Office Hours with John Gardner

Alexander Bolton is a devoted child of God, a junior student-athlete at Brevard College in North Carolina, and a faith-filled YouTuber. 

Alexander has maintained extraordinary grades at Brevard and has made the Dean’s List every year, including this past semester. At Brevard, he is a member of The Hidden Opponent, a leader of Brevard College Worship Nights, Brevard College admissions content work study, and a peer leader. He has also been a writer for the college newspaper. 

He has been a page at the S.C. State House for state Sen. Overture Walker, whose succ...

Dr. Kevin P. Reilly is president emeritus and regent professor with the 26-campus University of Wisconsin System, having served as president from 2004-13. He came to Wisconsin from the State University of New York System, where he was associate provost for academic programs and then secretary of the university. As secretary, he was the chief staff officer for the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Currently he has an appointment as Senior Fellow with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, working with boards around the country on effective governance. While still president at Wisconsin...

Dr. Kelly Schrum is the Assistant Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs at George Mason University. In this role, she provides leadership for graduate education, working closely with faculty and staff across all colleges to strengthen graduate programs and support student success. Dr. Schrum is a historian and a professor in the Higher Education Program in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She has been a faculty member at George Mason University since 2000 and is the recipient of several awards, including the David J. King Teaching Award and the Teaching Excellence Award. Her teaching and research focus on digital...

Denise Bartell is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at Kent State University, where she facilitates strategic initiatives related to access, retention, completion, and student success with a focus on improving equity of outcomes for historically underserved students and empowering faculty as key stakeholders in this work. Her scholarship takes a systemic and explicitly relational approach, most recently exploring a reconceptualization of faculty development to utilize principles of high impact learning experiences and authentic engagement to create communities of transformation where members are empowered to transform public higher education as a tool for building a more just and...

Annie Goodykoontz is a Phoenix-born student journalist based in Columbia, Missouri. Previously, she has interned at The Los Angeles Times, The Arizona Republic and Brussels-based news site Euractiv. Annie is a junior at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she spent her sophomore year as editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Maneater. She’s currently a Youth / K-12 Education Reporter at the Columbia Missourian, and a Student Innovation Staffer at the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

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Ashley Mowreader is a data journalist and education reporter. She is currently a master of journalism student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and fellow for the Education Writers Association 21st class. Previously, Ashley was Inside Higher Ed's inaugural Student Success Reporter and host of the Voices of Student Success podcast. She holds a bachelor's in journalism from Pepperdine University. 

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Dr. Kelly Schrum is the Assistant Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs at George Mason University. In this role, she provides leadership for graduate education, working closely with faculty and staff across all colleges to strengthen graduate programs and support student success. Dr. Schrum is a historian and a professor in the Higher Education Program in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She has been a faculty member at George Mason University since 2000 and is the recipient of several awards, including the David J. King Teaching Award and the Teaching Excellence Award. Her teaching and research focus on digital...

Dr. Scott Evenbeck is a retired president of the Charles and Stella Guttman Community College and currently serves as a University Professor at Baruch College.

Scott Evenbeck joined the City University of New York in 2011 as the Charles and Stella Guttman Community College’s founding president. He served as professor of psychology and founding dean of University College at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Scott has long been involved in designing, implementing and assessing programs for students in their first years of university study. He played a major role in various initiatives to support student achievement in...

Tam is a senior marketing leader at BVK, where she co-leads the agency’s higher education practice, and she serves as President of the Board for Serve Marketing, BVK’s not-for-profit sister agency. She brings more than 25 years of experience working in higher education marketing and strategy, with a deep understanding of the sector’s evolving challenges, opportunities, and public perception.

Tam is a key architect behind College: Proud Sponsor of America at its Best, a national public-service initiative designed to restore trust in higher education by elevating its impact on workforce development, innovation, democratic engagement, and commun...

A pioneering social entrepreneur, Rajiv Vinnakota serves as President of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, leading its mission to cultivate the talent, ideas, and networks that develop lifelong, effective citizens. To that end, he works tirelessly to build relationships with the partners and sponsors without whom Citizens & Scholars could not succeed, while at the same time fostering a strong organizational culture focused on American civic values. 

Raj has dedicated his life to initiatives that help American citizens from all walks of life to become productive and engaged members of society. Early in his career, Raj co-founded the S...

Suzanne Benally (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa)—Executive Director, Swift Foundation

Suzanne has worked in the higher education and the non-profit sector for 40 years. Committed to social justice, diversity, and equity, she predicates her work on transformational change. Currently serving as the executive director of the Swift Foundation she advocates for transformative practices in philanthropy that address issues of racism, equity, justice, and seeks to influence philanthropic practices in being more inclusive and in right relations with Indigenous Peoples. Formerly, Suzanne served as the Executive Director of Cultural Survival, an international Indigenous rights advocacy organization that advocates fo...

