Posted on August 3, 2017 by bjohnson@completecollege.org -
Dr. Loretta Ussery Griffy has worked on a college campus over 25 years. She currently serves as the Associate Provost for Student Success at Austin Peay State University (APSU) and Professor of Mathematics and Statistics. Her work on campus focuses on promoting student success and a culture of self-improvement on campus through development, implementation and assessment of initiatives focused on the teaching, learning, and advising environment in a collegiate setting. Her teaching experiences are founded in developmental studies mathematics, which inform and guide her work with college students and faculty. She is engaged on campus in developing initiatives that utilize emerging technology to inform student faculty interaction and focus high impact work on high need areas. She is responsible for faculty development and engagement in student orientation events, academic advising, and the university success initiatives at her institution. As APSU began to focus on students’ first year experiences, success structures were developed to help students identify broad areas of academic focus (meta-major), structured 4-year and 2-year plans were developed and institutionalized as part of the curriculum development and annual update process, technology tools identified to ease the burden of degree planning and course registration, data utilized to inform intervention need, attention paid to the belonging and cultural needs of students, and early engagement with faculty and like-minded peers encouraged. Additionally, over the past few years, she has served as the principal investigator Department of Education Title III grant, as co-principal investigator for a National Science Foundation grant, and executive sponsor PI for a Breakthrough Models Incubator NextGen Learning grant, and Integrated Planning and Advising Services grant.
Posted on August 1, 2017 by bjohnson@completecollege.org -
Timothy Renick is Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success, Vice Provost, and Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University. He has served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Honors Program. Since 2008, he has directed the student success and enrollment efforts of the university, overseeing among the fastest improving graduation rates in the nation and the elimination of all achievement gaps based on students’ race, ethnicity or income level. Dr. Renick has testified on strategies for helping university students succeed before the U.S. Senate and has twice been invited to speak at the White House. His work has been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN and cited by President Obama. He was named one of 2016’s Most Innovative People in Higher Education by Washington Monthly and was the recipient of the 2015-16 Award for National Leadership in Student Success Innovation from the University Innovation Alliance. He currently is principal investigator for a $9 million U.S. Department of Education grant to study the impact of proactive, predictive-analytics-based advisement on ten-thousand low-income and first-generation students nationally. A summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Renick holds his M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University.
Posted on August 1, 2017 by bjohnson@completecollege.org -
Dr. Nia Woods Haydel is the Director of the Academic Center for Excellence, the Thompson/Cook Honors Program and Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard University. Dr. Haydel has been a higher educational professional for over 18 years working in Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, Academic Affairs and Intercultural Relations. In her current role, she oversees the University’s retention initiatives, as well as academic advising, progression and academic enrichment initiatives and service learning for first-year students, and coordinates initiatives for Honors students. Additionally, she is responsible for assessment initiatives within the first-year experience. Her research interests are in the areas of social justice specifically focusing on power and privilege, and the responsibility of higher education to educate the community on social injustice (higher education as a public good). She earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of New Orleans, M.S. in Higher Education Administration from Texas A & M University and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from Georgia State University. She resides in New Orleans, LA with husband and their 3 children.
Posted on August 1, 2017 by bjohnson@completecollege.org -
Dr. Tristan Denley currently serves as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the University System of Georgia. Before moving to Georgia in May 2017 he served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents from August 2013 until May 2017, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Austin Peay State University from January 2009. Originally from Penzance, England, Dr. Denley earned his PhD in Mathematics from Trinity College Cambridge, and held positions in Sweden, Canada, and the University of Mississippi before coming to Tennessee. 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. He began 2017 by being named as one of five higher education leaders to watch in 2017 (and beyond) by Education Dive.
His most recent work has been to transform developmental education and advising at a system scale. His work continues in using a data informed approach to implement a wide variety of system scale 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.
Denley, first at Austin Peay and now system wide, has spearheaded the full scale implementation of corequisite academic support for virtually all Tennessee Board of Regents’ students who would have traditionally been placed into remedial education. The scaling of Corequisite Support was completed after careful analysis of system level data and additional research that confirmed that Corequisite Support was a superior approach to ensuring gateway course success of all students, regardless of their initial preparation as assessed by the ACT.
Teams will find Dr. Denley’s expertise helpful in understanding:
- The evidence base for Corequisite Support.
- A process for utilizing data and research to build and confirm the case for large scale reform of Corequisite Support.
- The process for engaging faculty and institutional leaders in the reform process.
- How to transition from an initial reform model to a new model, in a short time frame, using research and analysis.
- Implementing a math pathways strategy that enables students to enroll in gateway math courses that are aligned to a student’s program of study.
- How to leverage existing policy and develop new policies to codify reforms.
- How to implement reforms in a performance based funding environment.
Posted on August 1, 2017 by bjohnson@completecollege.org -
Kimberly Beatty is currently serving as Vice Chancellor for Instructional Services and Chief Academic Officer at Houston Community College. In this role, she is laser focused on student success and ensures the academic integrity of all programs. Since her arrival at HCC in January 2015, Dr. Beatty has led the institution through a major transformation of instructional services. On July 31, Dr. Kimberly Beatty will transition to a new position as the eighth chancellor of the Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri.
Prior to HCC, Dr. Beatty was the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success at Tarrant County College (TCCD) where she was responsible for district wide implementation of Achieving the Dream, Upward Bound, College Access and Outreach, Title III, and process improvement of student development services and success initiatives.
She is a three-time graduate of Morgan State University receiving a B.A. in English, M.A. in English, and Ed.D. in Higher Education, Community College Leadership. She has over 25 years of experience in higher education with 16 years at the community college level. She has served as an Associate Professor in English and maintained progressive leadership roles at Cypress College (California) and Tidewater Community College (Virginia). Beatty has served on a number of boards at the State and National level. She has a strong commitment to the community, student success, and diversity.
Dr. Beatty has a passion for strengthening the pipeline of college-ready students entering community colleges as demonstrated through her development and implementation of the Black Studies Program (CC), expansion of the dual enrollment and First College programs (TCC), the development and implementation of an Upward Bound program (TCC), development and implementation of student success initiatives targeting underprepared students (TCCD), and expanding dual credit programs (HCC).
Dr. Beatty has been the recipient of the Damiani Award for Commitment to Global Education (TCC), Regina Standback-Stroud Award for Commitment to Diversity in Higher Education, California State Academic Senate, and Dean’s Award for Achievement (CC). In August 2016, Dr. Beatty was honored as one of the Top 30 Most Influential Women of Houston.
CCRC describes GPS Direct at Volunteer State Community College, including early results, questions facing the college, and suggested next steps.
An essential component of a GPS Direct system is an advising protocol. Use this protocol checklist and template to ensure effective advising at your institution.
Checklist of the essential components for the implementation of GPS Direct.
Sample academic maps for both two-year and four-institutions.
