Angela began her career in international education in 2002 and began working for Drexel in 2010. As the assistant dean for the international students and scholar services (ISSS) office, Angela is responsible for overseeing ISSS programs and services including immigration, cultural, and academic services for approximately 4500 international students, scholars, staff, and faculty. She is also responsible for advising and serving as the signatory for H-1B and permanent residency applications for scholars, professional staff, and faculty. Angela is currently an active member and presenter for NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Philadelphia Area International Educators’ Network, and NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. She earned her bachelor’s degree in international politics and received her master’s degree in leadership development from Penn State University. Angela anticipates completing her doctorate in educational leadership from Drexel in 2015.
For the past seven years, Rob Hofmann has worked at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) as Senior Director of Development with the UMD School of Fine Arts. At UMD he has helped to raise more than $8.8M for student scholarships and programs. He is one of only 5,000 worldwide Certified Fund Raising Executives (CFRE), an internationally recognized credential within the fundraising profession. Before coming to UMD, Mr. Hofmann was involved in tall ships maritime education from 1997 through 2006 as executive director of the Providence Maritime Heritage Foundation that operated the tall ship Continental Sloop Providence. Hofmann was pivotal in spearheading the Foundations development and delivery of exceptional shipboard education programs that were recognized as a model partnership with Providence, RI Public Schools by Cambridge, MA based Abt Associates in 2002.
Dr. Mark M. Polatajko has over 15 years of senior fiscal management experience in both government and not for profit organizations. In his role as Vice President, he provides strategic, proactive, and innovative leadership to enhance, evaluate, develop, and implement customer-driven financial system policies, procedures, and processes for the efficient and effective delivery of services to students, customers, faculty, staff, and administration. Prior to joining Wright State, Dr. Polatajko served as the Vice President of the Administration and Finance Division of Cuyahoga Community College. He also held a variety of positions with the Ohio Lottery Commission, eventually becoming the Lottery’s Deputy Director of Finance and has five years of public accounting experience with Ciuni & Panichi, Inc. A Certified Public Accountant, Dr. Polatajko is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Inter-University Council Fiscal Officers, and formerly served as Chairperson of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges Fiscal Officers. Dr. Polatajko graduated from the University of Akron with his Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree, earned his Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Finance from Ashland University. He received his Ph.D. in […]
David is the managing director of Accenture Management Consulting’s Education practice. He specializes in strategic planning, talent and organization, enterprise transformation, shared services strategy and implementation, software as a service, and other improvement strategies for education and public service institutions to better achieve their missions. David and his team have extensive experience working with some of the world’s largest public and private institutions. David has written multiple articles on improving education and the public sector, and is a speaker at various industry forums. He was recipient of Accenture’s Thought Leadership Award for supporting research in the book Workforce of One: Revolutionizing Talent Management through Customization (Harvard University Press 2010). Metnick has advised more than 20 government, education, non-profit, healthcare, and global industry clients. David is actively engaged and supports the broader education, human services, economic development, and healthcare communities that he lives in. He lives in Arlington, Virginia and is a Board Member of College Summit – National Capital Region.
Dr. Judson Cooper Epperly has over 10 years of experience in higher education and business. His expertise is in international marketing, recruitment, social media, eLearning, retention, and professional development. Dr. Epperly is the Director of Latin America for International Recruitment at Kaplan Medical. During his tenure with Kaplan Medical, he has recruited thousands of doctors throughout Central and South America through innovative online, on-site, and blended marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Kaplan Medical, Dr. Epperly served as a corporate trainer and branch manager for multiple banks. In addition, he taught Economics at various universities in Argentina. Dr. Epperly speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has earned a Doctorate of Management, a MBA with a specialization in International Marketing, and a B.S. in Political Science and Spanish.
Karen is best known for her work in facilitating organizational transformations at all levels of UC Davis. These change efforts involved designing and implementing an administrative shared services center, leading strategic planning efforts to improve ailing operations, assessing human factors in change, creating stronger connections between customer requirements and resource redeployment, and developing action plans to bring about sustained operational improvements. During her twenty-four years at UC Davis, Karen has held leadership roles in both administrative and academic units, including positions as the associate vice chancellor of human resources, associate vice chancellor of business services and UCDE department chair of Business, Technology & Engineering. Most recently, she rose to the challenge of leading the two-year initiative that restructured administrative functions for HR, finance, and payroll, culminating in the implementation of the Shared Services Center. She has completed extensive training in organizational development, change management and facilitation. She is also an instructor in the UC Davis Executive Program, Staff Development & Professional Services, and WACUBO’s Business Managers Institute.
Mark has the privilege of working with higher education clientele across the country to address a variety of risk management and safety-related issues. This includes managing the risks associated with minors on campus, developing effective enterprise risk management (ERM) programs, addressing property and liability issues, and much more. Mark served ten years as the risk manager for the University of Illinois and as the first chief risk officer of Ohio State University. In these roles, he had the opportunity to work with professionals across the campuses and throughout the community to develop many effective risk management programs. Mark has been a consistent contributor on the development of higher education programming sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and others. He is a frequent and passionate speaker at higher education conferences across the country and serves as an adjunct faculty member at Illinois State University.
Aric has worked in higher education for eighteen years for both private and public universities. Over the past ten years he has developed and implemented competency-based programs for delivery in the United States and in international markets. Aric leads cross-functional teams to transform academic programs for various delivery formats while also transforming the operational and support functions of the university. As an economist, Aric studies markets as they evolve and transform over time, with a current focus on higher education. He has consulted with national and international firms to answer strategic questions.
Mark Grambergs is a vice president of real estate development for EdR with more than 25 years’ experience in commercial mixed-use development. He is EdR’s development lead on the transformation of the University of Kentucky’s student housing program, which will redevelop up to 9,000 beds on Kentucky’s campus over five years at an investment of approximately $500 million. He came to EdR in 2010 from a career in the retail development world that comprised more than 5 million square feet of commercial space valued at more than $1 billion. He has served as a real estate attorney for JC Penny, and as a development vice president and partner at CBL & Associates and Poag & McEwen, respectively. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law and received his B.A. from Georgia State University.
Cynthia’s responsibilities include coordinating the undergraduate experience across the university’s four undergraduate schools and colleges, upholding the university’s academic policies, and working to enhance the student experience. She also facilitates the university’s online initiatives, including Coursera, and supervises the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning. Cynthia joined the Vanderbilt University faculty in 1994 and currently is professor of musicology at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music, where she also served as associate dean of the collegiate program from 2004-2010.
