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.
Herb Riley
President
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
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.
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.
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.
Joanne Nicoll
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Educational programs needs assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation in varied disciplines and delivery modes; curriculum design consultation with discipline experts to develop instructional programs; development and implementation of degree program outcomes assessment; design of instructional methods and strategies to meet learners’ needs; development of instructional manuals and program planning documents; and development of distance education courses and programs, including self-instructional materials.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Patti Hanson
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; information and communication technology accessibility.
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.
Sigrun Olafsdottir
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
All aspects of the financial aid office; team development; strategic decision-making; policy and procedure manuals; accredidation and audit; enrollment managament; comprehensive training of staff in financial aid procedures; international recruitment; diverse cultural background; alignment of admission and financial aid goals; project management; implementing financial aid software; streamlining financial aid processes; US Foreign school policies.
Susan Kassab
Consulting Director
Skill-Based Expertise:
Comprehensive Enrollment Management and Marketing; Institutional Strategic Visioning; Enterprise Systems Analysis and Integration; Specialized recruitment in the international, transfer, military, graduate, and adult markets, Internal and External Partnership Development, Change Management Practitioner.
