Office Hours with John Gardner

Dr. Tristan Denley currently serves as Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Innovation at the Louisiana Board of Regents. Before moving to Louisiana in January 2022, he served as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the University System of Georgia, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Austin Peay State. Originally from Penzance, England, Dr. Denley earned his PhD in Mathematics from Trinity College Cambridge, and has held positions in Sweden, Canada, and the University of Mississippi. At Ole Miss he served as Chair of Mathematics, and Senior Fellow of the Residential College program.Throughout his career, he has taken a hands-on approach in a variety of initiatives impacting student success. In 2007, he was chosen as a Redesign Scholar by the National Center for Academic Transformation for his work in rethinking the teaching of freshmen mathematics classes.  At Austin Peay he created Degree Compass, a course recommendation system that successfully pairs current students with the courses that best fit their talents and program of study for upcoming semesters. This system, which combines hundreds of thousands of past students’ grades with each particular student’s transcript, to make individualized recommendations for current students has received recognition from Educause, Complete College America, Lumina Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and President Obama and won a platinum IMS Global Learning Impact Award in 2014. In 2016 he was selected as one of the Washington Monthly’s sixteen most innovative people in Higher Education, one of the Center for Digital Education’s Top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers and was invited to the White House to address recipients of President Obama’s First in the World grants as a model of what could be achieved by a higher education system. He was the recipient of the 2016 Newel Perry Award from the National Federation of the Blind for his leadership of a systemic approach to the accessibility of educational content. In 2017 he was recognized as one of five higher education leaders to watch in 2017 (and beyond) by Education Dive, and was named as a Complete College America Fellow. Amongst his most recent work has been the development and implementation of a comprehensive system-scale student success strategy, the Momentum Year, that transforms developmental education and advising. Implementation of the Momentum Year strategies in Georgia increased system-wide 4yr graduation rates by 20%, and by 30% for African American students. He also developed and launched the nexus degree, the first new degree structure in the United States in more than 100 years.His work continues in using a data informed approach to implement a wide variety of state-wide initiatives surrounding college completion, stretching from education redesign in a variety of disciplines, to the role of predictive analytics and data mining, cognitive psychology and behavioral economics in higher education. 

Beverly Kahn earned degrees in Political Science from Dickinson College (AB), Columbia University (MA), and Indiana University (PhD). As a scholar, she was awarded The Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and a Fulbright Fellowship in support of her research focused on Italian Politics and Political Philosophy.She was a faculty member for 17 years (University of South Carolina and The Ohio State University) before moving on into academic administration. Beverly served as a senior academic administrator for 30 years (Dean of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University, Associate Provost and VP for Internationalization at Pace University, and Provost and Academic Vice President at SUNY Farmingdale State College). During her career she authored and directed $20 million in institutional grants – including the following at Farmingdale: Title III, SSS TRIO, and First in the World FIPSE from the US Dept of Education, Smart Grid from the Dept of Energy, and an NSF S-STEM grant. She also served as Fulbright Advisor at Fairfield, Pace, and Farmingdale, launching competitions and helping more than 60 undergraduate students win Fulbright Scholarships for study and research abroad. She has been recognized for her advocacy in support of students and affirmative action at each of the five institutions where she has worked. She is dedicated to - and has expertise and experience in - increasing opportunities for minority, low income, and first-generation college students.Since retiring in fall 2020 Beverly has continued to offer (with her husband Robert Kahn) workshops on grant writing at universities across the nation. She also assists individuals in crafting grant proposals.

As the Executive Vice Provost at Nevada State College, Dr. Tony Scinta guides efforts to improve the overall student experience at NSC, with the ultimate goal of helping more students earn degrees on the path to a better quality of life. To this end, much of his time is invested in student success initiatives, the effective integration of academic and student affairs, and the application of evidence-based decisions to promote improved student and institutional outcomes. In his time at NSC, which dates back to a time when the entire institution was housed in a single building, Dr. Scinta has contributed to campus-wide strategic plans, served as the college’s accreditation liaison officer, helped promote robust increases in enrollment numbers and graduation rates, and has generally worked to advance the fortunes of the college’s largely diverse and first-generation student population.

