Blue Icon Independent Consultants
Blue Icon contracts with independent consultants to perform work for school clients by matching the needs of the school with the expertise of the consultant. Work may take place onsite or virtually, depending on the needs of the school. Learn more about each of our consultants by selecting their name below.
This page is updated regularly but all consultants may not be listed. If you have any questions, contact Kendra Allen, Workforce Manager, at [email protected].
* Certified Financial Aid Administrator (FAAC®)
~ Standards of Excellence (SOE) Peer Reviewer
Pete Aiello, SOE Peer Reviewer
Pete has worked in the financial aid industry since 2003 and has been leading the financial aid office at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since 2012. During his career, he has spent time at both public and private universities, served both undergraduate and graduate populations, and worked with Peoplesoft and Banner. He has been involved with both state and national associations, and he is thrilled to be able to work with Blue Icon to assist institutions and students across the country.
Renae Armentrout, FAAC®
Renae is currently the associate director of financial aid for Coe College. Her career in financial aid began in 2010 and her experience includes working as a Director at a small-private college and a community college. Renae earned her FAAC designation in 2019 and has thirteen NASFAA credentials. She looks forward to helping schools to evaluate their policies and procedures and assisting in streamlining their processes. She enjoys her involvement with her state and regional associations and the networking opportunities that they provide.
Phil Asbury, SOE Team Leader
Phil is the director of financial aid at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He has worked in the financial aid profession since 1991 and has been a director since 1998. His extensive background includes work at various institution types, where he has helped with implementation of the two most prevalent student information systems. He has been a lead negotiator in negotiated rulemaking and has conducted many presentations locally and nationally related to the financial aid profession. Phil has been providing consulting services since 2000 through the NASFAA's Standards of Excellence (SOE) Review Program and other endeavors.
Jessica Ayres, SOE Peer Reviewer
Since beginning in financial aid in 2000, Her career has taken her to state universities, private non-profit and private for-profit institutions, clock-hour schools, and even a few years at a FFELP lender. She has six NASFAA credentials and has served on multiple NASFAA, WASFAA, KASFAA, and CASFAA committees as well as sits on the PowerFaids Advisory Board. Twice she has been recognized for outstanding customer service. Currently, she works at California Western School of Law. When she is not "nerding" out about financial aid you can find her biking all over San Diego trails or spending time at the beach.
Brad Barnett, FAAC®
Brad is the associate vice president of access & enrollment management/director of financial aid and scholarships at James Madison University. Starting in the profession in 1994, Brad has been active in state, regional, and national financial aid associations as a presenter, committee member and chair, and elected officer, and has received several awards from the associations he has served. Brad started with the SOE program in 2012: "It's hard to explain the joy I feel from helping another school address an issue. I've been on reviews where you can see the staff are hungry for help, very appreciative for us being there, and willing to engage in some fantastic conversations about how to improve what they are doing. I know when I go home that I've made a positive difference on that campus, and I also know the people at the school often leave a positive mark on me."
Liz Baskerville
Liz Baskerville has over 16 years of experience in higher education. Currently she is the associate director of financial aid advising at Johns Hopkins University. Liz has experience with summer aid programs, study abroad, RA benefits, international aid, and athletic pre-reads. Prior to joining the Hopkins community, Liz contributed her expertise as a financial aid advisor at Lincoln College of Technology, managing file reviews, and the packaging of federal and private loans. Prior to Lincoln, Liz worked for University of Phoenix as a senior financial aid advisor. At University at Phoenix, she played a key part in training both new and tenured advisors.
Lisa Berrien, SOE Peer Reviewer
Lisa is the senior associate director of scholarships and financial aid at Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and began her financial aid career in 1993. In her current role at GT, she oversees daily operations and compliance in the office. Lisa is an active member in her state (GASFAA) and regional (SASFAA) associations, and she joined the NASFAA SOE review team in 2019. Since this time, she has enjoyed the opportunity to visit colleagues and review how they administer financial aid policies. "It's a pleasure learning how other institutions manage daily operations, and, in return, sharing best practices or process improvements to help ensure compliance and serve students efficiently and effectively."
Gena Boling, FAAC®
Gena is a seasoned strategic enrollment manager who excels at the intersection of student experience, academic innovation, and institutional compliance. With over 20 years of experience leading teams in public and private institutions ranging from 800 to 35,000 students, Gena specializes in enrollment and compliance program management. She emphasizes collaboration among institutional offices responsible for FERPA, Title IV of the HEA, and GLBA compliance. Prior to her role in enrollment management, Gena worked as a financial aid administrator, focusing on Title IV compliance and technology solutions. She successfully navigated three US Department of Education Federal Program Reviews and frequently draws on her background in student affairs to implement student-friendly compliance initiatives. Gena holds 17 NASFAA Credentials and enjoys brainstorming innovative ideas for navigating the higher education compliance landscape.
Steve Booker, SOE Team Leader
Steve began his financial aid career in 1994, and currently serves as associate vice president and director of financial aid at Rollins College. Experienced in Banner and PeopleSoft at both private and public universities, Steve is very familiar with technology as it relates specifically to financial aid and the interactions across campus. He joined the SOE team in 2011: "I enjoy getting to meet colleagues at other institutions and supporting the amazing work each financial aid office is doing. Each review is unique and helps to refine my knowledge which leads to recommendations that are tailored to help meet the goals of that particular institution."
Wes Brothers
Wes currently serves as the assistant vice president for finance and operations for Columbia International University. He began his financial aid career in 2006. His desire is to provide seamless, professional service to your staff and students to accomplish your current needs and future goals. He oversees financial aid processes for standard and non-standard programs and has consulted with schools that have added non-standard programming. In addition to non-standard programs, his areas of expertise include integrating student information systems with financial aid management systems, Title IV training for staff and at conferences, preventing and reducing cohort default rates, and Title IV aid reconciliation. Wes also enjoys helping colleagues by providing remote director level support.
Jennifer Buckles
Jennifer is currently the director of business affairs and previously the director of financial aid at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). She began working in financial aid in 2008 and has experience in both private and public universities. She has extensive experience processing financial aid using Banner, Automic, and Argos with an expertise in student loan processing. She is passionate about using automation and other ways of improving efficiency to provide a better staff and student experience.
Amy Cable, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Amy is the chief student affairs officer at the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. Amy is an experienced leader in education and training, enrollment management and financial aid. Under Amy's guidance, she successfully implemented multiple financial aid initiatives that uses state dollars to increase enrollment for adult students, managed the creation and implementation of an enrollment management support team and was instrumental in the implementation of an integrated student information system that encompasses both credit and non-credit students. Throughout her career, she co-authored "Developing Your Star Qualities: Preparing Yourself to Become the Director," serves on the NASFAA Publications Editorial Board and presented on many financial aid and enrollment management topics including default management and communication for a greater influence. She serves as the past president of the Louisiana Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, past president for the Southwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and serves on multiple NASFAA committees.
John Cage, FAAC®
John is currently the director of financial aid at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. He has worked in financial aid since 2010 and has experience at both private and public 4-year and 2-year institutions. John has extensive enrollment management experience and is committed to fostering collaboration between campus stakeholders to better improve the student services experience. His interests include the modernization of aid processes and procedures and the use of technology resources to expand accessibility. John is a Certified Financial Aid Administrator.
Kay Campbell
Kay Campbell has worked in higher education for over ten years and most recently served as the associate director of outreach at Johns Hopkins University. Kay is passionate about financial literacy, providing access to financial aid and guidance to students in attaining their educational goals. She served as a financial aid counselor before moving on to leadership roles where she provided peer mentorship, and served on various financial aid committees. She is well-versed in institutional and federal methodologies and has managed programs such as study abroad and state aid. She has a bachelor's degree in business management and finance from CUNY Brooklyn College and an MBA from Capella University.
Mary Cannon
Mary began her career in financial aid in 2003 at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio where she served as a financial aid counselor primarily for adult students. She soon became a director of financial aid in 2006 and served as a director of financial aid and financial services throughout her career largely at private, liberal arts universities. Most recently and for the last eight years, Mary served as the director of student financial services at a single-focus (nursing) college. She is passionate about financial aid and Title IV administration; loves sharing her knowledge; enjoys coaching and mentoring colleagues and is dedicated to learning something new every day.
