Here are the topics available for NASFAA Speaking engagements. Learn more about the speakers and request a speaker for your upcoming event.

• Administrative Capability
• Advancing the Profession—Getting to Know NASFAA's New Toolkit
• Advocacy and You
• Can You Afford ($) To Work in Financial Aid?
• Care and Feeding of Yourself and Your Career
• Communicating Up: Ensuring the Voice of the Financial Aid Office is Heard in the President's Office
• Developing Your Personal Mission Statement
• General Session: NASFAA Update, Including a Journey from Poverty…Helped By A Financial Aid Officer
• Inside the Beltway Update
• How One School Estimated the Impact of the New FAFSA, and How You Can Too
• Leading through Change: Finding Opportunity in Chaos
• NASFAA Update
• Pensions, 403b's, IRA's, Roths…Explaining The Options and Why You Need to Get in the Game
• Professional Judgment Best Practices
• Recognizing and Addressing Bias in the Student Aid Experience: A Research-Practice Conversation
• Staying in Love with Financial Aid Even When It's Hard (And It's Usually Hard)
• Talk's Not Cheap: Improving Communication to Serve Students and Boost Efficiency
• The College Cost Transparency Initiative: Rebuilding Trust in Higher Education
• The Federal Budget and Student Aid
• The Top Five Issues in Financial Aid: Navigating Today's Challenges
  
• Top AskRegs Questions
• Top FAFSA Simplification Questions
• Using NASFAA Tools
• Why Weaponize When You Can Disarm? Building Alliances for Compliance(s)

Administrative Capability

This session looks at administrative capability requirements with discussion on:

• Adequate Resources
• Automation and Electronic Processes
• Privacy and Security Safeguards
• Conflicting Information
• Consumer Information
• Separation of Functions
• Other Requirements
• General Evidence of Administrative Capability

Speaker: Dana Kelly

Advancing the Profession—Getting to Know NASFAA's New Toolkit

Do you worry about your office's ability to meet compliance requirements and provide excellent service to your students? If so, you're not alone--80% of respondents to a 2022 NASFAA survey of 500 institutions indicated that they had concerns about their aid offices' ability to maintain "administrative capability" standards required to participate in the Federal Student Aid programs, and 56% expressed concerns about their ability to adequately serve students. The NASFAA Board of Directors discussed these findings and convened a task force to develop a toolkit that financial aid directors can use to ensure they have a seat at the institutional decision-making table. The resulting Advancing the Profession Toolkit is now available and focuses on effective communication recommendations for c-suite executives on campus; media training to "be a spokesperson" on campus; professional development pathways; tips and training on interviewing for professional advancement; using data to effectively advance the institution's goals; and relationship and coalition building. Join this session to familiarize yourself with these valuable tools to help advance the financial aid profession!

Speaker: Helen Faith

Advocacy and You

This session will touch on the main principles of successful advocacy strategies. An overview will be given of how NASFAA enacts those strategies at the federal level through relationships with congressional staffers, the Department of Education, and the presidential administration. In addition to highlighting useful NASFAA tools and resources, the session will cover tips and strategies on how to successfully advocate at the grassroots level, and outline how you can plan your own advocacy event.

Speaker Options: Rachel Gentry Rotunda or Karen McCarthy

Care and Feeding of Yourself and Your Career

Where do you see yourself in one, three, five, even ten years? Do you know how to build your skills to prepare for your next steps? In this interactive session, engage with fellow audience members and NASFAA National Chair Helen Faith to learn about the career paths your colleagues have traveled, explore opportunities in financial aid that could best suit your strengths and interests, and discover the range of professional development and training tools and options that will help you develop your career in the directions you most want to grow.

Speaker: Helen Faith

Inside the Beltway Update

This NASFAA Federal Update will provide an overview of the latest happenings in Washington, including a high-level landscape of the current political climate in D.C. with a focus on federal financial aid policy and how it has impacted students and institutions in recent years. Overall trends in student aid will be discussed including recent legislative and regulatory activity, reauthorization proposals and predictions for how student aid funding will fare in future budget negotiations. Movement within the Department of Education concerning negotiated rulemaking and updates from Federal Student Aid (FSA) will also be discussed. The session will also provide an overview of NASFAA-led projects, services, and advocacy efforts.

Speaker Options: Rachel Gentry Rotunda, or Karen McCarthy

Leading through Change: Finding Opportunity in Chaos

In an ever-changing landscape of higher education enrollment management and financial aid, leading through change has never been more critical. This session will provide attendees with the understanding and tools necessary to navigate the tumultuous seas of change within their institutions. By examining the current landscape, leadership theories, and innovative strategies, this session aims to help enrollment management leaders identify and capitalize on opportunities that emerge from chaos.

Speaker: TBD

NASFAA Update

Get an update on association activities, professional development and training opportunities, and the volunteer and public policy work of the association. Learn how you can get involved.

Speaker Options: National Chairs, NASFAA Board Members  

Professional Judgment Best Practices

Professional judgment (PJ) is sometimes viewed as one of the more challenging aspects of Title IV program administration. There are both explicit and implicit guidelines that must be followed in relation to other aspects of Title IV federal student aid administration. This session will explore guiding principles and best practices that can be applied on your campus.

