Session 1 Speakers

Michael Marshall Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing and Communication Bellarmine University Dr. Michael J. Marshall serves at Bellarmine as vice president for enrollment, marketing and communication. In this capacity, he provides leadership, vision, and integration for growing and diversifying enrollment and for expanding the university’s profile. He has demonstrated success in enrollment management and higher education leadership. Since joining Bellarmine, Dr. Marshall has worked collectively with campus partners to position the institution in a way that drives both growth and visibility that is consistent with the university’s guiding principles and strategic priorities. Externally, he serves as a board member on the National Catholic College Admission Association (CCAA), Assumption High School (Louisville, KY), and the Cabbage Patch Settlement House (a local non-profit educating and supporting 8-25 year old “at-promise” students). Additionally, he is a member of the College Board’s Counseling and Admission Assembly Council. Prior to Bellarmine, Dr. Marshall served as associate vice president for enrollment services at Clark Atlanta University. He also served several years on the chancellor’s cabinet at Texas Christian University (TCU), providing leadership in the areas of student enrollment and success and governmental relations. Dr. Marshall received a bachelor of business administration degree from Mercyhurst College, and a master’s degree in liberal arts and a doctorate in higher education leadership from TCU.

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Ffiona Rees Deputy Director, Undergraduate Admissions University of California, Los Angeles Ffiona Rees has served in the college admission profession for over 20 years and is currently the Deputy Director of Admission at UCLA. Her responsibilities include managing the transfer evaluation process and undergraduate international admission. Prior to moving to California and UCLA in 2012, she worked at The George Washington University in Washington, DC for fifteen years. Ffiona is Chair of the Board for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), an organization of over 25,000 members dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education. Ffiona has two degrees from The George Washington University: a BA in Geography, and an MBA. She lived in Oxford, England for seven years; so you’ll notice she pronounces some words differently. She’s been lucky enough to travel throughout the United States and the world to recruit students. Highlights include playing with lion cubs in South Africa, visiting the Great Wall and the Taj Mahal, and having lots of frequent flier miles (at least pre-Covid)! Lastly, no, that’s not a typo – she does in fact spell her name with two F’s.

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Whitney Soule Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions University of Pennsylvania Whitney Soule is Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions at University of Pennsylvania. She has worked in college admissions since 1991, at Bates College, Connecticut College, and most recently as Senior Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid at Bowdoin College. She earned her bachelor's degree in English from Bates College and her master's degree in Education from Harvard University. She has just completed service on the Board of Directors for the Enrollment Management Association and the Coalition for College. She serves on the Enrollment Leader Group for the College Board, and is the co-founder of the CASCO conference.

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Session 2 Speakers

Douglas Christiansen Vice Provost for University Enrollment Affairs & Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Vanderbilt University Douglas L. Christiansen is Vanderbilt University's vice provost for university enrollment affairs, dean of admissions and financial aid, and associate professor of public policy and higher education in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt's Peabody College. In his role as vice provost, Dr. Christiansen serves as the university’s chief enrollment strategist, overseeing the offices of Undergraduate Admissions, Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, Academic Affairs Process and Solution Implementations, Student Accounts, University Registrar, Medical School Admissions, Graduate School Admissions, Analytics and Enrollment Strategy, and International Student and Scholar Services. Dr. Christiansen leads the broader University Enrollment Affairs Leadership Team which includes the offices listed above and campus partners from the Office of Data and Strategic Analytics and the Office for Inclusive Excellence. Dr. Christiansen also oversees the Ingram, Chancellors, and Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship programs and the POSSE scholars’ program. He is also responsible for the development and implementation of a 10-year strategic plan for all major student enterprise-wide computing systems that fall within the provost’s purview. In addition to Dr. Christiansen’s administrative responsibilities, he is an active professor and researcher, having taught at the university level for over 25 years. Dr. Christiansen consults with universities throughout the United States on enrollment management and revenue-generation funding models, and domestic and international recruitment strategies. He has conducted more than 120 consulting engagements working directly with presidents, trustees, enrollment professionals, and faculty on enrollment related issues. Dr. Christiansen served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for The College Board (2014-2018) and as Past Chair (2018-2020). He is currently the Chair of the Governance Committee for the Board of Trustees of The College Board.

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Youlonda Copeland-Morgan Vice Provost, Enrollment Management University of California, Los Angeles Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at UCLA, is a nationally recognized leader in K-12 and higher education. As Vice-Provost, she oversees Undergraduate Admission, Financial Aid and Scholarships, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement, as well as UCLA's nearly one-billion dollar financial aid and scholarship budget for the undergraduate college, specialty and professional schools. Her career reflects her lifelong dedication to access, equity, diversity and inclusion. She was Chairman of the College Board, Inaugural Vice-Chair of their Advocacy and Policy Center, and is one of only 50 professionals named to the College Board's Scholarship Service Hall of Fame. She serves on the Advisory Boards of UNCF/Gates Millennium Scholars, Cambridge International Higher Education, and Re-Imaging College Access at the Learning Policy Institute. She is also on the Board of P&P Home for the Elderly, a multi-million dollar housing facility in Los Angeles. She recently testified before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the significant impact of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds. Copeland-Morgan has been honored for her leadership by the National Association of College Admission Counseling, and the National, Western and California Associations of Financial Aid Administrators. She teaches Enrollment Management Leadership at the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice at the University of Southern California, and she frequently appears as a media spokesperson.