Aleksondra Hultquist is an Associate Professor of Critical Thinking and First-Year Studies at Stockton University. Her teaching focus is in Critical Thinking, and a variety of General Studies courses, including Poetry & Mathematics, The Passions, and Adaptations. Her work focuses on the literature and culture of the long eighteenth-century, especially women writers and the passions. She has edited a special issue for Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation called “Emotion in the Eighteenth Century” (2017), and co-edited (with Elizabeth Mathews) New Perspectives on Delarivier Manley and Eighteenth-Century Literature (Routledge, 2017) as well as  A Spy on Eliza Haywood, co-edited with Chris Mounsey (Routledge 2022). She h...

Antonio Merlo, PhD, became Drexel University’s 16th president on July 1, 2025. An accomplished higher education leader, scholar and professor, Merlo joined Drexel after serving since 2019 as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University. In this role, Merlo worked meticulously and strategically to expand the limits of NYU Arts & Science, overseeing the completion of a new, innovative home for the college, NYU’s founding school; establishing new centers and an office of research; growing research and fundraising dollars; and hiring 120 tenure-line faculty. 

Originally from Italy, Merlo, a first-generation colle...

Carin Silkaitis is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and a Professor of Humanities. Carin has also served UAS in a number of Interim positions, including Provost (AY25), Dean of Research & Sponsored Programs (AY25), Dean of Graduate Studies (AY25), and Dean of Career Education (AY24). Carin hails from Chicago, where she served the faculty and students at Columbia College Chicago as the Allen and Lynn Turner Chair of the Theatre Department, a Professor of Theatre, and a Faculty Fellow serving on the College's Antiracism Transformation Team. At Columbia, Carin managed a substantial budget and led a large...

Dr. Evan Faulkenbury is the University Historian for the University of South Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. in History from UNC Chapel Hill, and before joining USC in 2024, he taught U.S. and public history for eight years at SUNY Cortland. As the University Historian, Dr. Faulkenbury records oral history interviews with people who shaped USC, co-produces the podcast Remembering the Days, leads historical tours of campus, teaches the occasional history class, and collaborates with various departments and offices around campus. He is working on two books about USC’s history—one is a general history of Carolina, and...

Marcella David is a higher education leader, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and Provost at Columbia College Chicago, a liberal arts college with a creative arts focus. Prior to that, she served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Florida A&M University (FAMU), and in various collegiate and university leadership roles at The University of Iowa, including as its chief diversity officer from 2004-2009. As an academic administrator, David has focused on providing students with meaningful access that not only encourages students from different backgrounds to attend college, but provides support that promotes success...

Dr. Richard Mullendore currently teaches a first-year seminar at the of University of North Carolina Wilmington. He previously served as the vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia, vice chancellor for student life at the University of Mississippi, and he worked at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of Charleston (WV), and Tusculum College (TN).

Dr. Mullendore, a former president of NODA (Association for Orientation, Retention, and Transition in Higher Education), has provided over 125 conference presentations and keynote addresses nationally and internationally, and has served as a consultant to over 35 colleges and...

Michael McGinnis was appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs at Saint Francis University in July 2022.  Dr. McGinnis has 29 years’ experience in higher education and currently in the 2025-2026 cohort of the Executive Leadership Academy sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges.  Dr. McGinnis came to Saint Francis from Norwich University, a senior military college, where he served as Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and professor of chemistry since 2013.  Prior to Norwich, he served as head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of North Georgia (a sister senior military college) and the Associate Dean and D...

Suzanne Benally (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa)—Executive Director, Swift Foundation

Suzanne has worked in the higher education and the non-profit sector for 40 years. Committed to social justice, diversity, and equity, she predicates her work on transformational change. Currently serving as the executive director of the Swift Foundation she advocates for transformative practices in philanthropy that address issues of racism, equity, justice, and seeks to influence philanthropic practices in being more inclusive and in right relations with Indigenous Peoples. Formerly, Suzanne served as the Executive Director of Cultural Survival, an international Indigenous rights advocacy organization that advocates fo...

Mays Imad received her undergraduate training in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, focusing on Philosophy of Science and Consciousness. She earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Clinical Neuroscience from Wayne State University in Detroit, and then completed an NIH-IRACDA post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona.

