him to Canada to explore energy policy as well as electronics manufacturing and trade. He serves also on the executive committee of the Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders (WACCAL) as well as the governing board of the Utah Experimental Program to Stimulated Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant. He led efforts to create the Gen Ed Step Ahead, a cohort based program aimed at improving student degree completion as well as efforts to pilot MOOCs within the community college.
Stevie supervises a staff of over 50 in a comprehensive NCAA Division III athletics program, supporting 600 student-athletes in 23 sports. In her current role, Baker-Watson manages student health care on campus through DePauw Health, a collaborative relationship between DePauw University and Hendricks Regional Health. Baker-Watson played a significant role in the development of the Athletics and Recreation Facilities Master Plan and in 2014, DePauw completed Phase I of the Plan, totaling close to $30 million in improvements to the Lilly Center and the Athletics Campus, which included the revitalization of Blackstock Stadium and the addition of the Welch Fitness Center and Reavis Stadium. She also spearheaded a rebranding initiative of the athletics department, energized the department with both her hiring practices and comprehensive staff development programs, and successfully launched the Tiger Club, a fundraising affinity group for athletics. Prior to DePauw University, Stevie served as the Assistant Athletics Director/SWA at North Central College, Head Athletic Trainer/SWA/Instructor of Physical Education at Aurora University, and Head Women’s Athletic Trainer at St. Xavier University. Stevie is currently a member of the NCAA Division III Management Council, Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects Committee, and Subcommittee for Legislative Relief, in addition to serving as […]
Dale has been the campus planner at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for twenty-six years. He has managed projects affecting virtually every building and department on campus. Dale provides leadership in space planning and management, capital budget development, and major building project development and management. He leads a team of academic, engineering and facilities management professionals in the design and construction of the Falcon Center for Health, Education and Wellness at UW-River Falls. Dale is a graduate and a faculty member of the Society for College and University Planning’s Planning Institute. He is also a trained facilitator using the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ Technology of Participation facilitation methods.
