Financial Aid Professionals Reflect on Recent Advocacy Pipeline Meetings
Nalia Medina, Assistant Director of Government Relations
Last month, NASFAA hosted members for a virtual Advocacy Pipeline with congressional staff from Mississippi and Maryland.
Jaime Missimer from Pearl River Community College and Andrea Cipolla from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County met with Reps. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.) and Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), as well as Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
During the meetings, participants discussed financial aid offers and the importance of maintaining institutional flexibility, eliminating student loan origination fees, and protecting and maintaining funding for the student aid programs. They also advocated for Congress to address the projected funding shortfall for the Pell Grant program, as well as lower the interest rates of federal student loans.
Read on to learn about the Advocacy Pipeline experience, and fill out this interest form if you would like to participate in an Advocacy Pipeline event.
This month, we hear from Jaime Missimer, the Director of Financial Aid at Pearl River Community College, about her experience with the virtual Advocacy Pipeline:
I loved being part of NASFAA’s Advocacy Pipeline, which came as a surprise to me. I participated in a Hill visit with a group during the NASFAA Leadership & Legislative Conference & Expo last year, but I didn’t say much during the meeting and was incredibly nervous. Thankfully, Nalia expertly navigated us through the process and was able to reduce my anxiety. Surprisingly, the virtual meetings felt less stressful than those in person and it was helpful to have my notes in front of me while speaking.
I appreciate that we were able to discuss topics that were meaningful to us, such as protecting funding for the Pell Grant program, financial aid offers, and student loan interest rates and origination fees. Nalia provided us with NASFAA’s resources on these topics, which were extremely helpful in crafting my own talking points.
The meetings themselves went very smoothly, with each legislative staff member being engaged in the conversation, asking us follow up questions, and letting us know how they could help support us going forward.
It was an incredibly positive experience and I would absolutely sign up to do this again. It actually helped me gain confidence in my expertise and I proved to myself that I can speak intelligently about financial aid issues. I highly recommend this experience to other financial aid professionals who want to participate in advocacy efforts for our profession.
Please fill out this interest form if you would like to participate in a future Advocacy Pipeline event!
Publication Date: 6/1/2026
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