MVPs Archive

• MVP Wayne Kruger
  December 14, 2020 - Meet Wayne Kruger. Wayne has worked in financial aid for 20 years and got his start in higher education as a Federal Work-Study student in the admissions office during his undergraduate years at Sacred Heart University. He then found hi...
• MVP John Falleroni
  November 25, 2020 - Meet John Falleroni. After completing his undergraduate work at the University of Dayton and graduate work at Duquesne University, John began his career at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but following a roughly six-year stint at th...
• MVP Delisa Falks
  October 15, 2020 - Meet Delisa Falks. After graduating from college, Delisa knew she wanted to work at Texas A&M University and decided to apply for a job in the financial aid office. "I guess you can say 'the rest is history,'" she said, noting that ...
• MVP Alicia Keaton
  September 16, 2020 - Meet Alicia Keaton. Alicia has held various roles in financial aid for more than 25 years and currently serves as the director of financial aid at the University of Central Florida. "It's been seven years and I honestly can't imagine be...
• MVP Cheryl Lyons
  August 24, 2020 - Meet Cheryl Lyons. Cheryl is the director of financial aid at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). She has been at UCA for 21 years and has worked in the financial aid world throughout her career, with stints at the financial aid o...
• MVP Jennifer Cobb
  July 2, 2020 - Meet Jennifer Cobb. Jennifer is the associate director for Student Financial Planning at Stetson University College of Law, a private university in Deland, Florida. She has held the role at Stetson for more than ten years, the latest st...
• MVP William R. Burke
  May 21, 2020 - Meet William R. Burke. William is the director of financial aid at the University of Scranton, where he has worked for over 35 years in various financial aid roles. He was first introduced to the world of financial aid as an intern duri...
• MVP Christopher Pollard
  March 19, 2020 - Meet Christopher Pollard. Christopher has worked in financial aid for 14 years — beginning as a student customer service representative in the financial aid office at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga during his freshman ...
• MVP Howard Leslie
  February 12, 2020 - Meet Howard Leslie. Howard has worked in financial aid for 43 years. After graduating with three undergraduate degrees in music and theater and a master's degree in psychology, Howard got his start in the profession as a guidance counse...
• MVP Francisco Valines
  January 13, 2020 - Meet Francisco Valines. Francisco has been a financial aid professional for 38 years, getting his start as a graduate student at the University of Florida in 1982. Since then, he’s worked in the financial aid offices at large publ...
• MVP Susan Swisher
  December 17, 2019 - Meet Susan Swisher. Susan has worked in financial aid for more than 35 years. She got her start in the field during the last semester of her senior year at the University of Iowa, when she took a job working for American College Testing...
• MVP Lisanne Masterson
  November 12, 2019 - Meet Lisanne Masterson. Lisanne has worked in financial aid for 34 years, beginning when she took a job as a financial aid assistant at Brevard College, a small, liberal arts college in North Carolina. After four years there, the direct...
• MVP Joe Donlay
  October 1, 2019 -   Meet Joe Donlay. Joe has been working in the financial aid profession for 15 years, starting his career as a financial aid counselor at Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. "With a newly-minted marketing degree and some wonderful...
• MVP Cheryl Storie
  September 12, 2019 -   Meet Cheryl Storie. Cheryl has worked in financial aid for 34 years in a variety of roles —  she is a former employee of NASFAA, served under a contractor for the Department of Education (ED), and held positions at thre...
• MVP David Martin
  August 15, 2019 - Meet David Martin. David has called the financial aid office home for more than 30 years, jumping headfirst into the profession as the financial aid director at Trinity Bible College. David was working at a bank in Missouri in 1984, foc...
• MVP Andrew Hammontree
  July 10, 2019 - Meet Andrew Hammontree. Twenty-five years ago he began serving as a work-study student in the financial aid office at Oklahoma Christian University (OC)—and has been in the profession ever since. In addition to his numerous contri...
• MVP Jeff Arthur
  February 28, 2019 - Meet Jeff Arthur. He began his 35-year career in the financial aid profession when he took a position as the financial aid director of the Nebraska College of Business after graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1984. For the pa...
• MVP Daniel Barkowitz
  December 18, 2018 - Meet Daniel Barkowitz. He's been involved in the financial aid profession for 30 years on "all four sides of the fence," as he explains it, working for a student loan servicer, state education lender, financial aid technical consulting ...