Crystalann Carle
Crystalann has been working in financial aid since 2006. She has extensive experience in public four-year institutions, community colleges, and a brief stint in private for-profit education. Currently, she serves as the Assistant Director of Financial Aid for Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Crystalann is passionate about making the financial aid journey as smooth and painless as possible for students. She thrives on the dynamic nature of the field, constantly seeking opportunities to learn and expand her knowledge. Her expertise includes front-end customer service, Direct Loan processing and reconciliation, Federal Pell Grant management and reconciliation, verification, professional judgment (PJ), and Federal Work-Study administration.
Steve Cassel
Steve Cassel has over thirty years of financial aid director experience at private schools, four-year institutions, and two-year schools. Most recently he served as director of financial aid at Cairn University and prior to that at Moravian University, the 6th oldest college in the US. Steve has expertise in both federal and institutional methodologies and has a strong knowledge of Pennsylvania state grant programs. His leadership experience has focused on compliance, operations, customer service and staff training with a goal of highest quality service to students to reach enrollment and other institutional goals. Steve’s passions include making the best use of technology to provide staff with appropriate tools. He has robust knowledge of PowerFAIDS from implementation through annual updates.
Christal Chatman
Christal Chatman is currently the director of financial aid at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania and is a NASFAA Certified Financial Aid Administrator. She holds a doctorate in business administration and earned an MBA with a human resources concentration. Christal has 30 years' experience in for-profit and non-profit higher education administration within financial aid, student accounts, faculty, and as a satellite campus location leader overseeing admissions, academics, and student financial services. Christal has also served as Chair of a Staff Advisory – Task Force whose purpose was to research and make recommendation to improve staff engagement and satisfaction. She has volunteered for NASFAA and Ellucian's Colleague Financial Aid Client Advisory Board.
April Chavez
April started working in financial aid in 1997. She is currently the director of financial aid at Clovis Community College. She has served in several committee and board positions at the state level, including President of the New Mexico Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NMASFAA), as well as volunteering for the NASFAA Task Force for the Policy and Procedure Builder and the NASFAA Advocacy Pipeline. She has earned seven NASFAA credentials.
Jean Coleman
Jean joins the Blue Icon team with nearly a decade of experience in financial aid. She started her career in aid in 2014 working as a financial aid counselor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Jean currently serves as Senior Assistant Director & Manager of Federal Programs at Johns Hopkins University. Her expertise lies in the management of federal aid programs, compliance, VA certification and financial wellness. Jean holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management & Finance from The University of Akron and an MBA from The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. She’s also earned an Executive Certificate in Financial Management from Cary Business School at Johns Hopkins University. She has successfully completed ten NASFAA credentials.
Hali Conrad
Hali Conrad currently serves as senior associate director of financial aid for systems and fund management at the University of Rochester. She has earned all 17 NASFAA credentials and has worked in financial aid, athletics and admissions. Hali started working in financial aid at Blackburn College 17 years ago. Hali is a co-chair of NYSFAAA Region II along with a member of the NYSFAAA Statewide Training committee. She has presented multiple times at the College Board PowerFAIDS conference along with serving on the PowerFAIDS advisory board. Hali's passion is to make the financial aid systems work to help reduce the manual processing. She believes that through automation and quality control, financial aid officers can spend more time focusing on helping navigate the process with students.
Theresa Cowan
Theresa has over 25 years in the student finance industry and higher education in areas related to enrollment, finance, and retention of students. She has successfully created business processes for students that allow ease of access to communication, customer services, web-based self-service, and automation. In addition to assisting with software system implementation, she has instructed schools in ways to implement successful policies and procedures that would assist students in their understanding of the federal and state aid awarding and packaging procedures. Theresa has volunteered for MASFAA, CASFAA, and FASFAA, as well as multiple community service organizations.
Shannon Crossland, FAAC®
Shannon is the director of student financial services at Frank Phillips College. She began her career in financial aid in 2006. Her primary responsibilities include student financial aid compliance and administration. Shannon's expertise includes the ability to read, interpret and apply regulations, statutes, and procedures while applying standards of adherence for staff as it relates to internal policies, procedures, system requirements and adequate training opportunities. Shannon is respected and known for her knowledge, interpretation, understanding and application of federal regulations and policies and procedures development. Shannon received her associate's degree from Amarillo College, bachelor's degree in Agronomy (Soil Science) from Texas Tech University, and master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Texas Tech University. Shannon is actively involved with TASFAA, SWASFAA and NASFAA and has earned all 17 NASFAA credentials. Shannon has served on the NASFAA board of directors, the commission of the Certified Financial Aid Administrator® Program and as past president of TASFAA and SWASFAA.
Monique Crowell
Monique began her career in financial aid as a student worker during her freshman year of college. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern Mississippi, a master’s degree in business administration, and a teaching certificate from William Carey University. She has worked at various colleges and universities in Mississippi and Georgia. She has been the senior financial aid counselor at the University of Southern Mississippi for over 10 years. She is experienced in making professional judgment determinations, interpreting and implementing Title IV regulations, awarding financial aid, and preparing graduate program budgets. She looks forward to collaborating with other financial aid professionals to improve delivery of student services.
Beth Davenport, FAAC®
Since beginning her career in financial aid, Beth has worked for both nonprofit and for-profit institutions, serving undergraduate and graduate populations in both traditional and modular programs. Beth has over 15 years of experience at the director level and most recently worked for Ruffalo Noel Levitz as a senior consultant assisting schools in building custom strategies in financial aid to support enrollment goals. Beth earned her FAAC in 2020 and has multiple NASFAA credentials. She was very involved in her state association, serving as an elected official, committee chair and presenting at conferences. She has a masters degree in strategic leadership and enjoys coaching and mentoring colleagues.
Louisa Diana, FAAC®, SOE Team Leader
Louisa began her career in financial aid in 1991 as a work study student, made it a full-time career in 1995. She currently serves as an associate director of financial aid at Gonzaga University. She is involved with financial aid associations at the regional, and state levels. Louisa is a Certified Financial Aid Administrator and has been a member of NASFAA's SOE Peer Review team since 2014. Her bachelor's degree is in Sociology and she also has a master's degree in Organizational Leadership, both earned at Gonzaga. Louisa enjoys meeting people from other schools and helping them where possible.
Mark Diestler, SOE Peer Reviewer
Mark is currently the senior associate director of student financial aid and scholarships at the University of Oregon (UO). Prior to joining UO, Mark served as an institutional review specialist (AKA: "Program Reviewer") and eligibility analyst for the U.S. Department of Education. He has worked in the public and private non-profit sectors but is also very familiar with the proprietary sector. Mark has been very active in state, regional, and national associations, where he has served in a wide range of roles including serving as president of his state association. He started with the SOE program in 2016: "I enjoy learning from others and seeing different ways of doing things. Being involved helps me keep up-to-date on all areas related to financial aid, from regulations, to office operations and customer service."
Brian Drabik, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Brian Drabik is the senior associate director of financial aid at Northwestern University. Brian has been in financial aid since 1998 and has experience at both public and private institutions. Brian is an active member in the Illinois Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (ILASFAA), Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA), and NASFAA. In his current role he oversees loan processing, compliance and oversees the aid office's communication functions, particularly with first-generation low-income students, and is always looking for improvements in the way his office serves and communicates with its students, but also how staff communicate and share information with one another. Besides his financial aid role at Northwestern, Brian has also built a financial wellness program for students, including a website and programming throughout the academic year. He earned his Personal Financial Management Certification from Inceptia. In addition to his role at Northwestern, he has worked as a NASFAA Standards of Excellence peer reviewer since 2019.
Sarah Everitt, FAAC®, SOE Team Leader
Sarah Everitt has worked in higher education since 2006 and is currently the Dean of Student Financial Services at Gonzaga University. In addition to her role at Gonzaga, she has worked as a NASFAA Standards of Excellence peer reviewer since 2014 and is an active volunteer in the financial aid professional community. She loves the everyday challenges of higher education — especially leveraging technology to improve processes and service to students. Sarah is a Certified Financial Aid Administrator, and has earned seventeen NASFAA professional credentials, a Certificate in Foundational Leadership, and a master's degree in organizational leadership from Gonzaga.
