Joshua Braaten attended West Virginia University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management – envisioning a career in the business sector of scholastic or collegiate sport. After graduating from WVU, Joshua began a profession in academia – but as an Academic Advisor at American Public University System where he developed a great passion for student services/coaching within higher education. He has now spent a decade working in a student services role at the collegiate level. Most recently, Joshua has been promoted to Senior Success Coach within the Success Coaching Unit at George Mason University.

Rebecca Mattern is a 2x Patriot, earning both her Bachelor’s degree in Integrative Studies and her Master’s degree in Counseling and Development from George Mason University. During her graduate program, she worked as a Graduate Assistant and Academic Coach with Learning Services and as the Graduate Career Counseling Intern with Career Services. Rebecca joined the Student Success Coaching team at George Mason in Summer 2022.

Sam Hediger is a PhD student at the George Mason Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, working to better understand conflict systems and peacebuilding’s power to address them. While attaining his master’s degree in Conflict Resolution at Portland State University, he worked for three years as a Graduate Peer Mentor, supporting both students and faculty in their renowned University Studies undergraduate program. Sam is also a Student Success Coach at George Mason University.

Flannery Wickham has been an ADVANCE student Success Coach working with matriculated students from Northern Virginia community college since the Summer of 2022. Before joining George Mason University, Flannery worked as a College Life Coach at her alma mater, Florida State University. Flannery moved to the NOVA region to attend graduate school at George Mason and just recently graduated with her Masters in Higher Education and Student Development.

Bryant Jackson, Ed.D., serves as the Chief of Police at the University of South Dakota and as an adjunct graduate faculty member in the University of South Dakota educational leadership program. He graduated from the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Command Course cohort #4 and the Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command. Before entering law enforcement, Dr. Jackson served in the US Marine Corps. He has completed an undergraduate degree in transportation and logistics management, a graduate degree in emergency and disaster management, and a Doctor of Education degree in adult and higher education leadership.

Cindi Albrightson, M. Ed. serves as the Title IX & Compliance Coordinator and Campus Safety Advisor for Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU). She previously served as an Instructor and Interim Chair of the Department of Engineering Technology, teaching Safety and Environmental Regulations courses. Cindi serves on the Custer County Local Emergency Planning Committee and the Custer County Full Scale Emergency Response Team. She has experience with OSHA, PEOSH, EPA, and ADA. Cindi completed her undergraduate degree in Industrial Technology with a specialization in Industrial Supervision and her graduate degree in Education at SWOSU. 

Dr. Chrissy Davis Jones currently serves as the vice president for Student Success and chief enrollment officer at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) in Central Pennsylvania with nearly 25 years of experience at various post-secondary institutions, and with 18 of those years focused on developing, restructuring, and implementing student success-related programs. 

Since Chrissy arrived at HACC, she has quickly made an impact by securing a 2.3-million-dollar Title 3 SIP Grant to transform the first-year experience for greater student success. She also oversaw the selection of HACC becoming one of seven colleges selected to become an Achieving the Dream institution in 2022 - focusing on whole college transformation for student success and data literacy. Lastly, Dr. Davis Jones established and co-leads the College's strategic enrollment planning committee. Her focus on the implementation of a collegewide strategic enrollment plan with student access and success at the center led to an increase in HACC's fall-to-fall and fall-to-spring retention for the first time in 10 years. 

Dr. Davis Jones is considered a systems thinker; this coupled with her research and data-informed approach, has led to Chrissy being asked to serve as a consultant to higher education institutions in need of support to facilitate change.

Angela M. Campbell, Ph.D., LPC serves as the Assistant Vice President of Assessment, Planning and Strategy. She is responsible for planning, managing strategic initiatives, process improvements and quality assurance projects that improve Student Success and Enrollment Management (OSSEM) program performance. Angela works closely with OSSEM executives and collaborates across the college to establish objectives, develop and implement short-and-long term strategies, oversees Assessment for the Division, and supports a model for institutional capacity building in data literacy. She serves as the co-chair of strategic enrollment management and collaborates with other college leaders for Institutional Effectiveness.

Angela has worked at HACC Central Pennsylvania’s Community College for 20 years serving in various roles and most recently in her current position for the past three years. As Co-Chair of SEM, she assisted in the development and implementation of a plan that lead to an increase in our F2F and F2S retention at the college for the first time in 10 years. Angela was recently nominated for the Building a Culture of Assessment Award by SAAL - Student Affairs Assessment Leaders organization.

Angela earned her Ph.D. from Western Michigan University in Psychology, Applied Behavior Systems Analysis with an emphasis in Educational Systems.

Shelly Blanchette, M.S., LPC serves as the Director of Student Success Operations and Strategy at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. She is responsible for monitoring enrollment metrics and honing leading indicators to better predict and track progression toward enrollment targets. Shelly leverages data-informed insights and collaborative partnerships for process improvements, to pilot programs, and identify strategic interventions leading to student success and sustainable enrollment health. 

Shelly earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut and M.S. in Counseling from Shippensburg University. She has worked in higher education across various institution types for over 20 years both within student services and as an adjunct faculty member. Shelly credits her experience in overseeing the launching of student services at an expansion campus with readying her for the work she currently does.