• MVP Amy Cable
  November 7, 2018 -   Meet Amy Cable. She has been working in financial aid for 15 years, beginning as a student worker in the financial aid office at the University of Memphis. Amy currently serves as the executive director of enrollment management at...
• MVP Sarah Everitt
  October 3, 2018 - Meet Sarah Everitt. She started her career in financial aid 12 years ago in an entry-level position—and with no prior knowledge of the field—at Spokane Falls Community College in the state of Washington. She immediately fell in love with ...
• MVP Fabiola Ortega
  July 31, 2018 -   Meet Fabiola Ortega. She has been involved in financial aid for 20 years. Her experience began when she took a job as a Federal Work-Study (FWS) assistant at Miami Dade College in 1998. She then went on to serve as a financial aid...
• MVP Mendy Schmerer
  May 22, 2018 -   Meet Mendy Schmerer. Her career in financial aid began nearly 15 years ago. Upon graduating from college, Mendy accepted her first full-time job at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center's OneCard Office taking ID card ...
• MVP Maureen Amos
  April 19, 2018 -   Meet Maureen 'Mo' Amos. She has worked in the financial aid profession for approximately 23 years, 15 of which have been at Northeastern Illinois University. Her career in financial aid began at Triton College in River Grove, Illi...
• MVP Elizabeth Milam
  March 27, 2018 -   Meet Elizabeth Milam. Her career in financial aid began 30 years ago when she applied for a financial aid counselor position at her alma mater, Clemson University, "simply because it had 'counselor' in the title and I was completi...
• MVP Jim Brooks
  January 24, 2018 -   Meet Jim Brooks. He began his career in financial aid in September 1987 as a financial aid counselor at Indiana University. What he thought would be just a temporary job en route to finding what he wanted to do ended up being his ...
• MVP Emily Osborn
  December 18, 2017 -   Meet Emily Osborn. She began her career in financial aid 24 years ago as a work-study student at Antioch College and now serves as the director of financial aid for Northwestern University's Chicago Office where she works wit...
• MVP Shannon Crossland
  September 7, 2017 -   Meet Shannon Crossland, interim executive director of student financial aid and scholarships at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, TX. Shannon joined the financial aid family at Texas Tech University and has served in several capa...
• MVP Brenda Hicks
  May 9, 2017 -   Meet Brenda Hicks, director of financial aid at Southwestern College, in Winfield, KS. Brenda started her career as an admissions officer for Southwestern College, where she eventually served as director of admissions. "In the ear...
• MVP Brad Barnett
  October 31, 2016 -   Meet Brad Barnett, senior associate director of financial aid and scholarships at James Madison University. Brad started his career in financial aid while working his way through graduate school in 1994-95 as a graduate assistant ...
• MVP Mary Nucciarone
  August 15, 2016 -   Meet Mary Nucciarone, director of financial aid at the University of Notre Dame. Mary started her career in financial aid more than 30 years ago as a temporary employee at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. Although s...
• MVP Raul Lerma
  May 31, 2016 - Meet Raul Lerma, executive director of financial aid at El Paso Community College. Raul started his career in financial aid 30 years ago at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Although he initially applied for a position in the P...
• MVP Angela Johnson
  May 18, 2016 - Meet Angela Johnson, executive director of enrollment and financial aid at Cuyahoga Community College. Angela got her start in financial aid in 1990 as a student employee at The Ohio State University. She later ...
• MVP Rachelle Feldman
  April 26, 2016 - Meet Rachelle Feldman, assistant vice chancellor and director of financial aid and scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley. Rachelle got her start in financial aid in 2000 after leaving a position doing fin...
• MVP Gina Soliz
  January 29, 2016 - Meet Gina Soliz, director of financial aid at Syracuse University's College of Law. Gina's career in financial aid started in 1992 by being in the right place at the right time. Find out her story, as well as what she would change ...
• MVP Ben Burton
  November 2, 2015 - Meet Ben Burton, chief student financial resources officer at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. Ben began his 28-year long career with Ivy Tech as an internal auditor and later moved to oversee the state-wide In...
• MVP Candi Frazier
  September 25, 2015 - Meet Candi Frazier, senior associate director of Financial Aid and Student Employment at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Frazier's career in financial aid started with a work-study position in the summer of 1987, after sh...