Bio:

I am a first-generation Pell Grant recipient from Flint, Michigan, who graduated from Michigan State University in 1986. I benefitted from advising in the first year of study from R.A.s, undergraduate tutors, friends and friend’s family members, and faculty, and this helped me navigate an often-alienatingly enormous institution. Later, my primary role academic advisor helped me integrate all-manner of high-impact practices (e.g., education abroad, undergraduate research, paid internships, on-campus work-study as a supplemental instructor), and introduced me to the existence of fellowships for graduate education. Even though I wasn’t myself a good advisor as a new assistant professor, I did come to understand the systematically vital importance of advising for student success writ large (just as it was for me as a student). Eventually, I served six consecutive years as a faculty member for NACADA’s Administrators’ Institute, and facilitated advising reforms (e.g., introducing EAB Navigate, an advising career ladder, biannual campus advising symposia, regular engagement with NACADA experts and off-campus opportunities, etc.) during a six-year period as vice provost for undergraduate studies at Kansas State University. Most recently, I helped create the Academic Advising Community of Practice within the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU), for which I serve as executive director, and helped shape advising reform strategies in The Equity/Excellence Imperative: A 2030 Blueprint for Undergraduate Education at U.S. Research Universities (University Press of Colorado, 2022).