Meet NASFAA's MVPs

• 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...
• MVP Brian Dixon
  November 30, 2021 - Meet Brian Dixon. Brian started his college journey at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science and got firsthand experience with the legislative process through an internship with fo...
• MVP Thomas Le
  October 14, 2021 - Originally from Honolulu, Thomas Le started working in consumer banking after graduating from Hawaii Pacific University. His career in financial aid began upon relocating to Los Angeles for a role as a financial aid counselor at Pepperd...
• MVP Marvin Smith, FAAC®
  September 13, 2021 - Meet Marvin Smith, FAAC®. Marvin started out his higher education career by pursuing a degree in psychology at Purdue University but once he got to graduate school quickly realized his passions were tied to helping others pursue the...
• MVP Theresa Lavin
  August 4, 2021 - Meet Theresa Lavin. She began her career in the profession as a financial aid administrator at the University of Denver before moving to the Community College of Denver as an Enrollment Services Specialist. From there, she worked her wa...
• MVP Angelika Williams
  July 12, 2021 - Meet Angelika Williams. Angelica first began her financial aid career by consulting at Global Financial Services, where she got a thorough understanding of financial aid processing and federal regulations. "I started out in review and c...
• MVP Elijah Herr
  June 9, 2021 - Meet Elijah Herr. Elijah has worked in financial aid for more than 10 years after previous careers as an illustrator and graphic designer and then a brief stint as an economist. "No one plans to be in financial aid. We just all kind of ...
• MVP Sarah Baumhoff, FAAC®
  May 11, 2021 - Meet Sarah Baumhoff. Now approaching her 25th year working in financial aid, Sarah said she credits her start to the profession to a work-study job in junior college that helped her complete her postsecondary education and led to a care...
• MVP Erika Cox
  April 15, 2021 - Meet Erika Cox. Erika has worked in financial aid since completing her undergraduate work at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where a work-study job helped her pivot to financial aid as an enrollment services officer at her alma ...
• MVP Aaron Steffens
  March 23, 2021 - Meet Aaron Steffens. Aaron has been in financial aid for more than 20 years and got his start in the profession by accident. While working as an admissions counselor, he served on a search committee for a new financial aid counselor tha...
• MVP Christina Tangalakis
  January 21, 2021 - Meet Christina Tangalakis. While Christina originally foresaw herself as an English professor at a community college, she found her way to financial aid after a brief stint in the student employment office at Central Washington Universi...
• MVPs Archive
  January 1, 2020