Helen Faith, FAAC®
Helen Faith is the director of student financial aid at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has worked in financial aid for 21 years. She has previously worked at Lane Community College, the University of Western States, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland State University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has served as a past president of the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA) and the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (OASFAA), and as the WASFAA representative on the NASFAA Board of Directors. Helen has participated in negotiated rulemaking with the U.S. Department of Education as an alternate non-federal negotiator on student loan issues and is an active member of the financial aid community as a presenter and policy advocate at the national, regional, and state levels. Helen holds a bachelor's degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a master's degree in educational leadership and policy from Portland State University. Helen is currently serving as the national chair of the NASFAA Board of Directors.
Amy Flowers
Amy is a financial aid professional with more than 18 years of experience in various positions that have provided opportunities to work with clock hours, modular programs, SE9Ws, BBAYs, SAYs, semesters, quarters, trimesters, standard, and non-standard terms at both proprietary and not-for-profit institutions. Her experience includes hiring, training, and motivating staff; audits and program reviews; remediation; policy review and goal development. She enjoys putting together the puzzle pieces of policy, compliance, and customer service to create processes that serve both the students and the school. Always looking for new opportunities for success, she seeks out challenges and new experiences as often as possible. Amy has a bachelor's degree classical studies from Dickinson College and an MBA from Purdue Global (Kaplan).
Amber Fowler
Amber began her career in higher education in 1997 as a work-study student in the financial aid office at Reedley College. Over the next 25 years, she acquired a valuable skillset in program administration, compliance, and staff training relating to financial aid and veterans’ education benefits. She has now transitioned to academic counseling and is currently a Counselor/Coordinator at Reedley College, where she utilizes her financial aid expertise in her holistic approach to student advising. She has personally experienced the life-changing impact that financial aid can have on individuals and their families which is why she is a passionate believer that financial aid has the ability to break down barriers and make higher education accessible to all. She is dedicated to empowering students to pursue their academic goals and assisting institutions in supporting student success.
Holly Gallagher
Holly has worked in higher education for over 18 years, primarily in financial aid. She specializes in financial aid systems, with a focus on streamlining and stabilizing processes to improve the ability of frontline staff to serve students. Her systems approach is informed by extensive hands-on experience working in financial aid and student services. During her higher education career, Holly has worn many hats, including financial aid advisor, “One Stop” student services specialist, R2T4 processor, University Compliance Officer, and Associate Director of Systems. Holly has worked in public and private nonprofit institutions, with traditional and non-traditional learners. She is an expert in standard, modular, and nonterm competency-based academic calendars. She is particularly familiar with the Ellucian Banner product, recently managing a system reconfiguration to accommodate a calendar realignment. Currently, she is a financial aid technical analyst at the University of Alaska.
Jennifer Gallagher
Jennifer currently serves as the Director of Student Financial Aid at Washington College, a small private liberal arts institution. She began her career as a verification coordinator in 2006 at Coastal Carolina University, a mid-size state public institution, where she received both a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and an M.B.A. Jennifer has 18 years of financial aid experience and extensive knowledge working with Ellucian Colleague. Jennifer enjoys working with schools setting up their automated processes.
Monica Gilmore
Monica Gilmore has worked in financial aid for over fifteen years. She began her financial aid career as a student in a federal work-study position at Oakwood University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational management. She has held several positions during her time in financial aid including default coordinator, financial aid specialist, disbursement and reconciliation specialist, processing manager, and assistant director. Monica is an advanced user of the PowerFaids and PeopleSoft systems. Her expertise is in loan processing. In her most recent consultant role, she served as system support analyst and processing counselor. Monica is passionate about streamlining processes and improving efficiency to create the best student experience.
Carrie Glass
Carrie has over thirty years of financial aid experience, primarily at the Executive Director level. She has worked at all types of institutions but most of her experience is at private universities, most which have included undergraduate, graduate, law and medical schools. Carrie has extensive experience in working with health-related programs. Carrie most recently served as the Executive Director of Financial Aid at the University of Miami. She has actively participated in many FAMS and SIS implementations including PowerFAIDS and Datatel products.
Mario Gorla
Mario started his career in financial aid in 2003. He began as a file clerk and progressed to a Financial Aid Loans/Pell Processor, then became a Coach and Software Tester, and landed a position as a Sr Business Analyst in 2006. His main responsibilities include financial aid automation. He is experienced in designing and testing numerous new PeopleSoft pages and processing improvements, as well as writing design specs and test plans. He has worked in financial aid processing for UOP, Argosy, and South University. He is currently serving as a Sr. Business Analyst at Arizona State University, utilizing his analytical skills and data visualizations to improve financial aid and business processes. With a background in project management and financial aid, experience in PeopleSoft vanilla/custom/PUM and the ability to manage financial aid data in Tableau, Mario can assist with many areas of process improvement.
Andrew Hammontree, FAAC®
Andrew began his career in financial aid more than 20 years ago at Oklahoma Christian University, where he served as a scholarship coordinator, a financial aid counselor, and as associate director. For 15 years, he served as the director of financial aid at Francis Tuttle Technology Center, where he specialized in clock hour programs. In 2022, he became the director of student administrative services at Francis Tuttle. He is a past president of OASFAA (Oklahoma) and SWASFAA, and he has served on the NASFAA Board of Directors as a regional representative and as a commission director. He has also chaired several task forces for NASFAA, including the Thought Force on Under-Resourced Schools. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys reading and traveling to foreign countries.
Brenda Hicks
Brenda is the associate vice president of student financial planning and director of financial aid at Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. Brenda has been in higher education since 1991 and continues actively serving the financial aid profession at the state, regional and national financial aid associations as a trainer, committee member and chair, and elected officer. She has received awards at all levels of the profession and is in both the KASFAA and RMASFAA Hall of Fame. Brenda receives emails all the time from colleagues with questions or asking for advice. She loves helping professionals streamline their processes to make them easier for students. One of the best complements she ever received after a training was when someone said to her, "I was completely scared of taking on R2T4. Then I attended your training – and now I am going back to my director to tell them I’m ready!" Knowing she is helping others in the profession makes Brenda's heart happy.
Samantha Hicks, Ed. D., FAAC®
Samantha is currently serving as the assistant vice president of financial aid and scholarships at Coastal Carolina University. Her career in financial aid began as a student assistant in 2007 and a full-time counselor in 2010. Samantha has served in several roles, increasing in administrative responsibility. Samantha earned her FAAC designation in 2023 and has seven other NASFAA credentials. Samantha is known for her leadership skills, problem-solving abilities, and knack at crafting policies & procedures that meet both institutional needs and compliance standards with federal regulations. Samantha is experienced in financial aid leveraging strategies and uses her financial aid knowledge to influence enrollment management decisions and policies. Samantha is also well-versed in R2T4 regulations. Samantha also enjoys being involved with her state and regional associations.
Melissa Ibanez, SOE Peer Reviewer
Melissa is the associate vice president for enrollment management and director of financial aid at University of Pittsburgh at Bradford (UPB) and University of Pittsburgh at Titusville (UPT). Melissa started in financial aid in 1986, and is very active in training opportunities within her state and regional associations, including being awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 2017 and President's Award in 2015 from the Pennsylvania State Financial Aid Administrators Association. Melissa started with the SOE program in 2004 because "Compliance is my dream job. I enjoy helping others to improve their operations and I often learn something that will benefit my institution as well."
Damien Jackson
Damien is the assistant dean of student finance at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Damien brings over a quarter of a century of experience in the higher education sector, having made substantial contributions to student financial services, enrollment management, and education administration at Fisk University and Belmont University. At Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Damien oversees Title IV and institutional aid across the School of Medicine, Montefiore School of Nursing, and the Graduate School. A proud alumnus of Tennessee State University and Fisk University, Damien holds an master's degree in educational administration and a bachelor's degree in biology.
Emily Jarrell
Emily is currently the director of financial aid at Richmond Community College in North Carolina. Her career in higher education began in 2010 as a financial aid technician. Emily has been a member of the North Carolina Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NCASFAA) since 2010 and a NASFAA member since 2017. When not in the office you can find her spending time with her four legged fur children. She is excited to be on board with Blue Icon and "give back" by helping other institutions just as others have assisted her over the years.
Everett Jeter, SOE Team Leader
Everett is director of financial aid and compliance at Queens University of Charlotte and has been in financial aid since 2003. He has worked at both 2-year and 4-year public and private institutions with Colleague, Banner, and Powerfaids. In addition, he has worked with veteran's educational benefits in a compliance review capacity.
