Meet Our Higher Education Consulting Team
Nationally Acclaimed Leaders to Assist You with Best Practices for Sustainable Optimization
Gary Hauser
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Development and administration of optimization solutions for student finances and net revenues associated with tuition and funding programs; workshop development for sustainable revenue generations; integration of financial best practices administration with overall fiscal operations pertinent to student financial services; Perkins Loan administration best practices.
Dan Nussbaum
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Leadership development and coaching; succession planning; academic program planning for accreditation/re-accreditation; leadership transitions; mentoring; talent management; professional development; strategic planning, opportunity, and allocation; faith-based institutions; community engagement; organizational “time management”
Larry Whitworth
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Community college executive leadership; enrollment growth strategies; governance development issues and best practices; curricular strategies and optimizations for growth at the community college level; budget management and cost containment strategies for two year institutions; retention and graduation planning strategies; Career Focus magazine as communication vehicle.
Bob Herr
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Enrollment management; admissions CRM implementation and management: staff development; establishing/enhancing recruitment markets: counselor outreach programming; financial aid and scholarship leveraging strategy; marketing and communication plans; retention initiatives.
Gary Lewicki
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Nationally acclaimed college rankings expertise; higher education research and administration; college choice; freshman year experience; retention and graduation strategies and best practices; academic program migration; student success; diversity; accreditation; legislation; high impact practices.
After serving as an Assistant Vice-President for Enrollment Planning and Management at the University of Connecticut (UConn) for 20+ years Gary joined the higher education consulting team of focusEDU. His primary responsibilities at UConn focused on retention and graduation issues.
Herb Riley
President and CEO
Skill-Based Expertise:
focusEDU administration; outreach initiatives; degree audit alignment with curriculum management; data integrity for regulatory compliance reporting; workflow technologies; LMS integrations; organization structure; staff development and training; competency-based education administration; distributed data access; dashboards; registrar best practices.
Dennis DeSantis
Vice President – Student Financial Services
Skill-Based Expertise:
Analytics; best practices; electronic billing and payments; collecting delinquent tuition and loan receivables; increasing cash flow; performance management; operational and business process mapping and review; effective utilization of student information systems; staff training; managing collection agencies; customer service; financial literacy.
Nick Laudato
Vice President
Skill-Based Expertise:
Distance and online instructional systems development; instructional technology solutions design and implementation; strategic and tactical academic and information technology assessment and planning; best practices for student information systems and instructional technology integrations; IT integrations across functional areas of ERP’s through strategic business process mapping and gap analyses; IT staff training and development; information and communications technology accessibility.
Bruce Cunningham
Sr. Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Class and course scheduling,Registration and records systems, National searches, Academic calendars, NCAA certification, FERPA, Office structure and management, Data reporting, Registrar best practices, Compliance issues and monitoring, Academic policy – development and compliance, Staff mentoring and professional development, Records and registration practices for international campuses.
Glenn Munson
Sr. Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Registration systems; class scheduling; academic calendars; academic policy and compliance; degree audit; curriculum development; curriculum management; office structure and management; staff development and training; transfer credit evaluation; processes and process improvement; mentoring programs; NCAA certification; registrar best practices.
Delsie Phillips
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Enrollment management; recruitment strategy review; customer service; team building; staff development; admission and financial aid marketing; external relations; international recruiting; utilizing CRM and data management; promoting private colleges; interim leadership in enrollment.
Forrest Stuart
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
All areas of financial aid processing automation; coordination and improvement; admission and financial aid integration/coordination; enrollment services; financial aid office alignment with institutional mission; staff development; departmental interdependence and interaction.
Cassie Dembosky
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Student record systems design and integration; Academic policy development; Organization structures for optimized functioning; Staff mentoring and professional development; Class and course scheduling, National searches, Academic calendars, FERPA, Office structure and management, Data reporting, Registrar best practices, Compliance issues and monitoring.
Tim Ebner
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Registration and records systems, Class and course scheduling, Graduation Certification, Degree Audit and Transfer Articulation, NCAA certification, Veteran Benefits certification, Academic Calendars, FERPA, Office structure and management, Registrar Data Analytics and Dashboards, Registrar best practices, Compliance issues, Academic policy development, Staff Management and mentoring, Registration and records for international campuses.
Richard Oravetz
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Information technology leadership, education technology services, distance education, electronic testing, lecture capture, and Learning Management Systems (LMS).
William DeWolf
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Strategic vision as it relates to the registrar’s office; registrar business practices; internal and external program reviews; student administrative services; one-stop-environments, legal issues in higher education, Banner and Degree Works implementation; public policy issues; staff mentoring and professional development; competency-based initiatives.
Kathy Posey
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Academic calendar assessment and development; academic policy development and compliance; class and course scheduling; college/university closures; compliance issues and monitoring; customer service; degree audit; FERPA assessment and training; interim leadership; national searches; office structure and management; optimization of resources; processes and process improvement; registrar best practices; registration and records systems; report development; staff development; student information systems; and transfer credit evaluation
Karen Acree
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Instructional technology; instructional design and course development based in Quality Matters; Quality Matters certified Peer Reviewer; Learning Management System administration and training including Canvas and D2L; implement classroom technology; professional development; lead information and communication accessibility efforts; project management for information technology projects; cross functional information technology leadership.
Meghan Solomon
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Online teaching and learning; instructional design and course building aligned with the Quality Matters rubric; faculty training and development; learning management systems.
Lauren Oczypok
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Instructional technology implementation and training; instructional design and course development aligned with the Quality Matters rubric; Learning Management System administration and training including Blackboard, Canvas, Desire2Learn Brightspace, and Jenzabar eLearning; corporate training systems; professional development and training; ICT – information and communication technology accessibility planning and remediation.
Michele Neary
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Registration and records systems, class and course scheduling, graduation certification, degree audit and transfer articulation, academic calendars, FERPA, office structure and management, registrar best practices, compliance issues, academic policy development and implementation, staff coaching and mentoring.
Michele Nearry has joined the team of focusEDU as a Consulting Director.
Lou Jimenez
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Registration and records systems, Class and course scheduling, Graduation Certification, Degree Audit and Transfer Articulation, NCAA certification, Veteran Benefits certification, Academic Calendars, FERPA, Office structure and management, Registrar Data Analytics and Dashboards, Registrar best practices, Compliance issues, Academic policy development, Staff Management and mentoring.
Meaghan Arena
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Leader at senior level for all enrollment management areas; admissions and financial aid. Public and private institution experiences; search consulting work in these areas; optimization of best practices including CRM technologies and operational staffing and structures; short and long term assessments and evaluations with comprehensive recommendations; students affairs integrations into student retention and graduation initiatives.
Patrick Hetherington
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Acclaimed expertise with our 30 years-experience in technology involving applications development, systems designs, data organization, database management, workflow analysis, process engineering and process re-engineering.
Barbara Frey
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Online teaching and learning; instructional design and course development aligned with the Quality Matters rubric; Quality Matters certified Peer Reviewer; faculty development; ICT accessibility.