Nancy joined the University of Pittsburgh in July 2019 as Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations—a new leadership position that was created to develop and drive a comprehensive, thoughtful, and goals-oriented engagement strategy for Pitt alumni, reflecting the diversity and interests of the alumni population. She is an experienced alumni relations professional who has progressively grown her responsibilities in alumni relations and advancement over two decades. Before joining Pitt, Nancy served as the Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations at Carnegie Mellon University, leading that university’s alumni relations team and programming. Prior to CMU, Nancy spent thirteen years in alumni relations at Lehigh University. During her career, Nancy has advised and partnered with various student and alumni organizations and boards. She implemented enhancements to elevate traditions, creating a better experience for alumni and students that garnered increased participation. A proven collaborator and leader, she established cross-campus partnerships that generated more meaningful opportunities to engage alumni while advancing the university’s mission. Nancy’s experience also includes volunteer engagement, event planning and execution, program management, communications, and strategic planning. Nancy holds two degrees from Lehigh University: a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications and a master’s degree in political science.
Virginia Wray Totaro is a first-generation college student from Roanoke and came to Virginia Commonwealth University as an adjunct in the Spring of 2005 teaching courses such as Human Sexuality, Diverse Families and Children and Sociology of Racism, before accepting a full-time position with the Department of Focused Inquiry in 2007. In 2016, she became the Focused Inquiry Assessment Coordinator and in 2018, she took over assessment for University College. Totaro is heavily involved with VCU’s ConnectED (Gen Ed) program and serves as co-chair of the General Education Assessment Committee. Her passion is helping students enhance their perspective of themselves as learners and understanding our systems of higher education so they can be as successful as possible at VCU and beyond.
Melissa C. Johnson is Associate Vice President and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and an affiliate faculty member in the English Department at The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to this role, Johnson was Professor and Chair of the Department of Focused Inquiry in the University College of Virginia Commonwealth University. She is committed to equitable student success in higher education and has been involved in multiple initiatives to address opportunity gaps for minoritized and marginalized student populations. As a first-generation college student herself, she has advanced efforts to recognize, celebrate, and support first-generation students at both VCU and Penn State. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and fine arts, a MFA in poetry, and a Ph.D. in twentieth-century British literature and Women’s Studies.
John joined Academic Impressions in December 2022 as an Institutional Partnerships Associate following 6 years at DeSales University (Go Bulldogs!) in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. In his role, John engages with institutions on collaborative practices and integrates data and communication across the Institutional Partnerships and Academic Impressions teams. John’s roles in higher education included working within undergraduate enrollment management and financial aid, institutional advancement and alumni relations, and academic affairs within the division of healthcare. He received his M.Ed in Academic Standards and Reform, focused in Higher Education, and his B.S. in Biology with a focus in behavioral neuroscience and psychology. Outside of work, he loves everything sports, reading books and listening to podcasts, and spending time with his family and friends.
Breanne joined Academic Impressions in January 2023 as an Account Manager following almost 10 years of service at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Breanne’s roles in higher education included working in the President’s Office, with the University’s strategic plan and the Chief Strategy Officer, and in employee learning and development within Human Resources. She received her B.A. in Organization, Leadership, and Supervision from Purdue University (Go Boilers!) and her M.A. in Executive Development for Public Service with a focus on adult learning and higher education from Ball State University. Breanne resides in Pendleton, Indiana with her husband and son. When she is not working, she is either traveling or planning her next trip with family, cooking, reading, exercising, and chasing summertime.
Lisa Flesher is the Chief of Realm 4, Project Acceleration at Arizona State University where she helps guide unique, technology-enhanced projects to advance initiatives in Realm 4 – Education Through Exploration. An example of this work includes Dreamscape Learn which empowers learners through fully immersive and interactive VR learning experiences. Her background includes developing technical tools and solutions focused on student support and success, including Starbucks, Global Freshman Academy, me3, and our partnership with the Al Ghurair Foundation for Education. Flesher earned her undergraduate degree in education and taught seventh grade math before pursuing a master’s in higher and postsecondary education.
Meena is passionate about the transformative power of education and the role that philanthropy can play in changing lives. At the Case School of Engineering, Meena is responsible for initiating, cultivating, and developing the development program, supporting the associate dean of development with the implementation of the major components of a comprehensive campaign in support of the school (including strategic planning, staff oversight, and volunteer management and solicitation strategies), and serving as a senior strategist for the Case School of Engineering development team. With over 16 years of experience in academic fundraising, Meena started her career at her alma mater, The College of Wooster, where she developed and implemented the parent giving program. She has also served as Director of Alumni Relations at Oberlin College, where she managed a team of five, oversaw the alumni advisory board, was a key campus leader and planner of Commencement/Reunion Weekend (a multi-day celebration of reunions and commencement, which included over 240 events over a 4-day period) and traveled internationally to represent Oberlin in conjunction with the alumni travel program. Her favorite assignments included escorting educational alumni tours to Russia, Cuba, Greece, and Scotland. Prior to joining the Case School of Engineering, Meena served […]
Derek Jones joined the Center for Innovation and Change as Faculty Director in June 2021. He is Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and has directed the Cognitive Science program at UE since 2013. Dr. Jones has held many faculty leadership positions during his time at UE, including Director of the First Year Seminar, Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate and Co-Chair of the UE Mission and Core Values Workgroup. He received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Teaching Award in 2019. In June of 2023, Dr. Jones will begin his role as Director of Field Innovation, where in addition to overseeing UE’s “ChangeLab” experiential education programming, he will develop social innovation programs for rural high schools in southeastern Indiana and Kentucky. Dr. Jones graduated from the University of Evansville with a BA and a BFA in 2003. He served as an officer in the Army after graduating, and then went on to earn an MA from the University of Houston in 2007 and a PhD in Philosophy from Indiana University in 2013. His current research interests include the psychology of creativity, expertise, technology, and embodied cognition, and he has published a book and several articles on related topics. A […]
Acting Associate Vice President, University of Texas at Dallas Dr. Serenity Rose King is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UT System, a role she started part-time in January 2025. Through August 2025, Serenity also remains the Acting Associate Vice President for Institutional Success and Decision Support at UT Dallas, where she has worked for 21 years, including 16 in the Provost’s Office as an assistant and associate provost for program and policy coordination. While at UT Dallas, Serenity saw a gap in intentional training and development for faculty put in administrative roles, which led to her first creating “optional” onboarding sessions for new deans and associate deans and later developed into a dissertation on Succession Planning and Leadership Development in Texas Public Universities. She then created Lead UTD, a leadership development and administrative training program at UT Dallas that she facilitated from 2019-May 2025, during which 100 deans, associate deans, dept/program heads and other academic leadership participated in Lead UTD. While at UT Dallas, Serenity served as the THECB and accreditation liaison, the university-wide policy coordinator, the provost’s office representative on multiple strategic planning and enrollment management committees and as an executive council member of the new […]