Betsy Johnson, Ph.D., SOE Team Leader
Betsy is the director of student financial aid and scholarships at Bowling Green State University. Since beginning her career in 1997, she has served in several committee and board capacities at the state and regional association level. She had an SOE review at a prior school in 2005, and joined the SOE team as a peer reviewer later that year. "I love being a SOE Peer Reviewer as it gives me the opportunity to help my colleagues in the field be in compliance, but also potentially improve a process or customer service at their institution. I truly enjoy getting to know the other reviewers and those that work at the various institutions I visit, and find I often find something that will improve a process at my own university."
Crystal Johnson
Crystal Johnson has more than 19 years of financial aid experience. She started as a federal work-study student at NC Wesleyan College, and has worked at both four-year private institutions and two-year public colleges. Proficient in financial aid systems such as Ellucian Colleague and PowerFAIDS, she has honed her skills to streamline processes and eliminate financial barriers for students. She has a passion for assisting students in planning and securing resources for their educational pursuits. Crystal has a bachelor of science in business administration and computer information systems, as well as one NASFAA credential.
Mike Johnson, FAAC®
Mike Johnson has worked as an independent consultant on Blue Icon projects since 2020. He enjoys trying to make the financial aid process understandable to a wide range of audiences; and exploring the best ways to design, implement, and communicate financial aid policies that satisfy compliance requirements while meeting the needs of students and institutions. He spent 33 years as a financial aid administrator, 20 of those as a director. He worked at public and private four-year universities and two-year public colleges in Oregon and Washington, and spent a couple of years as the Oregon client services representative for a Washington-based education loan guarantee agency. He was active in leadership, training, and professional development in OASFAA, WASFAA, and NASFAA. Upon his retirement, he was conferred lifetime memberships in OASFAA and WASFAA, and received the NASFAA Meritorious Achievement Award.
Nadege Joseph
Nadege has been working in financial aid since 2010. She has a strong background in Title IV compliance and systems and operations. In her previous role as Associate Director of Systems and Operations of Financial Aid, she merged her skill sets to revamp awarding strategies, federal Direct Loan and Pell reconciliation processes, and implemented period based budgeting to provide students with more accurate Cost of Attendance estimates. Currently, she serves as a Senior Data Analyst for the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support at The New School. In this role, she continues to report on student data and build dashboards that allow senior leadership to assess the efficacy of current institutional aid awarding models. Nadege is a strong advocate of process improvement and looks forward to helping institutions meet their service needs.
Matthew Kearney
Matthew currently serves as the director of student financial services at Southeast Missouri State University. Since 2009 he has worked in both large and medium sized public four-year institutions as well as at a small private-non-profit four-year institution. He has led two different Department of Education program reviews and multiple A-133 audits, implemented new customer service standards, and went through multiple reorganizations of offices and departments. He has been a part of some great teams who have made some fairly drastic changes to policies and procedures to better meet compliance regulations as well as meet the needs of students, families, and other constituents. He attests that the financial aid administrators live their mission of providing students a chance to gain a higher education and better their own lives. He is very excited to have the opportunity to help you, your office, and your institution meet your goals so that we can work together to help students achieve their goals.
Anna Kelly
Anna entered the financial aid profession in 1983, where she worked her way up from office administrative assistant to director. Over the past 40 years, she has worked in financial aid office leadership positions at various colleges including New England Institute of Technology, New England Institute of Art, Boston University, Emmanuel College and Berklee College of Music. She also worked as a financial aid consultant in 2003 to 2004 as Vice President of Student Services Consulting. Anna served as president of the Rhode Island Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and has presented at professional financial aid conferences including MASFAA, EASFAA and NASFAA. In April 2023, she retired from full-time employment but continues to work as a part-time financial aid consultant.
Debra Knighten, SOE Peer Reviewer
Debra started in financial aid in 1994 and is currently the compliance district director of financial aid at Dallas County Community College. During her career, she has spent time at private, public and proprietary institutions, where she has worked with numerous software systems such as Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar and CampusVue. In her spare time, you can find her putting her accounting degree to use by offering her services to CPA firms where she reviews financial statements as well as audits and prepares tax returns.
Beth Korolski
Beth currently serves as Director of Financial Aid for Virginia Wesleyan University. She has over 14 years of experience in Financial Aid, working for public, private non-profit and proprietary institutions, serving both undergraduate and graduate populations in traditional and modular programs using just about every SIS there is. She is a member of NASFAA, SASFAA and VASFAA and particularly enjoys helping students and schools achieve their goals. Beth believes that even on the administrative level we have the ability to impact the student experience in a very profound way, and that it is our duty to honor that impact with impeccable customer service.
Lauren Krigbaum
Lauren began working in financial aid in 2016 at a community college in Montana, being immersed in all aspects of federal aid in her small but mighty, 6-person team. In 2018, she moved to Idaho and became a financial aid counselor at Boise State University. She is now the assistant director of production, overseeing all back end processes. She currently serves on the Conference Committee for WASFAA, and has three NASFAA credentials. She works closely with the Systems team in her office and helped revamp multiple processes to improve efficiencies and compliance. She enjoys finding ways to improve processes that will better serve students, and make aid administrators' work more accurate and less burdensome.
Kelly Lally, FAAC®
Kelly is currently the Assistant Director of the Financial Aid Training and Compliance Team at Ivy Tech Community College. She began her career in Financial Aid as a work study student in her university's Financial Aid office in 2009 and has worked at both proprietary and public institutions since. She earned her Bachelor’s in Accounting in 2011 and Masters of Business Administration in 2016. Kelly earned her FAAC designation in 2023 and has 16 NASFAA credentials. She is involved with financial aid associations at the regional, and state level.
Sara Lambie, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Sara is currently the associate director of online student financial services for Indiana University. She has been in the industry since 2004, starting at Nelnet working in the world of FFELP loan origination, and following in various roles both in lending and financial aid at several types of institutions. The majority of her work, in both lending and student services, has focused on leadership, training, compliance, and documentation. She enjoys connecting the dots for employees, helping them understand the "why" for what they do and at the end of the day, providing exceptional customer service to our students. Sara earned her FAAC® designation in 2020.
Melet Leafgreen, FAAC®
Melet Leafgreen has worked in financial aid for 23 years. The first 16 years, she held various positions at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, then moved to University of Texas at Arlington. Since 2017, she has been the director of student financial aid at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. She has served TASFAA as a Board Member, Committee Chair, and President. Melet holds the FAAC® designation and 9 of NASFAA's professional credentials. She has been a NASFAA credential test content editor, and currently serves on the NASFAA Ethics Commission, as Chair of the Graduate Professional Issues Caucus, a SWASFAA Board member, and a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Financial Aid Advisory Committee. She has two dogs, one husband, and one fantastic 9-year-old son.
Marissa Lespinasse
Marissa Lespinasse has worked in financial aid for over a decade. She is currently the associate director of financial aid at Tulane University. Marissa has held several positions during her financial aid career, and has worked with a variety of student populations. She recognizes all aspects of the financial aid process and has experience with institutional and federal methodologies, auditing, Title IV returns, verification, and loan processing. Marissa specializes in financial wellness and debt management, and enjoys connecting with students and families. She has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northern Arizona University and an MLA from Tulane University. In her personal time she likes to travel, hang out with her family, and curl up on the couch with a good book.
Julie Lindenmeier
Julie is the director of financial aid at California State University San Marcos. She began her financial career in a customer service role in Heidelberg, Germany in 1997. Her early experience working directly with students influences and shapes the way she thinks about service and student expectations. She is always looking for creative ways to approach customer service. Julie has led two Department of Education program reviews and has managed the annual Single Audit for the past 7 years. She implemented customer service training and development, participated in multiple reorganizations of offices and departments, was the main tester and trainer for two PeopleSoft implementations and was an early adopter of CampusLogic.
Andrew Linn, SOE Peer Reviewer
Andrew began his career in higher education administration in 2006 before moving to the student financial aid office in 2009. He has held leadership positions in scholarship administration, customer service, and financial aid operations at several public four-year universities and has been a NASFAA
Standards of Excellence Peer Reviewer since 2019. Andrew currently serves as the executive director of student financial aid and scholarships at the University of Memphis. He enjoys the extraordinary comradery within the financial aid profession and is driven by turning pain points into points of pride.
