|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SFARN CONFERENCE | Printer Friendly | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 25th Annual SFARN Conference The Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, MD June 12-14, 2008 Biographical Information on the 25th Annual Conference Speakers Joseph Berger is a policy and research officer at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation's research and program development arm, he worked in its communications section, overseeing the publication and promotion of the Millennium Research Series. Joseph is interested in understanding how policies designed to improve equitable access to higher education can be nurtured through research and evaluation. A resident of Montreal, Joseph has a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Concordia University, where he is currently pursuing studies toward a Master's degree in Public Policy and Public Administration. He is the co-author of the 2006-07 of the Foundation’s flagship publication, The Price of Knowledge. Lutz Berkner is a Senior Research Associate at MPR Associates, a consulting firm in Berkeley, California. For the last decade he has worked on creating the public use data files for several of the higher education surveys conducted by the U. S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, including the National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS:93, 96, 2000, and 2004) and the Beginning Postsecondary Students longitudinal studies (BPS:94, 98, 2001, and 2006), which focus on persistence and graduation rates. He is the author of many NCES analytical reports, including Access to Postsecondary Education for the 1992 High School Graduates, Trends in Undergraduate Borrowing 1989-1996, Student Financing of Undergraduate Education 1999-2000, and Descriptive Summary of 1995-96 Beginning Postsecondary Students: Six Years Later. Recently he has helped develop the college level data on the EconomicDiversity.org website. During the 1980's he was in charge of financial aid research in the New Jersey Department of Higher Education. Angela Boatman is a doctoral candidate and research assistant at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she is studying the Economics of Education. Her research focuses on the evaluation of college access policies, particularly in the area of financial aid. Other research has focused on state remediation policies and the link between state appropriations and tuition/ financial aid. Along with her advisor, Dr. Bridget Terry Long, she recently completed a multi-cohort evaluation of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program for the Gates Foundation. She previously worked as an intern for the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), researching state tuition, fees, and financial aid policies across the 50 states. Angela holds an M.P.P in Public Policy and M.A. in Higher Education, both from the University of Michigan. Carol Bray is a senior economist in Applied Research and Methods at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). While at GAO she has worked on a wide range of issues including agriculture, energy, telecommunications and social programs such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), with emphasis on analysis of commodity, income, and economic development issues. Ms. Bray holds a masters degree from Johns Hopkins University in international relations and a masters and Ph.D. from Stanford University in applied economics. Susan Choy is vice president of MPR Associates, Inc., a Berkeley research and consulting firm specializing in education. She has been conducting research on issues related to postsecondary access and persistence and student financial aid for more than 20 years, primarily for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). She is the author of numerous reports published by NCES on these topics and has been involved in the design and analysis of the various cross-sectional and longitudinal postsecondary sample surveys conducted by NCES. Dr. Choy has a Ph.D. in public administration from New York University. Melissa Clinedinst currently serves as the Assistant Director of Research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). In this position, she monitors research and issues related to college admission and counseling, conducts NACAC’s annual Admission and Counseling Trends Surveys, and prepares its annual State of College Admission report. Prior to coming to NACAC, she was a Senior Research Analyst at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). During her tenure at IHEP, she prepared several reports on issues related to federal and state financial aid and access for low-income, minority, and first-generation students. She received a BS in Biology and Psychology from William and Mary in Virginia and completed two years of graduate work in Developmental Psychology at Temple University in Philadelphia. She is originally from Staunton, Virginia. Alisa Federico Cunningham is vice president of research and programs at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). She oversees all of the organization’s research studies, project evaluations, and programmatic work. In addition, Cunningham conducts specific research and manages several projects related to disadvantaged populations around the world. Since joining IHEP in 1997, Cunningham’s work has addressed a broad array of topics, including higher education financing, student financial aid, minority-serving institutions, student persistence and attainment, international higher education policy, and opportunities for student access and success. Her experience in policy research and analysis includes both domestic and international fields, and during her tenure at the organization, she has been involved in several cutting-edge national studies. In addition to articles published in various journals and magazines, Ms. Cunningham is the author or co-author of several of the Institute’s recent publications, including From Aspirations to Action: The Role of Middle School Parents in Making the Dream of College a Reality, and Higher Education in Michigan: Overcoming Challenges to Expand Access. Dr. Jennifer Engle is the Interim Director and Senior Research Analyst at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, the research arm of the Council for Opportunity in Education. The Pell Institute conducts and disseminates research and policy analysis in order to raise awareness, facilitate dialogue, and prompt action on important issues affecting postsecondary access and success for low-income, first-generation, and disabled college students. In her recent work for the Pell Institute, Dr. Engle was the lead researcher and author on Demography is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large, Public Universities, a large scale study of the policies and practices that improve retention and graduation rates for low-income students, as well as Straight From the Source: