Financial Aid Consultant, Huston-Tilotson University

Mischa Brown is a financial aid consultant who has over a decade of experience in Financial Aid, with an expert-level understanding of business process development, staff management and training and compliance.

Mischa’s exceptional skills in advising students, parents, college staff, high school counselors, and off-campus agencies about all aspects of student financial aid make her an asset to any project. Mischa has served in a variety of roles at many different types of institutions, including public four-year and professional schools, private two-year and four-year, HBCU and for-profit institutions.

Mischa is also an expert in Title IV programs, policies, organization, and implementation. Mischa has an in-depth understanding of how to meet federal and state compliance requirements, and vast experience with federal program reviews and managing annual audits. In addition, she has prepared, guided and built data for mandatory state and federal reporting. Mischa has also demonstrated a commitment to supporting and actively participating in various college’s major initiatives for process improvement in financial aid and student services.

Senior Educational Consultant and Maguire Associates Board of Directors

Pat joined Maguire Associates in 1994, bringing substantial experience from her leadership positions in undergraduate admissions at Boston College and Santa Clara University.

During her years at Maguire Associates, Pat has developed a deep context for her consulting, modeling, and market research engagements – having served a broad spectrum of institutions. She continues to serve Maguire Associates’ clients.

In addition to her work in the undergraduate and graduate/professional enrollment arenas, she has developed considerable expertise in the K-12 market, providing research and consulting services to independent and religiously affiliated schools facing both challenges and opportunities in enrollment.

Pat serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Saint Michael’s College and is a former trustee of Saint Columbkille Partnership School and Boston College High School. She has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston College.

Founder & Principal, ADV Marketing

As ADV’s founder and principal consultant, Grant designs, executes, and delivers market research solutions for clients. Grant believes in the transformative power of a college education, and has spent his career in higher ed as both a practitioner and consultant.

Before founding ADV, Grant was the Director of Research & Strategy at an education-focused marketing agency. In this role, Grant scoped and conducted market research for higher education clients across the country. Prior to that, Grant worked in admissions at Elon University where he gained a foundational understanding of admissions strategy, recruitment marketing, and higher education administration. These experiences afforded him both depth and breadth in his knowledge of higher education, which he now brings to bear for clients at ADV.

Grant earned his B.A. in Anthropology and MBA in Data Analytics from Elon University. The former taught him the value of qualitative research, the latter showed him the power of data—both are critical in his work today.

Executive Director of Central Financial Aid, Community College of Allegheny County

With over 30 years of experience as a financial aid professional, Jamie has established a reputation as a transformational leader who is driven by challenges, undeterred by obstacles, and committed to furthering standards of excellence. Jamie is an instrumental leader with a proven ability in managing challenging tasks and bringing innovation through the latest technologies and best practices, with a strong background in compliance, staff management and development and training.

Jamie has successfully managed financial aid operations, maintaining and updating financial aid policies, systems automation, creating annual budget/forecasts, and organizing and governing data compilation processes. Jamie also has a significant record of establishing, leading and motivating high performing teams.

Jamie is currently the Executive Director of Financial Aid at the Community College of Allegheny County and has held leadership positions at multiple institutions, including Bryn Mawr College, Cleveland State University, The College of New Jersey, Northwestern University, and a number of other public and private institutions. In addition, Jamie is the co-founder and Associate Vice President of Marketing and Scholarships of HIghtower Scholars.

Associate VP for Enrollment Management, California Lutheran University

Tom has spent the last twenty-plus years as a senior higher education administrator with broad experience in domestic and international Graduate and non-traditional admissions, and marketing. As a strong operational leader, he enjoys developing staff and is commonly sought out by his colleagues for insights on talent management. Tom provides leadership in the university’s enrollment and marketing strategies, offering guidance to directors and staff across a sizeable division of 125 employees. International admission aligns with his strong interest in world cultures, while his academic background in Psychology supports his effort to holistically develop staff.

