Ayeza currently serves as the Assistant Director for the Office of New Student Programs at the University of Michigan. In this role, she is primarily responsible for directing mentoring programs for incoming freshman and transfer students. She also leads the campus wide Mentoring Consortium for university staff engaged in mentorship on campus. Ayeza graduated with a Master’s in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies with a concentration in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University in 2015. Although she has Buckeye ties, as an alumna of the University of Michigan (B.A.’13), she is a Wolverine at heart. She came to Michigan as an international, first generation, transfer student. Mentorship has played a critical role in her personal and professional trajectory, and she is grateful she gets to connect her passion for transfer students and mentorship everyday in her current role.
Gillian Wyckoff has over 7 years of experience working at a four year public institution serving adult students through online and independent study methods. She holds an MS in Curriculum and Instruction, and recently was selected as a summer fellow of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Institute in Higher Education Management. In her role as the Director of the Learner Support Center, she manages a team of 11 people, who engage with over 112,000 student touches per year. Gillian Wyckoff has been the Director of Thomas Edison State College’s Learner Support Center since September of 2014. In this capacity, she provides leadership, accountability, and supervision in all aspects of the Center. Thomas Edison State College’s Learner Support Center is the main point of contact for the College’s applicant and enrolled students. Its primary function is to provide proactive, professional, world class service to students and their families while empowering them to use the tools available through the website and student portals. Gillian’s previous role of Associate Director was instrumental in the origination of the center. Gillian conducted and supervised training and development for the team- from within the College as well as from outside sources. Her own professional development recently included attending […]
Since 2014, Anthony Pirrotti has served as Associate Dean of Culture and Politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In his role, he has led a series of curricular reforms, expanded the range of academic offerings, and established a series of external partnerships – all of which have significantly increased the number and range of adjunct faculty teaching in the program. An early modernist by training, Pirrotti has also served as Assistant Dean of International History at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Assistant Dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Dan joined Purdue’s College of Pharmacy as a major gift officer in May 2016. Similar to many who have entered the advancement world recently, he is a millennial and this was Dan’s first major gifts job. By diligently implementing this 30-60-90 day plan set forth by John Dinkens, Dan was able to help debunk the myth “it takes a year to get your feet on the ground.” In the past three years, Dan has far exceeded his development metrics, which resulted in Dan being promoted from Director to Senior Director in November 2018. Dan has traveled on more than 700 donor visits, resulting in booked gifts totaling more than $23,000,000. Quick to credit how the first 90 days laid the foundation for his success, Dan firmly believes having an efficient and effective plan for new hires will lead to success for the new hire, success for the organization, and retention of the employee.
In addition to her current role, Alice also works as a national facilitator and trainer in diversity and inclusion through Inclusion Consultant Network, LLC. She has written and presented sessions for audiences in a variety of industries including higher education, health care and collegiate athletics, among others. Alice was a featured keynote speaker at the 2017 NCAA Inclusion Forum. She works regularly with the NCAA National Office on issues related to inclusion. Alice has a unique blend of expertise in diversity/inclusion and its intersection with issues related to Title IX and student conduct. Alice’s recent work has focused on generational communication, a high-demand issue in higher education and in other industries. Alice holds a M.A. in Public Relations Management.
Doug joined the IU Enrollment Management team in 2000. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah and the state of Washington, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, followed by his master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Wisconsin, all in sociology. His academic focus on sociology of education, research methods, and statistics was excellent preparation for his present position. When he isn’t crunching numbers, he can be found hiking in the woods or enjoying local theatre and music with his artsy wife Hilary.
Bridgett earned her PhD in psychology from IU Bloomington in 2007 and has been working as a researcher and analyst ever since. Her experience includes a background in teaching and research related to individual differences and decision making. These experiences prepared her well for her current role which requires both statistical projections of decision making behaviors and the ability to communicate those predictive models in meaningful ways to inform decision makers. She joined IU Enrollment Management’s Strategic Planning and Research team as the Senior Associate Director in 2013.
Laura Plummer directs the Scholarly Writing Program (SWP), under the auspices of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, at Indiana University. The SWP supports faculty as they write for publication, and by extension, for promotion and tenure; its goal is to retain faculty, particularly women and women of color, to promote and share strong writing practices among faculty, and to build a community of faculty writers on campus. In the current year, the SWP coordinates 20 faculty writing groups for over 200 IU participants. For fifteen years before joining the VPFAA office, Laura directed the Campus Writing Program, Indiana’s Writing Across the Curriculum program, which assists faculty in using writing to teach and administers the campus writing center; she has also designed myriad new faculty orientation programs, and is the past Executive Director of Indiana’s Patten Foundation. Laura holds an AB from Kenyon College and a doctorate in 19th-century literature from IU.