Mays’s current research focuses on stress, self-awareness, advocacy, and classroom community, and how these relate to cognition, metacognition, and, ultimately, student learning and success. Through her teaching and research, she seeks to provide her students with transformative opportunities which are grounded in the aesthetics of learning, truth-seeking, and se...

Valerie Shepard, PhD, CSAEd, is a student affairs scholar-practitioner who currently serves as the Senior Content and Assessment Analyst for UCLA Recreation, which is organized under Campus Life in the UCLA Division of Student Affairs. She reports to the Executive Director of UCLA Recreation. Prior to her work at UCLA Recreation, she served as the Assistant Director of the UCLA Graduate Student Resource Center. As the Senior Analyst, she supports the UCLA Recreation Executive and Communications teams by coordinating departmental assessment and collaborating on special projects and divisional and campus-wide working groups. A key component of her role is...

As an academic leader and author, J. David Arnold has focused on learning communities, first-year programs, strategic planning with faculty and promoting the “teacher-scholar” model of faculty professional development at liberal arts institutions. Dr. Arnold's dedication earned him recognition as a National Learning Community Project Fellow. He attributes much of his success to the influence of great mentors throughout his life, which fueled his passion for higher education and student advocacy

Dr. Arnold served as the 26th President of Eureka College in Eureka, Ill. for 11 years. He retired from Eureka as President Emeritus in 2016 and subsequently served as I...

Dr. Lisa Lambert was appointed Interim President at Chatham University in 2025. After joining Chatham in 1985 as a faculty member in biology, she was promoted to Professor of Biology in 2012. While at Chatham, Dr. Lambert has served as Chair of the Science Department, founding Program Director for MS Biology, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Learning, and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. While serving as Provost, Dr. Lambert participated in the Gardner Institute’s CAO Innovation Community project. She has done sabbaticals at the University of Pittsburgh, Duke University, and Harvard University Sc...

Paul Mabrey is Director of Student Success Analytics and Associate Professor in Communication Studies at James Madison University. His work bridges holistic student success, data analytics, communication education, and civic engagement to improve the transformative impacts of higher education. At JMU, he leads the Early Student Success Quality Enhancement Plan and campus-wide student success & retention efforts, collaborating on campus-wide initiatives that integrate academic, well-being, basic needs, and co-curricular data to close success gaps and improve outcomes.

A scholar of debate pedagogy and democratic engagement, Paul has collaborated and published on how debate-based pedagogy can improve...

Dr. G. Duncan Harris has had an illustrious 30-year career in higher education, most recently serving as the CEO of the Capital Campus of Connecticut State Community College (formerly Capital Community College) in Hartford, CT, from 2018 to 2025 where he was responsible for the strategic direction and daily operations of the campus. The Capital campus hosts CT State’s largest nursing program, a number of innovative higher education partnerships with companies like Accenture, Travelers, and Pursuit Aerospace, and is known for its success in providing access to careers that disrupt cycles of poverty and equity gaps for its students, 70% of wh...

Dr. Phil Cavalier was named the 13th president of Kutztown in Pennsylvania on April 30, 2025 and will begin his tenure on July 7th. For the previous seven years, he served as the provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He also served as Interim Chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Martin from March to August 2023.

Some of Dr. Cavalier’s accomplishments during his tenure at UT Martin include leading the university in creating a strategic plan for 2025-30, developing a two five-year strategic enrollment plan, guiding the university to a...

Maria Dykema Erb, M.Ed. is the Inaugural Executive Director of the Boston University Newbury Center which was established to foster the holistic development and success of first-generation undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Maria has over three decades of higher education experience having worked at the University of Vermont, Elon University, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and currently at Boston University.  She has worked in a broad range of areas including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; student recruitment/admissions, enrollment management, academic advising, retention, and outreach; academic dean’s office and graduate/pro...

Ian F. McNeely is professor of history and senior associate dean for undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A specialist in German history and the history of knowledge, he is the author of three books, including The University Unfettered: Public Higher Education in an Age of Disruption (2025).

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Dr. Dan Volchok is currently the Assistant Dean of Student Success at Harvard University’s Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  In this role he supports nearly 5,000 Master’s and PhD students studying in 57 graduate programs across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering.  Dr. Volchok is responsible for most non-academic support services including student conduct, policy development and review, major events such as orientation, convocation and commencement, emergency management and collaboration with university services including disability services, general counsel, health services, registrar, campus police and international students.  

Prior to Harvard, Dr. Volchok was Ass...