What Works for First-Generation College Students, a qualitative study of the transition from high school to college for this population. She is currently leading a study of community colleges that successfully transfer low-income populations in Texas. Dr. Engle is also the editor of the Pell Institute’s new peer-reviewed research journal, Opportunity Matters: A Journal of Research Informing Educational Opportunity Practice and Programs. Wendy Erisman, Ph.D., is director of research and evaluation for the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). She is the principal author of several IHEP research studies, including Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants; Expanding Access and Opportunity: The Impact of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program; and Learning to Reduce Recidivism: A 50-State Study of Postsecondary Correctional Education Policy. She also manages several major evaluation projects for IHEP-including a multi-year nationwide evaluation of the College Goal Sunday financial aid access program. Prior to working at IHEP, Erisman was a faculty member at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. She received her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focused on organizational cultures. Rachél Fester is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is an Institute for Education Sciences Fellow in the IES Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Research in Education. Her current research interests include the impact of federal, state, and institutional financial aid policies and practices on educational attainment, P-20 transitions and achievement for underrepresented groups, and the role of colleges and universities in training and developing the healthcare and STEM workforce. Ms. Fester currently works with Dr. Laura Perna as a research assistant on the Lumina Foundation-funded project “Understanding the Ways that Pre-College Outreach and State Grant Programs Shape College Opportunity for the Parents of Participating Students.” Fester holds an M.S.Ed. from the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College of the City University of New York, an M.A. from The University of Chicago, and a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University. Christian Geckeler is a Research Analyst in the Young Adults and Postsecondary Education Policy Area for MDRC. Christian is the project manager and lead author for the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund emergency financial aid evaluation. He also works in an operational capacity for the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration, and as a qualitative researcher for the Student Support Partnerships Integrating Resources and Education and on Achieving the Dream. Christian graduated from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley with a Master’s in Public Policy. His thesis was an Assessment of the Youth Council Component of the Workforce Investment Act within California that was conducted for the California Workforce Investment Board. He also holds an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of California at Davis and a B.A. in Philosophy from The College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. Brenda S. Haas, Ed.D., is the executive director of the Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education (college access). Dr. Haas comes to the OACHE with more than 30 years of experience as a K-12 educator in Appalachian Ohio. A lifelong resident of the region, she holds a doctorate and master’s in education as well as a bachelor of science degree, all from Ohio University. Dr. Haas was named the 2007 Samuel I. Hicks Executive in Residence, an award co-sponsored by the Ohio University College of Education, the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools and the Samuel I. Hicks Executive-in-Residence Endowment Fund. Her dissertation, A comparative case study of administrator stability in two rural Appalachian school districts, received the 2004 SIG rural dissertation of the year award from the American Education Research Association. Donald E. Heller is Professor of Education and Senior Scientist, and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. He teaches and conducts research on higher education economics, public policy, and finance, with a primary focus on issues of college access and choice for low-income and minority students. He has consulted on higher education policy issues with university systems and policymaking organizations in California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington, Washington, DC, and West Virginia, and he has testified in front of Congressional committees, state legislatures, and in federal court cases as an expert witness. Dr. Heller earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and holds an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Tufts University. Before his academic career, he spent a decade as an information technology manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In July 2007 he was named Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State. Gigi Jones, Senior Research and Policy Analyst at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), is responsible for conducting research to support the independent colleges and universities’ public policy priorities related to issues of financial aid, college costs, budget, and taxation. She also serves as staff liaison to the State National Information Network, a committee of state leaders representing their independent institutions. Prior to joining NAICU in early 2008, Gigi was a research associate for the Center for Policy Analysis, at the American Council on Education (ACE). She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine, and a master's degree and doctorate in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. Miriam Kramer is a policy analyst at the Educational Policy Institute in Toronto, Canada, where she serves as project manager and lead qualitative researcher. Since joining EPI in the summer of 2006, she has gained expert knowledge of student aid disbursement patterns in Canada though her work managing the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid (MESA) project. She has also gained fluency in the areas of Aboriginal education, apprenticeships and training, and institutional aid. Prior to joining EPI, Ms. Kramer was the government policy analyst for the New York Public Interest Research Group, where she produced Shifting the Burden (2002) and Overburdened (2004), which look at affordability issues in post-secondary education. At NYPIRG, she was also responsible for budget analysis of the New York state budget, and published Ten Years in the Making: the Pataki Administration Record in Higher Education (2005). Ms. Kramer earned a Masters in Gender Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in English Literature from Queens College. John B. Lee is president of JBL Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in