Nathan Lohr, FAAC®
Nathan is Director of Financial Aid at the University of Indianapolis and has 16 years of experience in higher education. Prior to joining UIndy in June 2021, he worked for over eight years in the IUPUI Office of Student Financial Services as an assistant and associate director with a focus on graduate students, distance education, and student services. Nathan got his start in higher education at Harrison College, serving as an admissions representative, financial aid analyst, and assistant director of financial aid. Through his work at proprietary, public, and private institutions, Nathan has gained expertise in a number of areas including customized training and presentations, financial aid awarding strategy, policy and procedure development, and leveraging system setup to streamline processes. Nathan holds a Master of Business Administration from Ball State University and a Bachelor of Arts in quantitative analysis from Franklin College.
Niurka Lopez
Niurka has been the Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Ave Maria University since 2016. She also serves as the School Certifying Official (SCO) for VA benefits. She began her journey in Higher Education in 2005 at Florida International University (FIU) after acquiring her Master’s Degree in Administration of Educational Programs. In her current role she successfully manages SAP reviews, Professional Judgment, Return of Title IV, conducts presentations and training, and much more. Niurka has been instrumental in developing policies and procedures in addition to bringing her department up to date with digital forms and streamlining all procedures. Niurka is dedicated to helping students navigate the complexities of funding their education. Her career has been marked by a passion for ensuring that every student has access to resources needed to pursue their academic goals.
Rachna Madan
Rachna has worked in financial aid since 1998. She brings with her multi-faceted experience and expertise in Title IV regulation interpretation and implementation. She has managed financial aid and Title IV compliance in a multi-state, multi-institutional proprietary school environment and has extensive experience in program reviews, staff development, audit management, training programs, and technology implementation. She holds a Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP)® , which certifies her knowledge of relevant regulations and expertise in compliance processes sufficient to assist organizations in understanding and addressing legal obligations, and promote organizational integrity through the operation of effective compliance programs.
Sonnia Manzo
Sonnia has over 16 years of experience in Title IV management, compliance, and implementation. She brings a wealth of experience as both an independent consultant and an in-house leader in the field of financial aid. She has successfully managed Fiscal Operations for Title IV and financial aid across large, multi-institutional proprietary and public four-year university environments. She currently serves as the Corporate Director of Fiscal Operations at Unitek Learning, she has also held significant roles at the University of California, Irvine. Her extensive background includes the implementation of comprehensive student and faculty lifecycle information systems and the integration of various financial aid software solutions. She excels in helping schools establish robust internal controls, delivering education and training to enhance Title IV regulatory readiness, and integrating compliance within student information and financial aid processing systems.
Jerry Martinez
Jerry has worked in higher education since 2001 and in financial aid since 2003. He has been a director of financial aid at multiple institutions and has extensive experience as a financial aid consultant working with over 60 schools nationwide. Jerry understands that each institution is unique and brings comprehensive knowledge of business process reviews and analysis, ERP implementations, financial aid leveraging, policy implementation, leveraging of technology and recommendations of industry best practices. In addition to financial aid, he has multifaceted experience of bursar operations, admission operations, recruitment, and enrollment services. He has also been an active leader and participant in professional associations at the state and regional level (CAFAA and RMASFAA).
Charles Mayfield, FAAC®
Charles is currently the director of financial assistance for Northwest Missouri State University. His career in financial aid began in 2005 and includes experience working as a director at a small-private college, an associate director at a large four-year public, and a director at a medium-sized four-year public. Charles earned his FAAC designation in 2019 and has seven NASFAA credentials. He participated in negotiated rulemaking in 2009 as an alternate non-federal negotiator, during the Higher Education Act reauthorization process. Charles is respected and known for his knowledge and application of federal regulations. He looks forward to helping schools evaluate opportunities for process improvement and increased compliance. He also enjoys being involved with his state and regional associations, especially and the networking and learning opportunities they provide.
Miranda McCall, SOE Peer Reviewer
Miranda McCall is the assistant vice provost and director of duke university's office of undergraduate financial aid. Miranda started her career in financial aid in 2006, and in addition to managing the day-to-day operations of the aid office, she has enjoyed her role as a trainer for aid administrators at the state level and in her service as a faculty member at the national Financial Aid Institute. "For me, being an SOE peer reviewer is an exciting opportunity to support colleagues around the country in multiple aspects of aid administration. From regulatory compliance to service best-practices, I enjoy partnering with peers to find ways to improve their processes and provide the best student experience."
Steve J. McDowell, FAAC®
Steven J. McDowell is the Associate Vice President for Financial Aid Services & Title IV Compliance for Connecticut State Community College. He has more than 18 years of financial aid experience, including more than 15 years in the community college sector. Steve is a former CAPFAA President and has current and previous service on state and local boards supporting college access and affordability. He is a member of NASFAA’s Publications Editorial Board and has authored various pieces related to financial aid. He is passionate about higher education policy and government relations, supported by volunteer roles within CAPFAA, EASFAA, NASFAA’s Policy Rapid Response Network, and other national organizations examining the impact on public policy in higher education. Steve has won numerous awards, including CAPFAA’s Henry L. Miller Emerging Leader Award and P. Jerome Cunningham Distinguished Service Award, AACRAO’s Emerging Leader Award, and NASFAA’s Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award for authoring “Basic Guide to Financial Aid.” Steve earned his undergraduate degree in Finance from Bentley University and MBA from the University of Hartford. He is one of only three individuals nationwide holding both a FAAC® designation and an endorsement in strategic enrollment management from AACRAO.
Brandon McAnuff
Brandon is an associate director of financial aid at the University of Chicago, managing the Booth School of Business full-time student population. Brandon believes that all students should have access to affordable post-secondary education and financial and emotional support to complete those goals. Brandon has been in higher education since 2005 and has worked in many roles within higher education, such as financial aid, enrollment management, and other consulting roles. He is an expert in policy and procedures, systems, and data reporting. He has served on multiple NASFAA task force teams to improve the effort to provide students with equitable funding for school. Brandon is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Michigan's Flint campus in Educational Leadership.
Dawn Mosisa-Lowe
Dawn has over 30 years of financial aid experience at four-year public and non-profit universities, community colleges, and for-profit institutions. She has served as director of financial aid for 25 years at schools with a single financial aid office and others with several financial aid offices and dozens of locations. She has led and participated system implementations and successfully navigated colleges through program reviews on multiple occasions. Dawn served as a federal negotiator in 2000 and 2002 and has extensive volunteer leadership, training, and advocacy experience at multiple state and regional financial aid associations. Her leadership of a multi-regional association team resulted in receiving NASFAA's Gold Star Award in 2012 for advocacy work.
Ashley Munro, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Ashley is the director of financial aid at University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has been active in state, regional and national financial aid associations as a presenter, chair, and elected officer since she started in financial aid in 2005. Ashley thoroughly enjoys reviewing processes to identify inefficiencies and find streamlining opportunities. She has served as a facilitator for a campus-wide process improvement team since 2013. Ashley finds training to be a rewarding effort and has loved serving as faculty at a variety of regional training events. Assisting other financial aid officers in understanding and implementing regulations and improving practices is her favorite job! She loves financial aid because of the challenge to find ways to support students with the ever-changing rules.
Chris Natelborg
Chris has worked in higher education since 2010 and in financial aid since 2012. He currently serves as the Director of Financial Aid at Mt. Hood Community College and has been in the role since 2018. During his career, he has spent time at a private for-profit institution with short-term medical certificate programs, as well as a 4-yearprivate non-profit university with adult degree programs (bachelors and graduate). His current institution, a 2-year public school, has certificate and associate's level programs.He is familiar with Colleague and Jenzabar CX systems, and has experience with multiple academic year formats (standard, nonstandard, non-term). He successfully navigated a federal program review in 2019 and welcomes the opportunity to help others through the same process. Chris holds a Master's Degree in Management and Organizational Leadership, and has earned five NASFAA Credentials in Consumer Information, Student Eligibility, Direct Loan Program, Return of Title IV Funds, and Administrative Capability.
