With 15 years of fundraising and volunteer management experience, Leitha has built a career on cultivating strong relationships, developing and leading dynamic teams, and establishing foundational programs that result in high performing teams and philanthropic growth. As a development professional with a background in organizational leadership and executive coaching, she enjoys training, inspiring, and cultivating staff, volunteers, executives, and boards in order to bring out the best in people and reach new philanthropic heights. Leitha has experience with all aspects of fundraising including annual funds, events, planned giving, capital projects, comprehensive campaigns, and major and principal gifts within national organizations, private education, and public post-secondary institutions. Her passion is twofold: developing solid fundraising skills within a team (including her own) and making truly rewarding philanthropic matches between donors and the causes they care most about. Most recently, she worked for seven years at the University of Calgary on the Energize Campaign. The institution raised $1.4 billion and Energize was Canada’s third largest post-secondary campaign at the time. She joined the University of Victoria in June 2021 and returned to her beautiful home province of British Columbia. Leitha’s passion for education is realized in her work at the University of Victoria […]
Corrie Fountain is an Associate Provost at Georgia State University. Her responsibilities include faculty recruitment, retention, and support. She creates and facilitates faculty development workshops, seminars, and other trainings for faculty, manages faculty awards, and leads the university’s annual review and promotion and tenure process. Fountain also co-leads the mentoring initiatives for the university and consults with colleges and departments on DEI and faculty belonging. Her academic field of interest is inclusivity and intersectionality within higher education, and she holds an academic appointment as a Professor of Cultural and Behavioral Science. Fountain is currently a Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE-IMPACT (Intersectionality and Mentoring in the Professoriate for Advancement, Community, and Transformation) grant. Prior to joining GSU, Fountain served as Department Chair of Inclusive Education and Interim Associate Dean for Diversity and Community Engagement at Kennesaw State University. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Delaware State University, a master’s degree in special education/behavior disorders from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. in educational policy studies with a concentration in research, measurement, and statistics from Georgia State University.
Prior to becoming Dean, John served as Department Chair and Professor of Social Work at Benedict College and as an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. His current research interests explore: the relationship between racism and adverse childhood experiences among African Americans, diversity, equity, access, and inclusion issues within social work, and faculty mentoring. Notably, in 2017, John was selected as the Arkansas Social Worker of the Year by the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. AI BLOG by Dr. John Miller: https://www.academicimpressions.com/blog/falling-up/
Dr. Jacquelyn “Jackie” Buckrop has over three decades in higher education, serving in faculty and administrative roles, sometimes at the same time. She currently serves as the Special Assistant for Academic Operations in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Teaching Professor of Communication Studies at Ball State University. Jackie oversees the organizational activities and procedures of the office, and serves as the liaison to Student Affairs, Human Resources, Employee Relations, and other areas across campus. Jackie has extensive experience with all stages of the faculty life cycle from recruitment and hiring, through professional development, promotion and tenure, to retirement—as well as with helping Deans and Department Chairs begin the process all over again. Jackie has served as the director of the university-required core course in public communication, navigating two changes to the university’s core curriculum. She also served a decade as the Associate Dean for the College of Communication, Information, and Media, where she oversaw curriculum development, policy creation, and student retention efforts. She was the inaugural Director for the Center for Media Design and responsible for the oversight of a $20 million grant. With degrees in Rhetoric and Public Communication, Jackie has […]
A veteran in higher education, President Rider has served in various roles at Etown, from faculty member to department chair, Registrar, and Associate Academic Dean. Prior to her appointment as President, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Elizabethtown College where she led the restructuring of academic programs, organized 19 academic departments into six Schools, played an integral role in establishing a new five-year program in Physician Assistant (PA) Studies, supported the launch of an RN to BSN program for licensed nurses, and expanded the College’s renowned Occupational Therapy (OT) program to include doctoral degrees. As President, she is overseeing the institution’s five-year community Strategic Plan that prioritizes dynamic academic programming as well as diversity, equity, and belonging, financial sustainability, and strategic partnerships to continue to elevate the College. President Rider is a graduate of Gettysburg College and has master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from Vanderbilt University. She also completed Harvard’s Institute for Educational Management.