Michael Eynon joined Disability Services for Students during the summer of 2018 and has been involved at Sonoma State University (SSU) in some capacity since the fall of 2005. He is an SSU alumni, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology and Theatre Arts in 2010. Michael received his Master’s degree in December 2014 in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. While at SSU, Michael has worked as a summer mentor, student assistant, and outreach advisor for the pre-college TRIO program Academic Talent Search from 2007-2016. Michael served the TRIO Student Support Services program United for Success for the 2017-2018 academic year as a College Support Coach assisting first-generation, income eligible, and students with disabilities with time management, stress management, and other academic needs.

Michael is also a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) since June of 2018 though he does not provide therapy in his current role. Michael completed all of his practice hours working primarily with middle and high school students and their families in the Novato area of Marin County, CA. He enjoys advocating for educational access for students with disabilities and first generation and/or low-income students

Miranda Swanson joined Cornell Engineering in 2017 as Associate Dean for Student Services. Her portfolio includes Engineering Admissions, Engineering Advising, Engineering Career Center, Engineering Learning Initiatives, and the Engineering Registrar, as well as support for Diversity Programs in Engineering. She works with college leadership to prioritize Cornell Engineering’s undergraduate goals, represents the college on university initiatives, and collaborates with partners across Cornell to support student success. Prior to Cornell, Miranda spent 16 years in graduate student affairs at the University of Chicago, most recently serving five years as Dean of Students in the Physical Sciences Division. At UChicago, she also served as a Dean-on-Call, Sexual Assault Dean-on-Call, and Bias Response Team member. Miranda holds a BFA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago. From January 2018 to June 2022 she chaired Cornell's University Student Services Leaders (USSL) group.

Liane Fitzgerald joined Cornell University in 2016 as Director of Engineering Advising. She earned her B.S. in Professional and Technical Communication from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and her M.S. in Academic Advising from Kansas State University. Preceding Cornell Engineering, Liane spent five years as the Manager of Student Services, and seven years prior as a Senior Academic Advisor, both for the Computer Science Department at RIT. From July 2020 to June 2023 she chaired the Professional Academic Advising Leaders (PAAL) group at Cornell. In 2022 her PAAL colleagues nominated her for Cornell University President's Awards for Employee Excellence "Thoughtful Leader Award."

Kim Kruchen-Spaulding has worked in higher education for the past 10 years in a variety of roles, including academic affairs, student activities, assessment, and strategic resources. She holds an M.Ed. from the University of Virginia where she interned for the Council for Advancement of Standards and conducted research. Kim served as the Director of the Office of Assessment & Planning in the Division of Student Affairs at CU Boulder from 2017-2022. In April 2022, she began a new role at CU Boulder as the Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives. Her current work focuses on change management, researching effective strategies that impact students, and developing reporting practices for the division.

Shaun came to UF in 2017 to direct the new Office of Assessment and Research in its mission to champion a culture of evidence-based decision making for Student Life. Prior to this role Shaun served the University of West Florida for 12 years in a progression of experience including creating the Outdoor Adventures program, supervising Recreational Sports programming, instructing undergraduate and graduate courses, and managing assessment initiatives for Student Affairs. His leadership style and strategies for building assessment capacity draw from his bachelors in animal behavior, masters in experiential education, and doctorate in physical education and health.

Erica Eckert, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at Kent State University. Before becoming a faculty member, she served for 15 years in a variety of administrative roles managing assessment, accreditation, program review, technology and data systems, survey development and data analysis, and academic and admissions operations.  She teaches courses on technology, business and finance, and assessment and accreditation in higher education and co-authored Business Practices in Higher Education: A Guide for Today’s Administrators (2nd ed.)  Dr. Eckert’s research explores how higher education organizations navigate systems and structures, including assessment and accreditation.

Darby Roberts, Ph.D. is director of Student Affairs Planning, Assessment & Research in the Division of Student Affairs at Texas A&M University. She has been working in student affairs assessment since 1998. As a faculty member in the Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education master’s program at Texas A&M, Darby has students submit professionally written documents in her student affairs assessment class. She has been actively involved in the NASPA Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community (twice as co-chair), as well as the Student Affairs Assessment Leaders organization. In 2023, she co-authored Student Affairs Assessment: Theory to Practice (2nd ed.) and co-edited Assessing Student Leadership, a monograph in the New Directions for Student Leadership series. She also co-edited Learning is Not a Sprint: Assessing and documenting student leader learning in cocurricular involvement. In the past several years, Darby has also contributed chapters to several books on student affairs assessment and student learning. She frequently presents at conferences and consults with campuses on their assessment needs. 

Shannon Dean-Scott, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the student affairs in higher education program at Texas State University. She has taught research and assessment courses for 10 years and was a practitioner leading various assessment projects prior to her faculty role. She is involved in the NASPA Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community and co-edited the book, Using the CAS professional standards: Diverse examples of practice which was endorsed by NASPA, ACPA, and CAS. Her current research focuses on multicultural consciousness of undergraduate students, assessment practices, and teaching pedagogies.