Hysha Nesmith
Hysha has worked in the field of financial aid for over twenty years. She has held director positions at Gallaudet University and John Hopkins University. She has also worked in the financial aid offices at Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester in NY. Her proficiency in financial aid management, compliance, automation, and outreach has led her to consult, where she is excited to help other schools. A lifelong student, Hysha has a bachelor's degree in information technology, a master's degree in public policy from RIT, an MBA from University of Rochester and a ministry degree from Liberty University. She is currently working towards her CPA.
Eric Newnum
Eric began his career in higher education in 2003 and currently serves as the federal student aid administrator for Stonehill College. He is responsible for the oversight of multiple education loan programs and ensuring compliance with federal and state regulations. He has in depth knowledge of the federal Perkins Loan program and recently completed the Perkins Loan Liquidation process. In addition to his current work, he is actively engaged in evaluating and managing internal processes and annual ERP set-up. Working in deep collaboration with information technologies he has helped develop automated workflows.
Tara O'Neil, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Tara is the associate director of financial aid at Marquette University. She has been active in state, regional and national associations as a presenter and chair. She has been inducted into the PeopleSoft higher education users group hall of fame for her demonstrated leadership, service and sustained contributions serving the community. She started her career in financial aid as a federal work-study employee at University of Wisconsin - Colleges in 1994 and has been in her current role since 2008. Prior to her current position she worked at Great Lakes Higher Education in Madison Wisconsin supporting servicing FFEL loans. "I enjoy sharing my expertise with others and have volunteered in many ways to help others in the community. One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is to evaluate risk and prepare a plan to evaluate and track future efforts toward improvement." Tara holds a bachelor's degree in international relations in American foreign policy and political science from University of Wisconsin - Madison, and a master's degree in computing from Marquette University.
Tim Opgenorth, FAAC®, SOE Team Leader
Tim is currently the director of financial aid at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has worked in financial aid since 1990. He has earned all 17 NASFAA credentials. He has worked at five different institutions and has experience working in both the public and private sectors. He has working knowledge of multiple computer systems. Tim has been peer reviewer for the Standards of Excellence (SOE) program since 2004 and has been on over forty-five different review teams, which assessed various types of institutions across the country. He has also been through three federal program reviews at two different large complex public institutions since 2012. Tim worked extensively with staff from the U.S. Department of Education during his leadership of the financial aid functional team for the University of Wisconsin System as they integrated their two and four-year campuses.
Emily Osborn, FAAC®
Emily is the director of financial aid for Northwestern University's Chicago Office, working with the Feinberg School of Medicine MD, physical therapy, physician assistant and prosthetic/orthotic students as well as the Pritzker School of Law, School of Professional Studies and Kellogg's Evening and Weekend MBA program. She began her career in financial aid as a federal work/study student and has since worked for the graduate financial aid office at the University of Chicago, as the associate director of admissions and financial aid at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, and as the director of admissions and student Affairs for the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. Emily is a graduate of Antioch College, holds a Certified Financial Aid Administrator designation and currently severs on the NASFAA Board of Directors.
Myrna Perkins, FAAC®, SOE Team Leader
Myrna is director of financial aid at Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kansas. She has worked in financial aid since 1992 and has been a peer reviewer with NASFAA's Standards of Excellence (SOE) Review Program since 2000. Myrna is also chief accreditation officer and accreditation liaison officer at Barton and has been an accreditation peer reviewer with the Higher Learning Commission since 2010. Myrna earned a bachelor's degree in English from Kansas State University and a master's degree in higher education administration with an emphasis in post- secondary education from Fort Hays State University. She has also earned all 17 NASFAA credentials. Myrna finds great satisfaction in helping other schools (and learning from them as well), networking with other financial aid professionals, and making new friends within the financial aid community.
Faith Phillips, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
Faith is the director of student financial services at Central Ohio Technical College and The Ohio State University at Newark. She started her career in financial aid as a student employee at Ohio State in 1986 and has been in her current role since 1997. Prior to her current position she worked at National Computer Systems in Iowa supporting FAA's using EDExpress. Faith has served on several committees and board roles in OASFAA and MASFAA including past-president of OASFAA. She had two SOE reviews at her current school and felt the process was so instrumental to her department and staff that she joined the SOE team in 2019. "I find the opportunity to assist my colleagues in their offices and profession very rewarding. It is helpful to our profession that financial aid administrators are not competitive and welcome the idea of sharing thoughts and ideas on how to better serve students."
Nick Prewett, FAAC®
Nick Prewett is director of financial aid at Stony Brook University. He has worked in financial aid at large public AAU institutions since 2003. He has earned all 17 NASFAA credentials and has been very involved in state, regional, and national financial aid associations, including the NASFAA board of directors and as MASFAA president. He believes that through training financial aid administrators he can help reduce barriers for students pursuing higher education. He has a Doctor of Education from the University of Kansas.
Donna Price
Donna currently serves as the Executive Director of Financial Aid, Scholarships and Veterans Education Benefits at Austin Peay State University. She has been in higher education for 32 years with 12 years in admissions and the past 20 years in financial aid. All of her higher education experience has been under the enrollment management model, which has given her broad experience in enrollment, persistence and retention of students. Donna prides herself on building an empowered and experienced staff who, together, have created an environment of efficiency, customer service, and strong compliance with two federal agencies – the Department of Education and Veterans Affairs. She considers mentoring and leadership to be one of her best strengths. She has been a part of high-level campus committees and discussions and can navigate the political scene, which is instrumental to the success of a financial aid office. In addition to team development, Donna has worked with enlisting third-party vendors to search for ways to improve services, enrollment and retention in the current challenging higher education environment.
JoEllen Price, Ed.D., FAAC®
JoEllen Price started her career in 1988 and became a financial aid director in 1992, and currently serves as the dean of financial aid and scholarships at San Jacinto College. She has led financial aid operations at five different institutions (public, private and proprietary) in four states. Positions held include executive director of student financial programs overseeing student accounts and financial aid; assistant vice president of enrollment management overseeing admissions, financial aid, and marketing; interim director of institutional research; and registrar. She also served as the vice president of operations for full-service financial aid consulting company working with over 50 colleges and universities providing a variety of consulting and remote processing services. JoEllen earned a bachelor's degree in business, an MBA, a master's degree in information technology, and completed her doctorate in education in 2022.
Alison Rabil, Ed.D.
Alison has worked in financial aid at both public and private four-year universities since 1989 and enjoys helping students access the aid they need to complete their educations. She came to financial aid, as many do, by accident but found that it really played to her strengths in organization and management. Her most recent university aid positions have been as the Interim Asst. Vice President of Financial Aid and Scholarships at Texas Tech University and as the Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to having worked in university financial aid, she has also served as a Blue Icon consultant and a Standards of Excellence reviewer assisting a range of institutions with compliance, organization, and best practices. She holds a doctorate in Organization and Leadership in Higher Education and a Master's degree in Classics from Columbia University and a bachelor's in Religion from Barnard College.
Morgan Ramsey Daniel, SOE Peer Reviewer
Morgan began working in financial aid in 2005 and currently serves as the associate director for operations at the University of Oregon where she leverages systems and technology to increase efficiency, ensure compliance, and improve the financial aid experience for staff and students alike. Morgan served as the committee chair for Ellucian's Community Source Initiative for five years and has been a peer reviewer for NASFAA's Standards of Excellence (SOE) Review Program since 2015. She loves puzzles, problem solving, and process improvement, which makes financial aid a perfect fit. Morgan holds a bachelor of arts in wilderness leadership and experiential education from Brevard College, and a master of science in therapeutic recreation from Oklahoma State University.
Christopher Rodriguez
Christopher Rodriguez currently serves as the director of financial aid at Rowan College of South Jersey. He started his career at Rowan College of South Jersey's Cumberland campus in 2000, where he served as a financial aid counselor and taught as an adjust professor. He moved to Middlesex County College in 2015 and was promoted to director while continuing to teach as an adjust professor. He enjoys teaching and looks forward to assisting other institutions with his financial aid knowledge and expertise.
Anne Rusk, FAAC®
Anne has almost 20 years of financial aid experience at both a four-year public university and a national proprietary school. Throughout her financial aid career, she has worked closely with students and school administrators to improve the financial aid experience. From designing policies and procedures to maximize accuracy and efficiency to implementing communication plans to website design, Anne excels at establishing best practices. With a bachelor's degree in economics and an MBA in finance and accounting, Anne's love for math and money is longstanding. She has experience in SAP, FWS, R2T4, COA establishment, Study Abroad, ROTC, PJ, Verification, Loan Certification, NSLDS, and SEOG. Understanding rules and regulations in financial aid presents a unique challenge that she loves. Anne looks forward to helping the financial aid community as a Blue Icon Advisor.