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JT Duck Dean of Admissions Tufts University JT Duck has served as Dean of Admissions at Tufts University since 2019. Over the last twenty years, JT has held senior admissions positions at Haverford College, Brandeis University, MIT, and Swarthmore College. He also served as Director of College Counseling at Boston University Academy. He is a first-generation-to-college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Haverford College and a Masters of Education Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Session 3 Speakers

Brennan Barnard Director of College Counseling and Outreach Khan Lab High School Brennan Barnard, M.Ed is the Director of College Counseling and Outreach at Khan Lab High School, CA and The Derryfield School, NH. He is also the College Admissions Program Advisor with the Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. During over two decades in education Brennan has worked as a teacher, coach, dorm parent, admission officer, counselor and administrator at a number of independent high schools and colleges. He has counseled Olympians, thespians, artists, cadets, social workers, engineers, philosophers, doctors, writers, lawyers and everything in between. Brennan is a member of the Advisory Board for the New Hampshire College and University Council’s New Hampshire Scholars Program and on the Executive Committee for the Character Collaborative. He presents regularly on character, athletic recruiting, mindfulness, discipline and other topics in college admission. He has written about college admission for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes.com, Thrive Global, HuffPost, San Francisco Examiner, Concord Monitor, Journal of College Admission and other publications. He has also been featured in articles in the Boston Globe and Associated Press and an occasional featured guest on New Hampshire Public Radio. He has been interviewed about college admission by New England Cable News and ABC News. Brennan was a New England Association of College Admission Counselors Professional of the Year for 2017 and honored with the Association for College Counselors in Independent School’s Excellence in Counseling Award in 2021. He is co-author of "The Truth About College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together" and the new companion guide “The Truth about College Admission Workbook: A Family Organizer for Your College Search.” A native of suburban Philadelphia and practicing Quaker, he is a graduate of Westtown Friends School. Brennan earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from The University of Vermont. This father of two lives in Hopkinton, New Hampshire where he is a volunteer firefighter.

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Jim Bock Vice President and Dean of Admissions Swarthmore College Jim Bock serves as Vice President and Dean of Admissions at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He has worked in admissions since 1990. Prior to joining Swarthmore, he worked for the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business and Connecticut College. He has served as a member of the College Board Middle States Regional Council and the College and University Resource Committee of the International Baccalaureate Organization. He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Character Collaborative and the Counseling and Admission Assembly Council of the College Board. Jim received his B.A. in Religion from Swarthmore College and his M.Ed. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia.

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Jenna King Associate Head of School for Admission and Enrollment Riverdale Country School Jenna Rogers King is the Associate Head of School for Admission and Enrollment at Riverdale Country School, a preK-12th grade day school with 1200 students, where she has worked since September 2004. In addition to overseeing admissions and enrollment, Jenna co-leads the upper school advisor program and serves as a 9th grade advisor. She has also taught history and French and coached cross country and track at Riverdale. Prior to Riverdale, she worked as a teacher, coach, and dorm parent at Suffield Academy in Connecticut. She serves on the boards of the Enrollment Management Association’s and the Character Collaborative.

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Robert Massa Adjunct Associate Professor University of Southern California Professor Massa served in admissions, financial aid, marketing and enrollment management for 45 years. He is often cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, has published widely in the field of college admissions and enrollment management, and has been active as an instructor and journal editor in national organizations for admissions and financial aid professionals. He was formerly the chief enrollment officer at Johns Hopkins University, Dickinson College and Drew University and the chief marketing officer at Lafayette College.

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Courtney McAnuff Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Courtney McAnuff, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, oversees Undergraduate Admissions, Student Financial Aid, Office of the Registrar, a One Stop Student Services Center to address student administrative, registration, and financial needs in one location, and RU-info, the university’s central call center. Vice Chancellor McAnuff brings outstanding leadership, innovative thinking, and progressive programming to the university such as the Rutgers Future Scholars program, a college access pipeline program beginning in 7th grade. He consults to various advisory boards and post-secondary institutions, was elected Vice Chair for the Coalition for College, serves on the Board of Trustees for the College Board, is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California, and has testified before the House of Representatives and NJ Senate. His goals of ensuring Rutgers University–New Brunswick is a diverse institution and leader in quality education are widely recognized. He has been recognized as the Most Outstanding Administrator-State University of New York and Administrator of the Year at Eastern Michigan University, among other accolades earned. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York, a Master of Science degree from Hofstra University, and completed all coursework for a doctorate from Wayne State University.

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Session 4 Speakers

Rachelle Hernandez Rachelle has over twenty-five years of experience as a higher education admissions, enrollment and student success leader. She has served as the chief enrollment management officer at the University of Minnesota and The University of Texas at Austin, leading student-centered change and transformational impact that expanded access and enrollment and achieved significant improvements in student retention and graduation success outcomes. She will be joining the Johns Hopkins University community this spring as Vice Provost for Student Affairs. As an active member of several professional organizations, Rachelle’s engagement has focused on the use of best practices in support of student access and success and the development of leaders across higher education. She currently serves as a mentor and instructor for the AACRAO ASCEND leadership program, and has served as a faculty member for the Harvard Summer Institute for College Admissions, as well as the co-director for NACAC’s Chief Enrollment Officer’s Forum.

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John McLaughlin Vice Dean, Director of Admissions University of Pennsylvania John McLaughlin is the Vice Dean, Director of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania. John has over 15 years of experience in enrollment management as a professional and scholar. His work has been published in peer-reviewed and trade publications, and his dissertation on test-optional admissions policy and applicant choice has been featured by the College Board. His research focuses on the relationship between test-optional policy and applicant behavior. As Director of Admissions at Penn, John led multiple validity analyses of standardized testing in the admissions process and managed Penn's implementation of test-optional admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. John received his BA from Penn, MSc from Oxford, and Ed.D. from Harvard.