Lou Albert is a Professor of Practice in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Prior to his appointment at ASU, Lou served as President of the West Campus of Pima County Community College in Tucson, Arizona from 2003 until his retirement in 2015.  He is a former academic Vice Chancellor of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District (1998-2003); and former Vice President of the American Association for Higher Education (1982-98), a not-for-profit membership association where John Gardner served as a member of its Board of Trustees.  At AAHE, Lou was responsible for organizing the annual National Conference on Higher Education, and for special initiatives that focused on school/college partnerships, service-learning and civic engagement, and instructional technology. Lou was also a faculty member and senior administrator at Essex Community College, now a part of the Community College of Baltimore County.  Lou’s board service includes the National Board of Campus Compact, a consortium of nearly 1,200 college and university presidents committed to advancing the civic mission of higher education.  He also served for six years as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the International Partnership for Service-Learning.  In Tucson, he is a past Board Chair for the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.  Lou earned his Master of Science in Zoology and Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Maryland-College Park. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Loyola College (now University) of Maryland.   In 2001, he was awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) from Cuttington University in the West African nation of Liberia.Isis Artze-Vega, Ed.D. serves as college provost and vice president for academic affairs at Valencia College in Central Florida, a Hispanic-Serving Institution that serves about 70,000 students annually and has long been regarded as one of the nation’s best community colleges. She provides strategic leadership for the areas of curriculum, assessment, faculty development, distance learning, career and workforce education, and partnerships for educational equity. Prior to joining Valencia, Isis served as assistant vice president for teaching and learning at Florida International University (FIU), leading such efforts as a gateway course project, a hybrid course initiative, and the comprehensive redesign of teaching evaluation. Prior to joining FIU, she taught English composition and enrollment management at the University of Miami. Most importantly, she is the proud wife of visual artist Sinuhe Vega; the proud mami of Kamilah, 16, and Delilah, 14; and forever indebted to extraordinary parents, Mayra and Elias. Her work is fueled by a commitment to equity and justice, implemented through love and service.

Dr. Jody S. Fournier, a developmental psychologist and professor of psychology with over 24-years of higher education experience, serves as provost and vice president of learning at Capital University, where his responsibilities encompass the roles of chief academic officer, chief student affairs officer, and chief enrollment officer. Capital University, a private, independent institution, combines liberal arts with professional studies to serve a diverse student body of approximately 3300 students by offering over 60 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in law, nursing, music, business, education, and theology.Dr. Fournier earned his bachelor of arts in psychology, master of science in child development, and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from The Ohio State University. He and his wife, Debbie, have three children and enjoy attending campus events. Dr. Fournier daily cycles or runs and often is accompanied with his German shorthaired pointers.

Brent Drake,  has worked in higher education since 2001 with positions focused on institutional research, educational assessment, business intelligence, and institutional effectiveness. He has published and presented refereed conference sessions on research on student success initiatives, gateway course redesign, predictors of individual student success, enrollment management, business intelligence and data analytics, enrollment and student completion predictive modeling, recruitment, and enrollment trends. This includes co-authoring chapters on gateway courses in Talking About Learning Revisited: Persistence, Relocation, and Loss in Undergraduate STEM Education, and The Transfer Experience: A Handbook for Creating a More Equitable and Successful Postsecondary System, on data visualization in Building Capacity in Institutional Research and Decision Support in Higher Education, and on business intelligence and data analytics in New Directions for Institutional Research. He also was honored, along with his co-authors, with the Charles F. Elton Best Paper in Institutional Research in 2019 for their journal article on the signally effects of first-year seminar grades in The Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition. Dr. Drake holds a baccalaureate degree in athletic training, a master's degree in sports Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a joint focus on psychometrics and motivation theory all from Purdue University. He also taught for several years at Purdue, providing instruction in statistics, measurement theory, research methods, and motivational theory. He presently also serves as a Senior Research Fellow for the College of Education at Claremont Graduate University in California.Prior to joining the full-time staff of the Gardner Institute, Dr. Drake served as a Research Fellow for the Gardner Institute conducting research on the relationship between the Institute’s institutional transformation efforts and student outcomes such as course grades, retention, persistence, and graduation. His most recent position prior to the Gardner Institute was as the Vice Provost for Decision Support at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he served for five years, and prior to that he worked at Purdue University for nearly 17 years ultimately serving as the Chief Data Officer for the final five years of his tenure.He has served on serval relevant boards and committees including on the Executive Board of the Indiana Association of Institutional Research, a member of the inaugural University Innovation Alliance, the Indiana Postsecondary Data Access Group, and the Minority Serving Institutions Task Force at UNLV. Drake also served for seven years as a reviewer for The Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition.Dr. Drake resides in Lafayette, IN with his wife Maria Drake and near his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters. He enjoys reading, playing guitar, and intends to play pickleball until his knees cease to function.To contact Brent, please email him at Drake@jngi.org 