Speaker: Dana Kelly, or another designated NASFAA TRA staff member dependent on timing

Recognizing and Addressing Bias in the Student Aid Experience: A Research-Practice Conversation

Financial aid administrators are committed to providing all students with the opportunity to improve their lives with education through access to an affordable education. We navigate through a sea of federal and state laws, regulations, and regulatory guidance to accomplish this important work, and we do so as fairly and equitably as we can. Drawing on financial aid research findings and NASFAA's Diversity Toolkit, this session will help uncover ways that bias exists in the financial aid system and processes, while providing opportunities to engage in discussion on how to identify and address these biases in our offices on campus.

Speaker: Helen Faith

Staying in Love with Financial Aid Even When It's Hard (And It's Usually Hard)

Financial aid isn't easy work—the past several years have proven incredibly challenging, and the trajectory of rapid change will accelerate in coming years as we implement FAFSA Simplification, support borrowers as they return to repayment after three years on pause, respond to future proposed Gainful Employment rules, and the list goes on. If you're overwhelmed and even discouraged, that's hardly surprising—so how can we keep our hearts in this work through it all? Join this session to reconnect with the reasons we became financial aid professionals, be reminded of the tremendous impact we have, and share strategies to manage the stress of constant change and continue to be re-inspired even in the most difficult moments.

Speaker: Helen Faith

Talk's Not Cheap: Improving Communication to Serve Students and Boost Efficiency

Does your team spend an inordinate amount of time answering the same questions over and over again? Are you convinced that nobody reads the emails and letters you send them? Well, as the old saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results—if what you're doing isn't working, it's time to try a different approach. Come to this session to learn about evidence-based practices that have transformed aid offices from coast to coast (well, from coast to Midwest) at both a community college and a public flagship. Pick up tips you can put to use at your school and learn about an innovative approach to centralize communications to maximize effectiveness and free up capacity to focus on high-priority needs.

Speaker: Helen Faith

The College Cost Transparency Initiative: Rebuilding Trust in Higher Education

In an era where higher education affordability is a critical issue, and public trust in the value of higher education is waning, the College Cost Transparency Initiative emerges as a vital endeavor to rebuild trust and understanding between students, educational institutions, and policymakers. This session delves into the complexities and nuances of a new initiative publicly launched in September 2023 and whether/how schools can join.

Speaker: TBD

The Federal Budget and Student Aid

Between fiscal years, sequestration, and continuing resolutions, the federal budget process can seem a bit overwhelming. This session will cover the nuts and bolts of the federal budget process with special attention given to how the process impacts funding of the federal student aid programs. In addition to highlighting the basics of the process, the session will also feature predictions for future funding!

Speaker Options: Rachel Gentry Rotunda, or Karen McCarthy

The Top Five Issues in Financial Aid: Navigating Today's Challenges (General Session)

This essential session will explore the most pressing challenges in financial aid, including workforce dynamics, student loan debt and forgiveness, the value of higher education, the ever-changing landscape of regulations and legislation, and the latest updates from inside the beltway.

Speaker: TBD

Top AskRegs Questions

Updated for 2023-24! NASFAA's AskRegs service fields thousands of questions from aid administrators each year. This session takes a look at the top questions submitted over the last year, as well as those rated as most useful by the NASFAA membership. Find out what your colleagues are asking and if your practices align with NASFAA responses.

Speaker: Dana Kelly or another designated NASFAA TRA staff member dependent on timing

Top FAFSA Simplification Questions

The biggest changes to the FAFSA in history will be implemented in the 2024-25 application cycle - are you ready? Explore the upcoming changes to the FAFSA, including direct data sharing with the IRS and a streamlined Federal Methodology, and learn more about the latest updates on implementation and NASFAA's Student Aid Index Modeling Tool.  Discover what questions your colleagues are asking as we all prepare for the 2024-25 award year.

Speaker Options: Dana Kelly, or Karen McCarthy

Using NASFAA Tools

Membership has its privileges! Remember this slogan from the '90s?  It is very applicable to the tools NASFAA offers its members. From compliance and policy insights to training and "Beltway" insights, make sure you are making the most of your benefits and staying on top of what's happening in the aid community.

Speaker Options: Dana Kelly, or National Chairs

Why Weaponize When You Can Disarm? Building Alliances for Compliance(s)

Do you find that the aid office is often the last to know about campus developments that have major impacts on us? Do you feel like the wet blanket at every academic innovation brainstorming shindig? Does your office struggle to get the resources needed to be successful? Hmmm, ever wonder why? Let's be honest—we've probably all been guilty of brandishing the FSA Handbook like a weapon, or going straight to "No" without passing start. Join this session to talk through these and other challenges we've experienced and discuss approaches to support greater success for our offices and ultimately for the students we serve.

Format: 60-minute breakout session; also available as a 90-minute workshop format with increased audience involvement.

Speaker: Helen Faith

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