I was a first-generation college student who believes in the power of education to transform lives. I have seen evidence of that in my own life and in the lives of countless students with whom I have interacted over the course of my career.

My educational path was neither straight nor traditional. I worked through high school and navigated and paid for college with my own earnings and loans. I made an initial uninformed poor choice of college and major, which led me to transfer my sophomore year. My next college, while suited to my personality and passions, was actually financially out of my reach. After a year of living on campus and fully engaging in my studies, I moved off campus and took on a full-time job, which was not sustainable. It took me 12 years to complete my undergraduate degree– but I did finally finish and go on to further my education and have been working in higher education ever since.

While I have been a member of many professional organizations, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers (AACRAO) was my professional home for all of my career. I joined the staff in 2015 as Deputy Director. In my 18 years as an AACRAO member, I had broad institutional experience in Records and Registration, Enrollment Management and International Recruitment and Credential Evaluation at four private higher education institutions.

My focus at AACRAO is on projects pertaining to increasing college access, student success and completion through the lens of Strategic Enrollment Management and in international education policy development, specifically pertaining to comparative international education. The Purpose First initiative is my first project with Complete College America.