Dr. Merrill Schwartz has over 35 years of higher education experience in administration, consulting and facilitation, research, writing, and program development, including 27 years with AGB and nearly a decade with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. Schwartz has held a series of progressively responsible positions at AGB in programs, research, consulting, and content. As senior vice president for content and program strategy, she was responsible for the association’s overall strategy for print and digital content development, including books, Trusteeship Magazine, research papers, and web resources as well as virtual and in-person events, including conferences, institutes, and webinars. Previously, as senior vice president for AGB Consulting, she worked with members and consultants to arrange over 150 governance-related engagements annually, ranging from board and presidential assessments to restructuring state systems. Recent grant-funded projects she has led focused on boards and equitable student success. Schwartz co-authored Assessing Board Performance (AGB, 2018) and authored or contributed to more than twenty-five AGB reports, publications, and articles. Schwartz earned a PhD in higher education administration and leadership from the University of Maryland and MPA and BA degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  The subject of her dissertation was Assessing the Performance of Academic Presidents.

Laurie A. Carter joined Lawrence University as its 17th president on July 1, 2021, bringing with her more than 25 years of leadership experience in higher education. In her short time as President, Carter has brought a sense of urgency to the Lawrence community. Recognizing the need for Lawrence to be well-positioned in an ever-changing higher education landscape, Carter implemented student-centered Guiding Coalitions to facilitate more effective change implementation at the university. Additionally, she has identified focused investment priorities through community-wide engagement that will position Lawrence to anticipate and meet the challenges of the future.Carter came to Lawrence after serving as president of Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Her tenure at Shippensburg focused on prioritizing student success, telling the university’s story, building a relationship with the community, and enhancing overall quality. Carter’s efforts to strengthen diversity and inclusion at Shippensburg University were recognized by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, which named her as one of 25 outstanding women in higher education. Prior to assuming the presidency of Shippensburg, Carter served as executive vice president and university counsel for Eastern Kentucky University and held various inaugural leadership positions during her 25 years of service at The Juilliard School, including vice president, general counsel, and executive director of Jazz Studies.Carter currently serves as a Commissioner for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and as a member of Annapolis Group Board, the ThedaCare Board of Trustees, the Millennium Leadership Institute Steering Committee, and The Links, Incorporated. A native of New Jersey, Carter attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in communications. She received her Master of Arts degree in communications from William Paterson College and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers University.

Dr. Chad M. Brown became the sixth president of Zane State College on July 1, 2015.Dr. Brown has served in a variety of leadership roles, including provost and executive vice president since coming to Zane State College in 2005. He has a strong commitment to, and a history of success in, shaping a data-rich culture. He led the College’s efforts in continuous quality improvement during its 14 years as an AQIP institution. This involved centralizing data collection, expanding information gathering, and developing models for linking data analysis to decision making and the College’s strategic plan. This continues today as an essential component of the College’s focus on student success. Recent publications from the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and the Community College Research Center noted Zane State’s commitment to data democratization, making it widely available to employees and imbedding its use in governance committees.For more than a decade, Brown served as the College’s core team leader for Achieving the Dream, a national non-governmental reform movement for student success, focused primarily on helping low-income and minority students obtain college credentials. Zane State College has remained an Achieving the Dream Leader College since 2009, and under Dr. Brown’s leadership as Provost, the College was the recipient of the distinguished Leah Meyer Austin Student Success Leadership Award.This commitment to continuous improvement, has allowed Dr. Brown and Zane State College to remain on the leading edge nationally by working closely with a variety of funders and educational innovators including; the American Association of Community Colleges, Ascendium, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, JFF, the John N Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, Lumina Foundation, MDC, the Joyce Foundation, Education Design Lab, MDRC, and the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement. Dr. Brown has also presented for numerous professional organizations including the Association for Institutional Research, State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, Women in Government, Achieving the Dream, the National Conference on the First Year Experience and Students in Transition, the Higher Learning Commission, the League for Innovation, and the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development. In January 2023, Brown was named as one of five finalists for the Community College CEO of the Year by the American Association of Community Colleges.

Rebecca Mushtare is the associate dean of Graduate Studies and a professor of interaction design at SUNY Oswego. With John Kane, she co-hosts the Tea for Teaching podcast which she helped co-found when she was the associate director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.  Rebecca’s primary research areas are inclusive design, design for older adults, and digital accessibility. John Kane is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at SUNY-Oswego. Since 2017, he has been the co-host of the Tea for Teaching podcast. 

