Higher Educational Expertise
Student success and equitable outcomes
Manage about $30 million in philanthropic grants at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help close gaps in college outcomes for underserved groups, with the goal of adding 75,000 new degrees for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and low-income students over the next decade.
Achieved record freshman retention rate of 90.4% at UCF through a high-intensity initiative involving $100,000 in continuation grants, a robust communication plan, collaboration among colleges and student affairs teams, predictive analytics and user-friendly operational improvements to student registration. At the same time, reached an all-time high 72.6% six-year graduation rate, placing UCF in the top 50 nationally among public research universities.
Achieved record first-generation and low-income student success at Purdue. Expanded scholarship and support programs while achieving a remarkable first-year retention rate of 92%.
Support the exploration and diligence of a university with racial equity in its DNA to emerge as a next-generation, national-scale enterprise designed to serve Black, Latinx and Indigenous students at scale, with the goal of eliminating differences in U.S. degree attainment related to race, income and location.
Led efforts at UCF to strategically develop digital learning, including a $4.5 million investment in digital learning course redesign that leveraged online, blended, active and adaptive learning to improve student success, retention and satisfaction. The multi-year initiative sought to transform 100 courses, train up to 120 faculty and change eight traditional classrooms to technology-enhanced active learning classrooms – ultimately impacting up to 50,000 student enrollments. Supported creation of UCF’s Digital Learning Center to bring together about 80 digital learning staff members spanning three buildings across campus. UCF’s digital learning efforts were lauded by Bill and Melinda Gates during their campus visit and highlighted in Gates’ blog. Also ranked among the nation’s top 15 best undergraduate online programs in January 2019 by U.S. News & World Report, a school record.
Growth, scaling and digital learning
Leadership, governance and organizational change
Conducted a landscape analysis for Grant Thornton’s Higher Education and Non-Profit Sector Practice on how large-scale, rapidly growing, digitally advanced institutions address educational equity among low-income students and students of color.
Provided executive leadership over the academic enterprise, operations, athletics and fundraising for an emerging preeminent urban public research university with more than 68,000 students, more than 13,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $1.9 billion. Ensured leadership in innovative community partnerships, world-class research with local impact and integrating technology and learning to best serve students.
Reorganized the president's cabinet at UCF to focus on partnerships, innovation, inclusion and accountability. Diversified the leadership team and President’s Office, and restructured the President’s Office to be a model for customer service, efficiency and improved internal communication and processes.
Partnered with Association of Governing Boards to improve Board/Administration shared governance principles and initiated new, comprehensive education and training program for Board of Trustees, including the initiation of annual trustee budget workshops.
Invest in developing a comprehensive set of technology tools and partnerships to address the national credit mobility challenge and create a marketplace that establishes value more equitably for people with credits and certificates and provides smoother pathways to jobs and economic mobility.
Invest in partnerships among high schools, districts, community colleges and universities to develop streamlined pathways that allow students to earn 30 credits by high school graduation and an AA degree by the 13th grade at no cost to students.
Launched the Central Florida Education Ecosystem Database, a first-of-its-kind partnership with UCF, local K-12 districts, Valencia College and Helios Education Foundation to track student success through shared data and predictive analytics from prekindergarten to postsecondary schools. The research initiative will benefit about 390,000 PreK through postsecondary students in and around Orlando.
Broke ground on UCF’s Lake Nona Medical Center, which is supported through a partnership with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), one of the largest private health systems in Florida, as a teaching hospital for UCF’s College of Medicine and anchor for its Academic Health Sciences Center that brings together the school’s health-related programs and research. The medical center is next to a new UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center that houses cancer researchers, clinical trials and treatment.
Partnerships and innovation
Strategic finance, business modeling and fundraising
Provided support and guidance to universities as they made strategic financial and resource decisions in response to COVID-19, which included a deep understanding of mission/value-based decision making, scenario analysis, resource tradeoffs and impacts on student success and enrollment.
Achieved record research funding at UCF of $183 million in 2018, a 23% increase over prior year, because of aggressive goals to increase the institution’s awards thorough multidisciplinary work, strategic faculty hires in cross-disciplinary cluster teams, and strengthening the Office of Research’s leadership and faculty support services. UCF was ranked one of the nation’s top 50 public research universities the same year.
Helped secure more than $150 million in philanthropic gift commitments as a key steward in UCF’s $500 million IGNITE campaign. Cultivated several of the university’s largest gifts, including $10.25 million to support business and athletics programs. Conducted more than 40 personalized visits and calls within the first 100 days as president to steward relationships with top donors and prospects.