Kelsey Scott
Kelsey has had an impressive career in financial aid. In 2020, she progressed to her current role as Assistant Director of Financial Aid and Compliance at Metropolitan Community College (MCC). She has gained experience at both 2-year public and 4-year private institutions, which has provided her with a comprehensive understanding of different educational environments. One of Kelsey's standout accomplishments was leading the implementation of two new student information systems. This experience highlights her ability to adapt to new technologies and her proactive approach in improving institutional processes. Kelsey's dedication to streamlining processes for staff and removing financial barriers for students underscores her commitment to enhancing the student experience.
Ben Shaver
Ben started in higher education in 1991 and has experience in financial aid and admissions administration. He currently serves as the associate director for policy and training at the University of California, Irvine, where he is responsible for developing financial aid policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with all federal, state, and university regulations, and conducting training on office policies and procedures. He is also responsible for policy and compliance oversight for UCI's three professional schools (law, medicine, and the graduate school of business). He earned a doctorate in educational leadership from UC San Diego/Cal State San Marcos and a master's of education in college student personnel services from the University of Southern California.
David Sheridan
David Sheridan retired in 2024 after 40 years as a financial aid professional; he has also managed other functional areas such as registrar, admissions, bursar, and new student orientation. His last position was as the director of financial aid at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, a position he held from 2011 until his retirement. He has broad experience in enrollment management strategies, policies and procedures, staff training, regulatory compliance, and other aspects of financial aid administration and has served as a mentor to many colleagues. David has been an active leader and participant in professional association activities and advocacy efforts at the state, regional and national level, including as a federal negotiator, a member of the Higher Education Committee of 50, and a trainer and contributing author for the enrollment management track at the NASFAA Leadership & Legislative Conference & Expo. David was a 2020 recipient of NASFAA's Allan W. Purdy Distinguished Service Award.
Aria Simmons, FAAC®
Aria Simmons began her career in financial aid in 2001 and currently serves as the director of student financial aid at Georgia State University. She has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in business administration. Aria has experience from two-year public, four year private and research institutions where she's worked with Colleague and Banner. She believes in using data as a proactive tool to find student's at risk, looking for ways to improve the student experience by streamlining strategies and evaluating processes for inefficiencies. She is actively involved in the state, regional and national levels of financial aid associations. Aria has earned her FAAC designation.
Jeanne Stella-Devani
Jeanne Stella-Devani (Jeani), is the Associate Director of Financial Aid at Vermont State University (VTSU), with 29 years in higher education, including over 14 years as a Financial Aid Director. Her broad experience in higher education spans financial aid, student accounts and registrar functions, which has been crucial during VTSU's transition from four individual state schools to one institution. Jeani is an advocate for the one-stop model, cross-training and automation to enhance customer service and streamline operations. She excels in compliance, operations, and strategic planning and has managed audits, IPEDS reporting and Gainful Employment initiatives. Jeani has worked with various educational institutions and enjoys networking and collaborating with colleagues to achieve enrollment management goals.
Tom Stuart, Ed. D., FAAC®
Dr. Tom Stuart is the Assistant Vice-President of Student Financial Services and Director of Financial Aid at William Jewell College. Dr. Stuart has 17 years of extensive financial aid experience in private, public, for-profit, and non-profit institutions. He has experience developing policies, processes, procedures, and reporting for various funding sources: Federal Student Aid, Department of Veteran Affairs, and institutional endowments. He monitors and recommends actions on key performance indicators, such as enrollment, net tuition, and institutional partnerships. He earned his FAAC designation in 2021.
Ashley Swing, FAAC®
Ashley Swing currently serves as the assistant director, university financial aid compliance at Johns Hopkins University. She began her career in financial aid in 2010 working in front-line customer service which has guided her approach to policy making, process improvements, and the student experience. Ashley holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in training and development from North Carolina State University. In 2020, she earned a doctorate in adult and community college education, also from NCSU, where her research focused on the experiences of Pell-eligible students transferring from a community college to a four-year public university. She has earned five NASFAA credentials.
Jan Szymanski
Jan Szymanski began her career in financial aid in 1994 and currently serves as the compliance officer at Los Angeles Pacific University. She has close to 30 years of experience in both private and for-profit institutions as well as in the student loan industry where she worked at a guarantee agency. She brings with her multi-faceted experience and expertise in Title IV regulation interpretation and implementation. She has a bachelor's degree in Organizational Management. She has managed the financial aid audits without any findings and her experience ranges from completing verification to managing the financial aid department. She is currently active in state, regional and national associations.
Christina Tangalakis, FAAC®
Dr. Tangalakis has 22 years of experience in higher education in various roles in student financial aid, focused on equity and access, student success, retention, enrollment management, scholarships, and administration. Christina is currently the Associate Dean of Financial Aid at Glendale College, in Glendale, California. She is active in her local, state, regional and national associations and is proud to have served on the NASFAA board for 2020-2021 as a Commission Director, overseeing the work of the State Advocacy and Implicit Bias task forces. Some of her other association roles include NASFAA CFAA Commission Past-Chair, WASFAA Ethnic Diversity Chair for 2020-2022, and is the current CASFAA President for 2023-2023. Dr. Tangalakis has worked in four different sectors of higher education and has a broad understanding of the challenges facing financial aid administrators. As a parent of three daughters, all college graduates, Dr. Tangalakis has navigated the financial aid process from the personal and the professional perspective. She has a keen interest in conversations on creating meaningful work for financial aid staff, improving how students experience the financial aid process, and maintaining compliance in a rapidly changing environment. In 2014, Christina published her doctoral thesis on the college-going identities of Latinx students without documentation. Christina also serves on the board of the Foundation for the AIDS Monument and lives in north Los Angeles with her family.
Susan Teerink, FAAC®, SOE Peer Reviewer
With 30 years of experience as a financial aid administrator, Susan Teerink, Associate Vice Provost for Financial Aid & Enrollment Services, has led the financial aid office at Marquette University since 2006. She has worked in a variety of educational sectors including graduate education, the community college system and private education. She earned the Certified Financial Aid Administrator® designation (FAAC) and has served the financial aid community on the state, regional and national levels. Most recently she received the NASFAA Regional Leadership Award for the Midwest region, served as an alternate Federal Negotiator on the Student Loan Debt Relief Negotiated Rulemaking Committee and served on the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Implementation Task Force. She has served regionally as faculty on the MASFAA Summer Institute, as MASFAA Treasurer and on numerous conference planning/site committees. She often leads interest sessions at state and regional conferences and has spoken several times on the MASFAA webinar series MASFAA Matters. She testified before both the Assembly and Senate Committees of the Wisconsin State Legislature to advocate for necessary changes to the Wisconsin Grant necessitated by FAFSA Simplification. Appointed by the Governor, Teerink serves as the private, non-profit school representative to the Wisconsin Higher Education Aids Board, and she is a past president of the Wisconsin Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA). She began working as a NASFAA Standards of Excellence reviewer in 2019. Susan earned her undergraduate degree at Gustavus Adolphus College and a M.A. from the Claremont School of Theology.
Shareen Thewke
Shareen currently works for the University of Nebraska as a Functional Coordinator. Her work in financial aid started as a work study student and has remained in the profession since graduation. During her professional career she has worked for small private Liberal Arts Colleges and Public Institutions. Currently she works with the University and State College within the state of Nebraska supporting the PeopleSoft system specifically the Financial Aid Offices. She is passionate about learning new functionality within the computer system and then teaching it to other users.
Robin Thompson
Robin Thompson has almost 20 years of financial aid experience at four-year private colleges, serving as the director of financial aid at Pomona College and Pitzer College. Throughout her career, Robin has worked closely with students and staff to improve the financial aid experience and reduce barriers in the application and aid delivery process. She has been involved in both state and national professional organizations including CASFAA and the College Board Western Regional Council. Robin has had broad experience working with Institutional Methodology and served on the College Board's Financial Aid Standards and Services Committee (FASSAC), their primary advisory group for financial aid services. As a hands-on director at small institutions, Robin has been active in developing policies and procedures, strategic planning, compliance and audit, budget management and leveraging technology to increase operational efficiency and automation. Robin has a robust knowledge of PowerFAIDS. Robin earned her BA in History from Pomona College and MBA from Claremont Graduate University.