postsecondary education policy research and located in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Lee has published dozens of reports on different aspects of postsecondary education policy and finance. The report topics have included financial aid, affordability of college and student access and persistence, for clients including the National Center for Education Statistics and the Office of Student Financial Aid in the U.S. Department of Education, the National Education Association, and the Lumina Foundation. Currently Dr. Lee is involved in two national projects to improve student graduation rates. Before founding JBL Associates in 1985, he worked for the Education and Labor Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Education Commission of the States, and Stanford Research International. He earned a BA and MA from California State University at Sacramento, and received an Ed.D. in Postsecondary Education from the University of California, Berkeley. Marsha Lewis is a Senior Research Associate at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. She currently manages applied research projects related public sector strategy development and K-12 education research. She also serves as data analyst for research and evaluation projects. Marsha has been with the Center for sixteen years and spent five of those years directing and leading the curriculum development for the Ohio University Executive Leadership Institute (OUELI), an executive education program for public managers. Lewis has a master’s degree in public administration from Ohio University and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in educational research and evaluation with concentrations in statistical analysis and psychometrics. Before joining the Voinovich Center, Marsha taught high school social studies at Licking County Joint Vocational School in Newark, Ohio. Leesha Lin is acting Director of Operational Policy and Research at the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP), Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC). The Canada Student Loans Program is responsible for the need-based student aid programs of the Canadian federal government. Leesha has been with the CSLP for more than six years and has been managing the research projects in the areas of student aid related to post-secondary education. She has a M.A. in Economics specialised in quantitative studies from University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. She is also a Certified Management Accountant. Adam Lips is a third-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently working toward completion of his dissertation, which investigates the policy adoption process at institutions that have implemented financial aid initiatives that eliminate loans for lower-income students. Prior to beginning his doctoral work, Adam worked as the Senior Assistant Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Emory University. His research interests include institutional admissions and student financial aid policy and access to college for lower-income students. Laura Massell is a research analyst at the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC), a public, non profit corporation which provides Vermonters with information and financing for postsecondary education and training. She is also a doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Vermont. Her research interests include issues related to postsecondary education access and affordability for low income and first generation students. Christopher Mazzeo is CCSR's new Associate Director for Policy and Outreach. Prior to joining the staff, Chris was an independent education policy consultant whose clients included MDRC, the Joyce Foundation, the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution, for whom he is currently writing a paper focused on improving college preparation and attainment outcomes among youth in major metropolitan areas in the United States. From 2001-2004, Chris served a senior policy analyst in the Education Division of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, where he worked on both secondary and postsecondary policy issues and co-directed the division’s work on school improvement and accountability. Chris earned his AB from Columbia University in History and his Ph.D. in Social Sciences, Policy and Educational Practice from Stanford University in 2001. Jonathan McMurray is a senior analyst in the Education, Workforce and Income Security area at GAO. His work at GAO has covered a range of topics including energy and environment, education, and retirement issues. Prior to joining GAO, Mr. McMurray was a senior researcher for President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Holocaust Assets and taught American and world history at several postsecondary institutions in California. Mr. McMurray holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in history from Claremont Graduate School and an M.A. in German from the University of Kentucky. Thomas G. Mortenson is Senior Scholar at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington, DC. and an independent higher education policy analyst living in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Tom has been employed in policy research and budget analysis roles for the University of Minnesota, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois State Scholarship Commission, and the American College Testing Program. Currently Tom is editor and publisher of Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY, a monthly research letter devoted to analysis and reporting on the demographics, sociology, history, politics and economics of educational opportunity after high school. Tom has received numerous awards recognizing his work on postsecondary education opportunity, including The Tri-State Consortium of Opportunity Programs in Higher Education Award, the TRIO Award from the Tri-State Consortium in Minnesota, the Arturo Alfonso Schomberg Award from The Association For Equality and Excellence in Education, the Shirley Chisholm Award by the New England Educational Opportunity Association, and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award. David Mundel is an independent consultant whose research focuses on assessing the potential role of marketing, recruiting and student aid program redesign in improving the efficacy of access-oriented public policies, and the impact of changing net prices on college-going among lower income high school graduates. Previously, as an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Dr. Mundel’s work focused on the design and evaluation of access-oriented higher education policies and programs. His research papers included one of the earliest econometric studies of the determinants of college-going and college choice, An Empirical Investigation of Factors which Influence College-Going Behaviors. In addition Dr. Mundel was a consultant to the Executive Office of the