Teresa R. Rivenes is currently the Senior Vice President for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, also known as the NWCCU, which is a previously regional and now international accreditation agency. Before this role, Dr. Rivenes served as the Vice President at Umpqua Community College and as the Vice President of Academic and Student Services at Tillamook Bay Community College, both located in Oregon. At both institutions, she focused on systemic change, transforming struggling assessment processes into shining examples of assessment and accreditation success. She also led the first faculty teams in Oregon to eliminate developmental...

Dr. Nariman Farvardin, Stevens Institute of Technology's seventh president since 2011, has transformed the university into a nationally prominent technological research powerhouse. Under his leadership, undergraduate applications surged 294%, enrollment rose 62% and career outcomes reached an impressive 96.8% of graduates employed or in graduate school within six months. Farvardin's tenure has driven a 199% increase in research funding and $500 million in campus improvements, including the landmark University Center Complex. His innovative academic initiatives and creation of new research centers have positioned Stevens at the forefront of technology education, preparing graduates to excel in an increasingly complex, technology-centric world. Access his full...

Dr. Koch is a child of immigrants who came to the United States in pursuit of a better life. His first language was not English, and postsecondary education was valued by his family as a means for realizing the American Dream. A recipient of need-based aid while in school, Koch is a staunch advocate for and leader of efforts that increase student access to and, ultimately, completion of postsecondary education. He has worked in and with higher education institutions for over 30 years. He has done so since 2010 at the Gardner Institute where he was named Chief Executive Officer in 2021.<...

James Black, Ph.D. is an administrative faculty member currently serving as the Director of Student and Academic Affairs in the Office of Graduate Education at Georgia Tech. He reports to the Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education and is a member of her leadership team. In his role as director, he supports a team of faculty and staff that manages student services and success programs for Tech's more than 8,000 on-campus master's and doctoral students. These services and programs address all phases of the graduate student life cycle and graduate student experience. He is the creator o...

Dr. April Perry (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the M.Ed. Higher Education Student Affairs program and serves at Department Head/Chair for Human Services at Western Carolina University. Her research is primarily on college student identity development, career development, student transitions, and institutional initiatives for student success. She is the co-editor of the recent book - A Practitioner's Guide to Supporting Graduate and Professional Students (Routledge, 2022).
As a practitioner, April has worked in Student Leadership Programs, Parent & Family Programs, Fundraising & Marketing, Academic Tutoring Services, Graduate School Administration, and has served in various leadership roles in...

Cate Denial is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. A winner of the American Historical Association’s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching award, Cate has served as a member of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Digital Public Library of America, as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and as a Learned Scholar for the National Historic Landmarks division of the National Park Service.  Cate currently sits on the board of Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life. She has held an Andrew W. Mel...

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 one of the nation’s best community colleges.

Isis Artze-Vega 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 in...

Chaouki T. Abdallah became the tenth president of the Lebanese American University (LAU) on October 1, 2024. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President for Research at The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), from September 2018 until September 2024.

Under Dr. Abdallah’s leadership, research expenditures at Georgia Tech increased significantly from approximately $850 million at the start of his term in 2018 to $1.45 billion as of December 2023. Dr. Abdallah previously served as the 22nd president of the University of New Mexico. His efforts there contributed to an 8% increase in first-year student retention and a 125% increase in four-year graduation rates. A pr...

For nearly a decade, Amanda worked in TRiO programs, spending a year with Talent Search and the next nine leading an Upward Bound project. In 2008, she joined the staff at Marietta College directing the Academic Resource Center (ARC). As the Director of the ARC, Amanda has led the center in tremendous growth including such activities as developing the PioPREP Academy bridge program, the Campus Food Pantry, and co-advising the Tri-Alpha first-generation national honor society to name a few. Under her direction, the ARC has achieved and renewed national certification from the College Learning Center Association’s (CRLA) International Tutor Tr...

Gregory (Greg) L. Heileman, Ph.D., currently serves as the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, where he is responsible for facilitating collaboration across campus to strategically enhance quality and institutional capacity related to undergraduate programs academic administration. He has served in various administrative capacities in higher education since 2004.

Greg Heileman’s experience includes work in the areas of faculty development, institutional research, accreditation and academic program review, curriculum management, student success, academic advisement, tutoring, student health & wellbeing, student conduct, budget and finance, economic development, policy de...

Dr. Taylor W. Acee is professor in and program coordinator of the Graduate Program in Postsecondary Student Success in Learning, Literacy, and Mathematics at Texas State University. His research is focused on college student learning, motivation, and self-regulation, and assessments and interventions related to these areas. A major area of his research and practice is focused on postsecondary learning-to-learn courses. 

Faculty profile: https://faculty.txstate.edu/profile/1921174

Dr. Russ Hodges is an associate professor in the College of Education at Texas State University (TXST), where he co-created and t...