Pamela Toney, SOE Peer Reviewer
Pamela Toney began her tenure as president of CSU Global in September 2020, after serving as the chief operating officer. Her passion is helping people realize their potential and giving them the courage to pursue opportunities that may seem out of reach. President Toney joined the university in 2011 as the director of financial aid, and had the opportunity to expand her leadership across multiple areas. Under her direction, the university was approved to participate in the Federal Student Aid Title IV financial aid program as well as approved to offer veterans' education benefits. Prior to CSU Global, she served as the assistant controller at Colorado Technical University, as well as the associate director of student finance. Toney received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; her master's degree in psychology from Walden University; and an MBA from Colorado Technical University, along with a graduate certificate in cyber security from CSU Global.
Zoey Trenkle
Zoey is an information technology professional with the University of Vermont where she develops and maintains all aspects of technology that affect financial aid for approximately 13,000 undergraduate, graduate, medical, and continuing education students. She has worked in financial aid technology since 1998 and has implemented all aspects of system-based aid administration, including self-service, Pell Grant processing, and complex summer algorithms. Zoey is happiest when helping others and developing new processes to improve the efficiency of financial aid operations.
Melissa Tumuluru
Melissa has worked in college access and success since 2008 in both nonprofits and high schools. Starting in 2019, she transferred her skills into financial aid and previously served as an associate director of financial aid at Rollins College. Melissa’s experience includes packaging, verification, R2T4, SAP, and many other file processing tasks, as well as providing scholarship administration assistance. She is a strong champion of students and eager to help institutions improve their services.
Brittany Tweed
Brittany serves as the Financial Aid Director at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN. She has an array of institutional experience, beginning in 2009, working in both a medium-sized public four-year institution as well as a two-year community college and a technical college. Her passion is to support under-represented and under-resourced students by advocating for their needs in institutional policy decisions, in addition to financial aid advocacy. She has led a program review and multiple single audits/A-133 audits, implemented policy and procedure changes resulting in processing modifications, and evaluated customer service resulting in improvements to campus environments. Additionally, she has led training in multiple NASFAA credentials (administrative capability, consumer information, professional judgment, and more), financial aid leveraging analysis presented to institutional leadership, and is excellent with technology. Brittany has been a part of truly excellent teams during her financial aid tenure and believes whole-heartedly that aid administrators work in higher education for the purpose of helping others achieve their dreams. She is looking forward to the opportunity to work collaboratively to assist institutions, financial aid offices, and others meet their strategic and operational goals in order to give students the best experience while working to achieve their own goals
Sam Veeder, FAAC®
Sam is the associate dean of college enrollment and director of financial aid at the University of Rochester. Sam has worked in the financial aid profession since 1992, previously serving as director of financial aid at Syracuse University, Nazareth College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges and Keuka College and as a senior consultant at Scannell & Kurz, Inc. Over the years, she has been actively engaged in state, regional, and national professional organizations including NYSFAAA, EASFAA and the College Board CSS/Financial Aid Assembly Council. Sam is the recipient of the NYSFAAA Citation of Appreciation, NYSFAAA Sister Bernadine Hayes and Rusty Hopkins Service Award, the NYSFAAA Region III Service Award, College Board Middle States Bernard P. Ireland Award, and the EASFAA Leadership Award. Sam is a graduate of Ithaca College with a bachelor's degree in Health Services Administration and Nazareth College with a master's degree in Management.
Justin Walker
Justin has worked in financial aid for over fifteen years and most recently served as Deputy Executive Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships at the University of Utah. He started his career at Clemson University as a work-study student in the financial aid office, later moving on to work at the University of Georgia. He enjoys working with schools to improve their workflow processing, cash management, and compliance functions. Justin has earned sixteen NASFAA credentials.
Megan Watson, FAAC®
Megan began her financial aid career in 2007 at Indiana University Indianapolis. Prior to working at IU she worked at Sallie Mae where she focused on helping students understand repayment options and the importance of keeping their loans in good standing. She has worked in several areas of the financial aid office giving her a well rounded background in counseling, training, documentation, compliance,processing, and leadership. In her current role as Associate Director of Compliance and Processing, she oversees the federal verification process, Satisfactory Academic Progress, maintains policies and procedures, and conducts internal audits while looking for ways to improve the student experience through streamlining communications strategies and evaluating processes for inefficiencies. Megan enjoys building relationships with colleagues and campus partners to create a dynamic and holistic approach to administering financial aid and scholarship programs. She enjoys being involved in her state and regional associations. To date she has earned 11 NASFAA credentials along with her FAAC in 2020. Since earning her credentials she has often provided training for her state and regional associations, helping others grow in their financial aid knowledge.
Jim White, SOE Team Leader
Jim retired in October 2023 from his role as dean of student financial services at Gonzaga University where he supervised financial aid, student accounts, and student employment. He has previously served in roles as the director of financial aid, director of student financial services, and associate provost for enrollment management. Jim has been active in NASFAA Standards of Excellence (SOE) Peer Review Program as a Team Lead since 2009. He has been the President of the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA) and the Washington State Financial Aid Association (WFAA). Jim has served on many NASFAA Committees and Task Forces including most recently the FAFSA Simplification Task Force.
Sharon Wurm
Sharon retired in October 2019 after working 30 years in the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). From 2011-2019, she led the financial aid office and programs at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC). She also supervised the director and program director for academic advisement, international student services, the Recruitment and Access Center, and Veteran Student Services. Prior to working at TMCC, she was the director of financial aid at NSHE System Administration , worked earlier at TMCC, and also worked the University of Nevada Reno (UNR), all in financial aid. Sharon serves as a mentor for the Nevada Promise Scholarship program and serves on the scholarship committees for the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows as well as for the Nevada Women's Fund. Because one never fully retires, Sharon works part time in various contract roles, and serves as an adjunct faculty member in UNR's educational leadership graduate program, teaching Enrollment Management/Financial Aid. She has a master's in counseling and educational psychology and bachelor's in business administration/computer information systems, all from UNR. She has been married for 40 years to her husband Mike, and they have two grown children, Megan and Zach.
Peter Wyatt
Peter has 15 years of student financial aid experience in four-year private institutions. Peter came to Blue Icon in 2021. His previous experience includes tenure with Johns Hopkins University, where he served as Senior Associate Director of Financial Aid. He previously served as Assistant Director for Oberlin College, Wellesley College, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter is experienced with several financial aid software systems, including Ellucian (SunGard) Banner, College Board PowerFAIDS, and PeopleSoft. Peter has served on a number of financial aid committees including the Government Relations Committee in MASFAA, the Need Analysis Committee in OASFAA, and the College Board's Professional Judgment Tips Sheets Committee. He has made countless presentations including but not limited to federal and institutional need analysis, international student financial aid, and Financial Aid for Athletes.
Ryan Zantingh
Ryan serves as the Director of Financial Aid at Drake University (Des Moines, IA), and has worked in financial aid administration for private not-for-profit institutions since 2007. He has a broad range of experience and expertise that includes enrollment management, Title IV compliance, policies and procedures development, aid budget strategy and forecasting, and scholarship administration. He is skilled at analyzing and redesigning business processes to ensure regulatory compliance and improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. Ryan earned a bachelor's degree in English at Trinity Christian College, a master’s degree in business administration at Governor’s State University, and has earned NASFAA’s professional credential in Consumer Information.
Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl started in financial aid in 2004. She is currently the director of student financial systems and analytics at Pratt Institute. She served as the director of financial aid or leadership roles in the financial aid office at both public and private colleges and universities, most recently, Kean University, The New School, and Hunter College. Cheryl has consistently demonstrated in-depth financial aid knowledge, leadership, customer service, data analysis, and IT talents. She has successfully revamped SAP process at several institutes, implemented financial aid self service and NTIV (Non-Title IV credits) process, streamlined Professional Judgment, ISIR corrections, and verification processes, automated aid packages, and successfully configured and launched QLess-a virtual line service. Cheryl has a bachelor's degree in Accounting from Fudan University, Shanghai, China and an MBA from Appalachian State University.