Dr. Renay M. Scott currently serves as the Vice President of Student Success at New Mexico State University. She began her career at New Mexico State University in 2014, as the 9th president the of Doña Ana Community College, an NMSU branch campus. She moved to the Las Cruces campus in 2018, and from her role in the Division of Student Success has also served as senior womens’ administrator for Athletics plus interim provost and graduate dean. Dr. Scott previously held administrative positions in two-year and four-year, public and private institutions including serving as provost, vice provost and dean. She served as department chair and associate department chair at Central Michigan University where she attained the rank of professor in teacher education. Dr. Scott’s leadership blends service, teaching and coaching. As a servant, she ensures the success of others by communicating expectations, supporting individuals through utilization of their strengths, and developing collaborative, risk-taking spaces to allow for innovation. As a teacher, Dr. Scott supports her team’s development through assessment, feedback, and guidance, leading to reflection to support person growth in leadership, management, decision making, and conflict management. As a coach, Dr. Scott believes in establishing an aspirational vision and supporting […]
Dr. Kevin Sansberry II is a behavioral scientist and executive coach whose inspiring work is driven by the need for evidence-based, inclusive and equitable approaches to urgently and proactively transform and coach leaders, eradicating toxic behaviors that threaten profitability, innovation and the overall wellbeing. He is an impactful executive coach, focused on providing providing research-informed solutions in various settings such as professional sports, higher education, nonprofit, sales, and other large complex organizations. He is also the founder and principle of KEVRA Consulting, a firm that utilized research-based solutions to address organizational challenges such as inclusion, equity and belonging, HR strategy and leadership coaching and development. Kevin is regularly sought after to speak and consults with leaders around the world related to his expertise in toxic leadership, human capital strategy, and creating inclusive cultures of belonging to enhance organization performance, center in employee wellbeing. Kevin has written extensively on topics in various areas such as: CEO narcissism, abusive supervision, workplace authenticity and is currently working on various ventures to further connect the research and best practices to help organizations detoxify and employees thrive. Kevin is the creator and host of the Toxic Leadership Podcast which reached as high as the number […]
Matt is a Founder and Donor Advisor of the Irwin Financial Foundation Donor Advised Fund at Heritage Fund, the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County. He also manages a private scholarship fund that pays the tuition and fees of over 100 undocumented Latino students who seek to complete degrees in higher education. In June of 2021, Matt retired from his role as Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor and Dean at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (2010 to 2021). Prior to that, Matt worked and practiced law for 27 years at Irwin Financial Corporation, retiring in 2009 as Chief Administrative Officer, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics Officer. He was also a Director of the Irwin Financial Foundation. Matt has a degree in History from Indiana University (1979, Bloomington, IN) and a Juris Doctorate degree from Indiana University School of Law (1982, Bloomington, IN). Additionally, he is a TEP graduate of the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia (1998, Charlottesville, VA). Matt has been active in service to Columbus and Bartholomew County as a Commissioner on the Columbus Redevelopment Commission, a Commissioner on the Columbus Human Rights Commission, a Board member of Columbus City Utilities, a leader in […]
Prior to her current role, Gypsy most recently served as the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at VCU. Prior to joining VCU, she served as Dean of the College of Education and Human Services at West Virginia University, where she also served as Associate Provost for Community Engagement and Outreach. During her 17 years at Northern Arizona University, she served as Assistant Vice Provost for the Professional Education Unit, Dean of the College of Education, as well as in other administrative roles. Gypsy also worked in Student Affairs during her time at the University of California at Berkeley and East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. She is a past national president of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and she served on the executive board of the Council of Academic Deans of Research Institutions in Education. Her PhD is in Educational Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. Gypsy earned an MA in Counseling and Leadership from the University of Texas at El Paso and a BS in Social Work from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Her formal coaching training is from the College of Executive Coaching, and she provides coaching to current and aspiring higher education administrators. […]
For almost 15 years Emily has held strategic Human Resources positions in Higher Education, Healthcare and Hospitality. She currently serves as the Director of Talent Management for University Advancement at Villanova University where she is responsible for a 5-year staffing plan to grow the team by an additional 80-90 people to support the school’s next Capital Campaign which will run parallel with the newly released 10-year Strategic Plan. Emily’s focus areas are on recruitment, onboarding, training, professional development, employee engagement and retention. Emily is a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY where she double majored in International Business and Spanish. Emily holds her SHRM-CP, a Human Resources Management certificate from Villanova University, and a certification on “Fostering Inclusion and Diversity” from Yale University. She is currently in her first year of a Master’s program at Villanova for Human Resource Development. Emily also serves as the President of the Alumnae Board at Mount Saint Joseph Academy. Emily resides in a suburb of Philadelphia with her wife, their two sons and a whole bunch of tiny dogs.
