Vanessa Miranda

Vanessa Miranda is the Director for Transfer and Admission Enrollment Services at Loyola Marymount University. She is responsible for collaborating with community college partners and across the institution to create partnerships, programs, and initiatives that best support prospective and current transfer students. She is a strong advocate for transfer students in all stages of their […]

Steve Ciesielski

Steve is beginning his 21st year working as a higher-education professional. He has held positions in Residence Life, Wellness, and Student Affairs. He is currently the Assistant Dean of Student Success for the School of Nursing at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA. Steve received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Providence […]

Rebecca Gentry

Rebecca Gentry serves as the University of Houston’s Associate Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Leadership Gifts in the Division of Advancement and Alumni. She oversees the leadership/principal gifts program, including presidential engagement strategies, board and volunteer engagement, student philanthropy ambassadors, special projects and strategic planning, and serves on the Division of Advancement and Alumni’s leadership […]

Gabe Paquette

Before becoming Associate Provost at the University of Maine in February 2023, Gabe Paquette served as Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Oregon, where he oversaw faculty review processes, including those related to tenure and promotion. Gabe first joined Oregon as dean of the Clark Honors College in 2018 and moved to […]

Cheryl Cerny

Cheryl is the Associate Vice President of Advancement Operations and Campaign Director of a $350 million philanthropic campaign at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. She has 22 years of leadership experience in fundraising operations, which includes positions at MIT, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Bentley University. In 2014, Cheryl led the WPI Advancement Information Technology […]

Samantha Nielsen

In addition to her current role, Sam has also been an active member of the Professional Development Committee at CMU since 2019, where she is charged with creating training opportunities for all advisors on the CMU campus. Prior to this role she served as an Academic Advisor in Statistics & Data Science at CMU, as […]

Laura Donaldson

With nearly 17 years’ experience in higher education, Laura’s passion for and commitment to students remains her primary focus. She believes deeply in meeting students where they are and in supporting them fully so that they can get to where they want to be. At CMU English, Laura developed the Major Buddy Program, which connects […]

Ivan Lui

Ivan is the Data and Quality Coordinator for The Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe communities and career pathways for young people in the Twin Cities area. A native Californian, he moved to Minnesota years ago to work as an engineer. Since then, he has switched gears and earned […]

Sherri Braxton

Sherri Braxton is the inaugural Senior Director for Digital Innovation at Bowdoin College. By way of partnerships across the college, she leads efforts to identify, prioritize, and pursue opportunities for digital innovation in both curricular and co-curricular learning spaces while building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 impacted academic terms. Her work also extends to […]

Belinda Higgs Hyppolite, Ed.D.

Belinda joined the OU Executive team and the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer on January 6, 2020. In her 26-year career in higher education, she served in various leadership roles and responsibilities, starting in Student Affairs, where she worked on retention for […]