Jerry Houser has been impacting higher education for thirty-five years—mostly at the University of Southern California, Caltech, Azusa Pacific, and Willamette. He has directed career services, but he also did stints in residential life, helped launch the USC volunteer center, and taught as an associate. Jerry has taught master’s courses in leadership studies in Europe, Asia, South Pacific, Caribbean, South America, and Africa. He’s also taught about thirty online courses. He earned a PhD and MA in social sciences as well as an MBA. Recently, his strategy for organizational change took a surprising turn that generated the nationally recognized Roadmap, Passport to Professionalism, and the new Compass program. He contends that we spend too much time marketing to students who ignore us and not enough time experimenting with strategies to engage faculty and administrators who can actually make students do what we want.
In 2011, Beth returned to Franklin & Marshall College (F&M), her alma mater, charged with reenvisioning the way the college prepares students for life, and not just work, after college. This challenge resulted in the creation of F&M’s Office of Student and Post-Graduate Development (OSPGD). Launched in 2012, OSPGD absorbed F&M’s Career Services office, along with its Health, Legal and Engineering Professions Advising systems, created an Alumni Advising and Development division to support alumni well beyond graduation, and adopted the broader mission of preparing students and graduates for lives of meaning and success during and well after college. Beth currently leads OSPGD, which engages students beginning in their first year with programs on financial literacy, public speaking, and networking, and continues to support them through and beyond their time at F&M with career advisement and professional development no matter their industry of choice. Prior to returning to F&M, Beth practiced law for several years with Fox Rothschild LLP, handling commercial, employment and construction litigation matters. Beth’s legal career was preceded by a career with Randstad North America, an international personnel placement firm, where she worked her way up from the role of recruiter to the position of market recruiting manager. […]
Kathleen D. Gaval is currently an affiliate faculty member in the Interdisciplinary Doctor of Education Program for Educational Leaders and formerly served as the Vice President for Planning for Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia for the past 15 years. In that role Kathy led strategic and operational planning including integrated academic, diversity, capital, technology and financial plans. Her primary research focus is Presidential Transitions, having served twice as a transition manager and consulted on various aspects of transitions for incoming presidents and their staffs. She is a co-author of the book “Presidential Transitions: It’s not Just the Position; it’s the Transition.” Kathy holds an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania. Her ongoing areas of research include leadership transition, and building leadership teams, and additional interests include Board Governance, Risk Management, data analysis for decision-making, and collaboration through cross-functional work teams.
After 13 years serving students at Thomas Edison State College, Juliette Punchello was selected to drive the creation of a new Learner Support Center (LSC) at Thomas Edison State College in 2013. This virtual interface department serves over 20,000 enrolled students who complete their studies at a distance through options such as online courses. This department currently engages with students to assist them in successfully managing the administrative functions associated with earning a college degree related to finances, academics and operational concerns. The team of 12 student affairs specialists responds to a monthly average of 10,000 phone calls and 250 email questions within established benchmarks. In 2014, Punchello was asked to move to a new role as the Director of Enrollment Operations and Strategy. At that time, the Learner Support Center’s Associate Director Gillian Wyckoff was promoted to Director. Punchello is currently responsible for leading the development, coordination and implementation of the interface strategy for prospective to enrolled students; collecting, reporting, and analyzing enrollment funnel metrics and measurement; and managing key strategic operational projects. Punchello holds a Master of Science in Educational Instruction from Drexel University, a Master of Arts in Communications from LaSalle University and a Bachelor of Science […]
Gillian Wyckoff has over 7 years of experience working at a four year public institution serving adult students through online and independent study methods. She holds an MS in Curriculum and Instruction, and recently was selected as a summer fellow of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Institute in Higher Education Management. In her role as the Director of the Learner Support Center, she manages a team of 11 people, who engage with over 112,000 student touches per year. Gillian Wyckoff has been the Director of Thomas Edison State College’s Learner Support Center since September of 2014. In this capacity, she provides leadership, accountability, and supervision in all aspects of the Center. Thomas Edison State College’s Learner Support Center is the main point of contact for the College’s applicant and enrolled students. Its primary function is to provide proactive, professional, world class service to students and their families while empowering them to use the tools available through the website and student portals. Gillian’s previous role of Associate Director was instrumental in the origination of the center. Gillian conducted and supervised training and development for the team- from within the College as well as from outside sources. Her own professional development recently included attending […]
A graduate of The Catholic University of America, John Dysart has worked in higher education for more than thirty years. He has worked full-time at institutions such as George Washington University, North Carolina Wesleyan College and Berkeley College of Business. Mr. Dysart has consulted with more than 160 colleges and universities in more than 35 states. Working collaboratively with client institutions, Mr. Dysart has been able to increase new student enrollments by as much as 70% in a single cycle, reduce or stabilize discount rates and improve academic quality. While the majority of his consultations have been related to enrollment management and enrollment growth, he has a special expertise in finance and financial aid issues. He has been able to consistently integrate enrollment management with institutional objectives regarding net revenue, budgeting and strategic planning. Considered a national expert in enrollment management, John Dysart has conducted seminars and made dozens of presentations for 18 higher education professional organizations and has written articles for several higher education publications.
Mariea is an enrollment professional who consults, writes, and speaks on this issue, as well as marketing and institutional positioning. She and her associates specialize in working with on-campus personnel to improve enrollment, retention, yield and net tuition revenue. In addition, she conducts searches for Vice Presidents for Enrollment Management. Much of her recent work has been with small colleges, working on enrollment, the use of data in strategic enrollment management and institutional effectiveness. Ms. Noblitt has conducted a number of enrollment turnaround efforts at Randolph College, Cedar Crest College, Becker College and Armstrong State University. She previously served as Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Services at Mercy College, a diverse, multi-campus college of 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students within New York City, Westchester, and online campuses. Recently, she was a contributor to Forbes on enrollment management and tuition discounting.
As the administrator for student development, Erica manages the residential life student staff selection and training processes. This includes developing and facilitating a nine-section resident adviser class, directing the staff performance management and corrective action processes within residential life, and providing oversight to all residential academic initiatives. Through her own practice as a supervisor and coaching others who supervise, Erica has learned that effective supervision is not an inherent skill that we possess simply because it is in a job description. In her work at the University of Washington, Erica trains, supports and encourages supervisors in topics such as performance management, feedback, evaluations, documentation, and coaching. Erica started her tenure at the University of Washington in 2004 as a resident director and was promoted to the residential life management team in 2006.
Dr. Anne Braseby started her professional life as a teacher in England; she then became a global nomad and international educator. She is currently a faculty development specialist at the University of Texas, Austin where she develops and presents faculty workshops, consults with department-led brown bag lunches, and facilitates eight faculty learning communities across the university campus. She has taught team-based learning with a range of students from a 120 student freshman class to a 10 student graduate class, has presented workshops on team-based learning at numerous universities around the country, and written various articles on collaborative learning and the flipped classroom.
Param joined Bucknell in January 2008 as the University’s Chief Information Officer. He is the chief strategist and visionary for comprehensive library/information technology planning and implementation, in support of the University’s mission. He provides leadership in creating an environment that energizes and extends library and technology support for the learning, teaching, scholarly, and administrative needs of students, faculty, and staff. He advises on all policy and investment decisions related to technology and library, working in close collaboration with the President, administration, faculty, students, and University departments. He leads an 85 staff member organization at Bucknell.
