Meet NASFAA's MVPs

NASFAA's Most Valuable Professional is a series that features a brief Q&A with a different NASFAA member every couple of weeks. Do you know a financial aid colleague with something interesting to say? Send the names of potential future MVPs and a short note about why you're nominating them to [email protected]

  • MVP Dr. Kimberley Willis
    February 12, 2024 - Meet Dr. Kimberley Willis, director of financial aid at The College at Brockport State University of New York. Kimberley has worked in higher education since 1999 but only recently made the transition to financial aid at the tail end of 2019. Prior t...
  • MVP Brian Drabik, FAAC®
    October 24, 2023 - Meet Brian Drabik, FAAC®, director of financial aid operations at Northwestern University. Brian got his start in the profession as a financial aid counselor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For Brian, the financial aid profession is the...
  • MVP Catherine M. Boscher-Murphy
    September 25, 2023 - Meet Catherine Boscher-Murphy, associate director of financial aid at Montclair State University. Throughout her 41-year financial aid career, Catherine has found herself continually drawn to working in an academic environment. Outside of her on...
  • MVP Heather Boutell, FAAC®
    August 2, 2023 - Meet Heather Boutell, FAAC®, director of financial aid at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Heather’s career started when she entered a student personnel graduate program at the University of Louisville. Looking for a ...
  • MVP Alex DeLonis, FAAC®
    June 12, 2023 - Meet Alex DeLonis, FAAC® director of financial aid at Wabash College in Indiana. As a first-generation college student, Alex got his start in the financial aid office through a Federal Work-Study position.  Alex recently joined...
  • Melet Leafgreen, FAAC®
    May 22, 2023 - Meet Melet Leafgreen, FAAC®. Melet’s initial career plan was to become a minister after completing her undergraduate program, but when she relocated to Fort Worth, Texas to begin seminary, a job at her graduate school’s ...
  • MVP Heidi Carl
    April 24, 2023 - Meet Heidi Carl. Heidi got her start in financial aid when she was working as a program director for the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, a job she held for eight years. When considering if she should try a different career, Heidi’s ...
  • MVP Charles Mayfield, FAAC®
    March 23, 2023 - Meet Charles R. Mayfield Jr., FAAC®. Charles got his start in financial aid shortly after wrapping up his undergraduate program at Missouri Valley College with a stint in student affairs at Lindenwood University that quickly opened the door to th...
  • MVP Ryan West, FAAC®
    February 14, 2023 - Meet Ryan West, FAAC®. Ryan started his career as an auditor for a public accounting firm, but would later move back to his alma mater, Western Oregon University, as a financial aid counselor. Now, 21 years later, Ryan is the execut...
  • MVP Kathy Bialk, FAAC®
    December 20, 2022 - Meet Kathy Bialk, FAAC®. Kathy got her start in financial aid after a short stint as a residence life director, which helped her find an open position in a financial aid office. "After graduating from college and then taking a ...
  • MVP Gena Boling, FAAC®
    November 30, 2022 - Meet Gena Boling. Gena got her start in higher education in 2003, first working in student affairs where she focused on student conduct, student government, and Greek life. From there, Gena moved to residence life before eventually tran...
  • MVP Jacquelyn LeSueur
    October 18, 2022 - Meet Jacquelyn LeSueur. Jacquelyn got her start in financial aid shortly after completing her bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University and working as an administrative assistant at the University of Tennessee Health Science C...
  • MVP Patti Kohler, FAAC®
    September 21, 2022 - Meet Patti Kohler, FAAC®, vice president of financial aid at Western Governors University. Patti got her start in financial aid as a financial aid counselor at Utah State University and has worked in financial aid for 17 years. Whil...
  • MVP Sharon Oliver
    June 21, 2022 - Meet Sharon Oliver, FAAC®, the director of scholarships and student financial aid at North Carolina Central University. Sharon has worked in financial aid for more than 30 years, getting her start as a work-study student in the Offi...
  • MVP Traci Armes
    May 31, 2022 - Meet Traci Armes. Traci got her start in higher education when she was looking to work for her local university in the human resources department, but through her interview process was directed to an opening in the financial aid office....
  • MVP Sharmain Talbert
    April 18, 2022 - Meet Sharmain Talbert. Sharmain is the interim assistant director of enrollment services at Southern University at Shreveport. When she first got started in financial aid after starting her career in the nonprofit sector managing a...
  • MVP Joan Bailey
    March 8, 2022 - Meet Joan Bailey. Joan is the director of financial aid at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Office of Financial Aid. In some ways, being the director there has brought her career full circle, as she got her start in financia...
  • MVP Nicholas Prewett, FAAC®
    February 24, 2022 - Meet Dr. Nicholas Prewett, FAAC®. Nick has now been working in the financial aid profession for two decades and has become increasingly involved in development opportunities as a way of paying forward the skill set he’s develo...
  • MVPs Archive
    December 31, 2021
View Desktop Version