J. Cameron West (Cam) has served as the 14th President of Huntingdon College, Montgomery, Alabama, since June 1, 2003.  Prior to assuming the Huntingdon presidency, he was a vice president and dean at Brevard College, Brevard, North Carolina, from 1999-2003.  He was a parish minister from 1978 to 1999 in United Methodist congregations across his native North Carolina and was the Bishop's Ecumenical Officer in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church from 1996 - 1999.West has served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), has twice chaired the Board of Directors of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (AAICU), and has chaired the Presidents Council of the NCAA Division III USA South Athletic Conference.  An ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church, West was presented the Francis Asbury Award in 2013 by the Alabama - West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church for leadership excellence in United Methodist higher education.  He is a former member of the University Senate of the United Methodist Church and an emeritus member of the Duke University Divinity School Board of Visitors. West earned the Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in 1972 (Phi Beta Kappa, North Carolina Fellow); the Master of Divinity cum laude from Yale University Divinity School in 1978 (Rockefeller Brothers Fellow); and the Master of Theology from Duke University Divinity School in 1986, where his thesis treated the preaching of John Wesley.

Josh Wyner is founder and executive director of the College Excellence Program (CEP) at the Aspen Institute, where he also serves as a vice president. CEP aims to advance college and university practices, policies, and leadership that significantly improve student outcomes, with a focus on students who are historically underserved in higher education.Josh has spent the past two decades designing and building new organizations that promote talent development and social mobility. He has authored numerous publications about education, including a book, What Excellent Community Colleges Do: Preparing All Students for Success (Harvard Education Press, 2014).He has a B.A. from Vassar College, a MPA from Syracuse University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Manuel João Costa is an Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, and currently Pro-Rector for Educational Innovation and Student Affairs at the University of Minho and coordinator of the University of Minho’s center for innovation and development to teaching and learning (IDEA-UMinho). Manuel is a graduate in Biochemistry and holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, both from the University of Porto. Manuel’s teaching areas are biochemistry and molecular biology, and education in the health sciences. Manuel developed a passion for education after experiencing teaching, and has been devoting his academic life to development of learning and teaching and to institutional educational development, since 2004. His main interests now are organizational transformation of learning and teaching in higher education.He is appointed member to the Learning and Teaching Steering Committee of the European University Association, the education committees of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies and delegate at the faculty development committee of the Association for Medical Education in Europe. Is also a member of the international Global Forum for Student Success. Throughout his career, Manuel invests in bringing together and supporting colleagues and institutions in higher education, to explore opportunities to collaborate, with the intention of improving student experience in higher education through the enhancement of learning and teaching.

Duncan Pritchard is UC Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Knowledge, Technology & Society at the University of California, Irvine. He was previously Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Eidyn research center at the University of Edinburgh. His monographs include Epistemic Luck (Oxford UP, 2005), The Nature and Value of Knowledge (co-authored, Oxford UP, 2010), Epistemological Disjunctivism (Oxford UP, 2012), Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of Our Believing (Princeton UP, 2015), and Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2019). His most recent book is Scepticism (with A. Coliva, Routledge, 2022). His academic distinctions include the award of the Philip Leverhulme Prize, election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and delivering the annual Soochow Lectures in Philosophy. 

Steve Desir is an Assistant Research Professor in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. His research interests include racial equity in college admissions, organizational change, and the use of theory-based psychological interventions to facilitate behavioral change. More specifically, Steve is interested in whether insights from social psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics can be used to improve educational experiences for minoritized groups. Steve earned his doctoral degree in Higher Education from USC, and a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from Harvard. Prior to his studies at USC and HGSE, Steve completed his master’s degree in secondary education from NYU, and earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science at Penn State. Steve is a native New Yorker, and in his spare time enjoys running, Muay-Thai kickboxing, and attending concerts.

Charles Schroeder received his B.A. (Psychology and History) and M.A. (Psychology) degrees from Austin College and his doctorate (Education, 1972) from Oregon State University. For over three decades, he served as the Chief Student Affairs Officer at Mercer University, Saint Louis University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU). In 2001, he was appointed a Professor of Higher Education in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis Department at the University of Missouri. Following his retirement from MU, Schroeder became a Senior Executive at Noel-Levitz, a national higher education consulting firm from 2004-2006. He recently served as a part-time Senior Associate Consultant for Ruffalo-Noellevitz specializing in retention and student success strategies and interventions. In this role he has served over five dozen institutions. He currently provides pro bono consultations to Methodist and numerous other colleges and universities interested in improving retention and degree completion.