President in the Johnson and Nixon administrations, where he was a principal contributor to a 1969 report to the President, Toward a Long-Range Plan for Federal Financial Support for Higher Education, and a participant in the public policy process that resulted in the passage and implementation of the Pell Grant Program. Dr. Mundel graduated from MIT with degrees in Physics and Political Science and received his Ph.D. from MIT in Political Science and Economics. Jenny Nagaoka is the Project Director of the Chicago Postsecondary Transition Project, which is based at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and is a sponsored project of CCSR. Prior to this current project, she was the Project Director of the Chicago Public School’s Student Development Planning Initiative, a joint project with the University of Chicago and the Chapin Hall Center for Children. Previously, she was a Research Analyst at CCSR, where she studied the quality of classroom instruction and an evaluation of CPS's summer program. Jenny received her B.A. from Macalester College and her Master’s of Public Policy degree from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Erik Ness is an assistant professor in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, Erik served as Associate Director of the Policy, Planning, and Research Division at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. His research interests include the politics of higher education, the public policy process, student financial aid, and the finance and governance of higher education systems. Erik was a recipient of the 2005 ASHE/Lumina Foundation for Education Dissertation Fellowship and was a finalist for the Politics of Education Association’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. His recent publications, including Merit Aid and the Politics of Education (Routledge, 2008), examine the policy process of state merit aid program adoption and the effects of merit aid criteria on students under-represented in postsecondary education. Dr. Brian Noland was appointed chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission in May 2006. Dr. Noland’s professional career has been primarily focused in higher education and higher education policy. Prior to joining the Commission’s staff, he served as the Associate Executive Director for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, and was a faculty member in the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Noland received his B.A. and M.A in political science from West Virginia University, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Colleen O’Brien is the outgoing Director of the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, a position she has held since August 2003. In her work with the Pell Institute, Ms. O’Brien was the principal author and analyst of research regarding access and success in postsecondary education for disadvantaged students, as well as innovative practices and policies that further educational opportunities. Previously, Ms. O’Brien served as Vice President of the Institute for Higher Education Policy. At the Institute, her work focused on issues that affect low-income and minority student access, particularly pre-college preparation and student aid, minority-serving institutions, and the changing demographics in postsecondary education. A long-time resident of the Washington, DC area, Ms. O’Brien will be moving to Indianapolis with her 2 children 12 days after the conference ends! Erin O'Hara is the Research Director for Lottery Scholarship Analysis for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. In this capacity, she manages THEC's policy analysis, legislative inquiries and fiscal analysis for all Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship programs. Prior to this position, Ms. O'Hara managed research and policy analysis for the THEC’s college access program, GEAR UP TN, from the program's inception. Her background is in K-12 education policy nationally, with a focus on Tennessee and California. She has a Bachelor of Arts in American Government and African/African American Studies from the University of Virginia and a Master of Public Policy from Vanderbilt University. Susan Pachikara is a senior analyst in the Education, Workforce and Income Security area at GAO. Over the last seven years, she has evaluated an array of issues, including higher education and retirement. Before joining GAO, Ms. Pachikara worked for a private health policy research institution based in Washington DC. Ms. Pachikara received a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Illinois and a masters degree in public affairs from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. Yves Y. Pelletier is the manager of demonstration projects at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, with a focus on projects that aim to remove barriers to post-secondary education and encourage persistence once enrolled. Yves has also lead large-scale dissemination activities on access, including most recently the Neither a moment nor a mind to waste conference (April 2008). Prior to joining the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation in February 2004, he was the manager of media and government relations for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the government agency responsible in Canada for funding research and graduate studies in the humanities, social sciences, education, law and business. He is currently completing his doctoral studies at Queen’s University. Laura W. Perna, Ph.D, is Associate Professor in the Higher Education Management program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship uses an integrated theoretical approach and a variety of analytical techniques to understand the ways that individual characteristics, social structures, and public policies separately and together enable and restrict the ability of women, racial/ethnic minorities, and individuals of lower socioeconomic status to obtain access to higher education as a student and employment as a faculty member. She and been recognized by the Association for the Study of Higher Education's 2003 Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award. Perna serves as a member of the technical review group for the GEAR UP Follow-up evaluation, and the Upward Bound Program 5-year evaluation. In addition, she serves or has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, the Journal of College Student Development, and the Journal of the Professoriate, and is a consulting editor for Research in Higher Education. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master’s of Public Policy and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Michigan. Wil Del Pilar is a Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University. Wil has worked in higher education for the past thirteen years in admissions and financial aid at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Derek Price, Ph.D. is the principal owner of DVP PRAXIS LTD, a national leader in helping colleges identify and implement data-driven strategies to improve student access, retention and graduation rates. Dr. Price’s areas of expertise include workshop development, meeting facilitation, strategic planning, and program review and evaluation. He also conducts research and policy analysis on college access, student success and social inequality issues. Clients include MDRC, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, California Partnership to Achieve Student Success, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Pell Institute for the Study of Higher Education Opportunity, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education. Prior to entering the consulting profession, Dr. Price was director of higher education research at Lumina Foundation for Education. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from American University, and holds a Master's degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from Duke University. He is the author of Borrowing Inequality: Race, Class and Student Loans (Lynne Rienner, 2004). Kenneth E. Redd was appointed Director of Research and Policy Analysis for the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in August 2006. In his position, Ken provides research and data analysis on graduate school financial aid, enrollments, degrees conferred, and international admissions, applications, and enrollments. Prior to joining CGS, Ken served as Director of Research and Policy Analysis for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and also served in various research and policy analysis positions for other organizations. Ken is the author or co-author of numerous research reports, book chapters, and journal articles on a wide variety of issues in higher education. He also serves on the board of directors for the Sallie Mae Fund, on the advisory panel for the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study and the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, and on the research advisory board of the American Council on Education’s Center for Policy Analysis. Ken holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor’s degree in English and Political Science from Tufts University. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes is a Senior Associate in the Young Adults and Postsecondary Education Policy Area at MDRC. Richburg-Hayes’ current research focuses on measuring various effects of new forms of financial aid, enhanced student services, and curricular and instructional innovations on community college retention and credit accumulation and nonexperimental methods of data analysis. Richburg-Hayes is the principal researcher and project director of a national demonstration that will test the effectiveness of performance-based scholarship programs to increase retention and persistence in higher education. She is a lead investigator of MDRC’s Opening Doors project, a demonstration designed to help nontraditional students - at-risk youth, low-wage working parents, and unemployed individuals - earn college credentials as the pathway to better jobs with higher pay; Achieving the Dream, a comprehensive initiative being led by Lumina Foundation for Education that targets students of color and low-income students, aiming to boost academic achievement and “close the gap” between these and other community college enrollees; and the Project on Devolution and Urban Change, one of the most ambitious efforts to study urban welfare reform by amassing a database that includes all individuals at risk of welfare receipt in four large cities. Richburg-Hayes earned a B.S. degree from the Industrial and Labor Relations School of Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. in Economics in 2000 from Princeton University. Amy Topper is a Research Associate at JBL Associates, Inc. (JBL), a consulting firm specializing in higher education policy research. In addition to working on the evaluation of the ACG and SMART Grant programs for the U.S. Department of Education, she also oversees data collection activities from 49 of the 83 community colleges participating in the Lumina Foundation’s Achieving the Dream project, a multi-year initiative designed to help community colleges improve student retention and success through data-driven decision-making. Amy researches a range of topics for JBL Associates, on the federal, state and institutional levels; including persistence and retention, financial aid policies, and distance and vocational education. She performs both qualitative and quantitative duties such as writing, editing, conducting interviews and surveys, and data analysis. She has contributed to literature reviews on the persistence of low-income students, the history of the career college sector and related legislation, and has co-authored several nationally-distributed reports on faculty salaries for the National Education Association. Amy has her Master’s in Leadership in Teaching from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and a Bachelor in Liberal Arts and Classical Languages from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Kristan M. Venegas is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Director of the Masters Programs, and Research Associate in the Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Venegas is committed to informing policies and practices related to educational equity, particularly for low-income students of color. Her most recent publications have been featured in American Behavioral Scientist, American Academic, Urban Education, College & University and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Her recent research on the Internet and access to financial aid has been widely distributed by the National College Access Network (NCAN), the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP), and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). She currently teaches graduate courses on college student development, diversity in higher education, academic advising, and finance in higher education. Dr. Venegas is a past recipient of the James Irvine Foundation Doctoral Student Fellowship and an ASHE/Lumina Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Venegas has served as a consultant for the College Board, and the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, as well as GEAR UP and McNair programs in the state of Nevada. Dr. Venegas earned a master's degree from University of Southern California in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs and also holds a Ph.D. from University of Southern California in education administration and policy analysis. Matt Yurdin is an institutional researcher at the University of California Office of the President. Prior to coming to UC, he worked in IR offices at Suffolk University, in Boston, and at the School of Visual Arts, in New York. |
Questions & Comments 25th Annual Info • • • • • Presentations Speaker Biographies |
||||||||||||||||||||||
