Instructors
In addition to his responsibilities as CFO, Russ Deaton directs finance policy development and research including the funding formula, tuition policy, and financial aid. In 2006, he received his PhD from Vanderbilt where he studied the public policy adoption process in state governments. Since 2007, he has served as an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt, teaching courses in higher education finance and policy economics.
Mr. Jones has more than forty years of experience in research, development, technical assistance, and administration in the field of higher education management and policy-making. A member of the NCHEMS staff since 1969, he assumed increasing levels of responsibility within that organization, becoming president in 1986. Under his leadership, and in collaboration with an extraordinarily talented staff, NCHEMS has achieved a position of preeminence as a leader in the development and promulgation of information-based approaches to policy-making in higher education. Mr. Jones is widely recognized for his work in such areas as: Developing “public agendas” to guide state higher education policy-making. Financing, budgeting, and resource allocation methodologies for use at both state and institutional levels. He has advised the majority of states that have implemented outcomes-based funding models. Linking higher education with states’ workforce and economic development needs. Developing and using information to inform policy-making. Mr. Jones is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and served as an administrator (in business and institutional planning) there for eight years prior to his joining the NCHEMS staff. He has served as an advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education, the Lumina Foundation for Education, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher […]
Nick leads the strategy, execution, and implementation of all public facing digital communications for Wayne State University, including the websites, social media and digital signage around campus. His team is also responsible for creation and maintenance of several university-wide tools including the content management system, events calendar, RSVP system, HTML email creator, form creator and short URL system. He and his team pride themselves on research based decisions, creation of fully cross browser and accessible solutions.
Tony has held senior leadership positions within the higher education industry in the areas of facilities management, recreation, new student orientation, parent and family programs, leadership and training, marketing and communications, adult learning, and major events and programs. Over the last four years, Tony has presented at over thirty universities and national conferences on topics of innovation, digital leadership, technology, and unconventional leadership. He is the former innovation chair for ACPA’s national convention in Indianapolis and currently serves as co-chair of theACPA Digital Task Force. Tony is also co-host for Student Affairs issues on Higher Ed Live. Additionally, Tony has also had over twenty years of international corporate training in the areas of executive coaching, leadership development, risk-taking, diversity, presentation skills, generational marketing, digital leadership, conflict resolution, and team cohesiveness. Past clients include Johnson and Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Vistakon, Janssen, Navigant, Tumi International, United Way, Merrill Lynch, and Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
Tom Abrahamson is known for innovation in higher education marketing. He brings more than thirty-five years of success and leadership in the field to Lipman Hearne. At Lipman Hearne, Tom has served hundreds of organizations, including foundations and community-based agencies, global membership-based organizations, small and midsized private colleges, and large multi-campus public universities and systems. Prior to joining Lipman Hearne, he served as associate vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions at DePaul University in Chicago. Tom holds a master’s in higher education administration from Bowling Green State University, where he was named a distinguished alumnus,and he recently co-authored the book Net Proceeds: Increased Revenues from Enrollment and Advancement. Guaranteed!, published by CASE.
Luanne Lawrence, CEO and Senior Consultant, has spent 25 years working as a leader in marketing and communications. Her passion lies in market strategy development and in bringing out the best in teams as they work together to puzzle through innovative ways to reach audiences. In her post as associate chancellor for Strategic Communications at the University of California, Davis, her team developed the first-ever integrated marketing plan and creative campaign that knitted together various campuses and projected the culture of the university. In her work at Oregon State University, the viral campaign, “Powered by Orange,” took advantage of a growing social media culture and precision messaging to create an extensive engagement campaign involving alumni, faculty, staff, students and prospective students and their families. At the University of South Carolina, she worked with her team to develop a marketing communications plan that spoke to the leadership of the students and alumni. She also worked in marketing and communications for the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, Lock Haven University (Pennsylvania), the University of Baltimore and the University of Maine. Active in the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, American Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America and other national […]
Shaun B. Keister, a veteran fundraiser with experience in higher education, arts and conservation philanthropy, became UC Davis’ first vice chancellor for development and alumni relations in 2011. Keister functions as the campus’s chief fundraising officer and serves as president of the UC Davis Foundation. He led UC Davis in successfully completing its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, The Campaign for UC Davis, raising more than $1.1 billion from nearly 110,000 donors. Under his leadership, UC Davis became one of the top 2% of fundraising programs in the U.S. according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Previously, Keister served in a series of high-level development posts at Florida State, Iowa State and Penn State universities. Keister is a nationally renowned fundraising expert having been quoted in local and national media outlets including CNN Money, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, CASE Currents magazine, The Sacramento Bee, and Fox 40 News. Additionally, he has nearly twenty years as an independent fundraising consultant serving clients including the San Francisco Opera, Steppenwolf Theatre, World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy, and more than sixty public and private universities.
Keith Heffner has served in faculty leadership positions since 2008. Keith is Music faculty at Mesa Community College, teaching courses in audio production technologies. He holds a BA in electronic music synthesis, MA in humanities, and is currently pursuing a DMA in music education from Boston U.
Professor Doe teaches courses in composition, autoethnographic theory and method, research methods, and graduate student preparation for writing in the disciplines. She does research in three distinct areas: academic labor, writing across the curriculum, and student-veteran writing in the post-9/11 era. Co-author of the faculty development book Concepts and Choices: Meeting the Challenges in Higher Education, she has published articles in College English, College Composition and Communication, and Writing Program Administration as well as several book-length collections. Her forthcoming collection on student-veterans in the composition classroom, Generation Vet: Composition, Veterans, and the Post-911 University, co-authored with Professor Lisa Langstraat, is under contract with the Utah State Press. Sue’s most recent research into faculty development revolves around academic labor issues, examining through narrative inquiry the ways in which non-tenure-track faculty describe and analyze their experiences in the professional setting.
Maria Maisto teaches English Composition as an adjunct professor at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. She helped found, and now directs, New Faculty Majority, a national nonprofit whose mission is to improve the quality of higher education by transforming the working conditions of the majority of its faculty.