Jamey Rorison, Ph.D., is a senior program officer on the U.S. Program Data team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he leads efforts to advance a field-led movement to increase equitable postsecondary value, building on the work of the Postsecondary Value Commission, as well as a portfolio seeking to improve postsecondary data quality, use, and infrastructure at the local, state, and national levels. Prior to joining the foundation, Rorison served as director of research and policy at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), where he managed the Postsecondary Data Collaborative (PostsecData) and the National Postsecondary Data Infrastructure Expert Working Group, and led research examining issues of college affordability and equitable college access and completion.Rorison earned his Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, where his dissertation examined the role of financial aid and other resources in persistence toward a bachelor’s degree for students from low-income families. He also holds a master’s degree in higher education and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, also from the University of Pennsylvania.

Thomas A. Parham, Ph.D., is a family man who resides in the Southern California area with his wife, Davida.  Dr. Parham is the 11th president of California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), a highly diverse, metropolitan university primarily serving the South Central and South Bay areas of Los Angeles County. Established in 1960, CSUDH is one of the 23 campuses that comprise the California State University system, the largest system of public higher education in the nation. Dr. Parham previously served as vice chancellor of student affairs and an adjunct faculty member at the University of California, Irvine, where he had been since 1985.  For the past 38-plus years, Dr. Parham has focused his research efforts in the area of psychological nigrescence and has authored or co-authored six books and 45-50 journal articles and book chapters. He has sustained a scholarly focus in the areas of racial identity development, African psychology and multicultural counseling. Dr. Parham grew up in Southern California and received his bachelor’s degree in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine, his master’s degree in counseling psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, and received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is licensed to practice psychology in California. In addition to his duties as president, Dr. Parham remains an active member of the community contributing his talents in the areas of social advocacy, community uplift and youth empowerment. 

Dr. Rolundus R. Rice is a thought leader, orator, professor and university administrator.  Dr. Rice has used these platforms to inspire thousands of students to earn high school diplomas, baccalaureate and advanced degrees by sharing his firsthand experiences as a troubled youth who spent his elementary years in the behavior and learning disorders programs in the Dekalb County School System in Metropolitan Atlanta before dropping out of high school. Rice’s “Pilgrimage to Purpose” narrative arc, which he has shared with more than 800,000 people, chronicles his life from a GED to a Ph.D. recipient.   Dr. Rice was lured into university leadership at a young age.  At 33, he was appointed Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama -- one of the youngest academic deans at an accredited four-year institution in the United States. The “Dapper Dean,” as he was affectionately referred to by his students, was responsible for leading the reorganization of the History, English, Music, Mass Media and Fine Arts curricula, respectively. He was also instrumental in securing a $1.25 million implementation cluster grant from the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) Career Pathways Initiative to fund projects to increase Talladega College students’ chances of finding meaningful employment upon graduation. Dr. Rice’s subsequent work and experiences at various institutions of higher education include Chief Diversity Officer, Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs, and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and Central Region Director of Adult Education and Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rust College.  He is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Tuskegee University.  Dr.  Rice is a professionally-trained historian who has taught a variety of lower and upper division undergraduate courses, including World History, United States History, The Civil Rights Movement and American Religious History, respectively.  His research and publishing agenda are focused squarely on the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Rice’s book, Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest was recently published by the University of South Carolina Press. This book is the first scholarly biography on one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest lieutenants and organizer of “Bloody Sunday and the subsequent Selma to Montgomery March.     Dr. Rice has also been identified as a subject-matter expert on the Civil Rights Movement who has been interviewed by CNN, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Montgomery Advertiser. As the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Dapper Dean Education Empowerment Firm, Dr. Rice sees the world as a global classroom and grooming ground for greatness. For additional information, please visit his website at www.thedapperdean.com. Dr. Rice graduated from DeVry University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Magna Cum Laude. He holds two advanced degrees.  Rice earned the Master of Arts in History from Alabama State University and the Doctor of Philosophy in History from Auburn University.  He is the first GED recipient to earn a Ph.D. in Auburn’s 166-year history.  Dr. Rice is married to the former Dana Lee. They have four children: Madison, Marley, Rolundus III and Remington.