Director of Service, Technolutions

Trevor leads the Service Division at Technolutions, which is responsible for supporting the more than 1,500 institutions using Slate. From implementation to go-live and beyond, we partner with our clients to ensure they are getting the most out of Slate. Prior to joining Technolutions in 2013, Trevor worked in college admissions as an Associate Director of Admissions & New Student Financial Aid, helping to implement Slate from the other side of the desk. Trevor has a BA in Theater Arts from Beloit College.

Founder & Principal, Best Practice Solutions

Jeanne has worked as a practitioner and consultant in financial aid and enrollment management for over 20 years.

Prior to founding BPS, Jeanne was co-founder, President and CEO of Third Coast Higher Education, a national financial aid and enrollment management consulting firm. Jeanne has extensive experience in financial aid and project management, system implementation, compliance, business process review, training, and auditing support.

Jeanne has wide ranging expertise working with student information systems, including Oracle PeopleSoft, Ellucian’s Colleague and Banner and College Board PowerFAIDS. She is an expert at developing solutions to improve student service, processing efficiency, and compliance on federal and state financial aid regulations. Her innovative and experienced approach has led to many successful outcomes, including participation in more than thirty Financial Aid Federal Program review responses and related process improvements.

Senior VP of Enrollment Management (Retired), Drexel University

Joan McDonald has been working in Enrollment Management for over thirty years. Her innovative approaches and collaborative spirit have benefitted several institutions, including Drexel University where she served as a member of the President’s Cabinet and also counseled senior leadership and the University’s Board of Trustees on national and international enrollment trends, financial aid policy, and student demand.

Under her leadership, net tuition and fee revenue grew 11%, on average, for 15 consecutive years. Joan and her team also increased student enrollment and academic quality of new undergraduates by wide margins.

Joan has won many national and regional awards for recruitment related electronic and print media. She also served as an adjunct faculty member in Drexel University’s School of Education, teaching graduate students about enrollment marketing.

Prior to her time at Drexel, Joan also worked in enrollment at Clark University, University of Chicago and Cardinal Stritch College.

Founder & Principal, Best Practice Solutions

Rob brings more than two decades of experience to client engagements and a proven track record of increasing enrollment and revenue across market segments.

Prior to founding BPS, Rob served as the VP for Enrollment Management at Assumption University, where he was responsible for undergraduate and graduate admissions, financial aid, enrollment marketing, enrollment operations, and athletics.

As VP for Enrollment at Beloit College, Rob led the creation of a multi-year strategic enrollment management plan built on input from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and board members and endorsed by the college’s governing bodies; he also led the team responsible for enrolling Beloit’s largest first-year class since 1975.

Rob has helped public and private institutions develop marketing plans, optimize price increases, and determine student satisfaction and retention drivers.

Rob has presented on enrollment management and financial aid topics at numerous national conferences, including ACT, AACRAO, AMA, and the College Board.

Rob holds master’s and doctoral degrees in social psychology from Princeton University, a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Bates College, and a certificate in enrollment management leadership from the University of Southern California.

Founder and Principal, Best Practice Solutions

Bill is an enrollment management leader with recent posts as Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management at Assumption University and Director of Enrollment at Beloit College.

Bill has built data and analytics teams focused on predictive modeling, reporting, and financial aid leveraging, led admissions departments, oversaw complex enrollment operations, and developed full cycle marketing strategies ranging from search to yield.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has recognized Bill’s expertise in Customer Resource Management (CRM) tools and he has been presented at numerous higher education conferences about his innovative work.

Prior to his most recent appointments, Bill worked in admissions at Marlboro College where serving a student body of fewer than 400 students instilled in him the importance of working collaboratively and broadly with faculty and staff across institutions.

Bill is passionate about the potential for higher education to serve as an engine for social good and economic growth. He received his Bachelor of Arts in sociology, with honors, from Bates College.

VP Strategy and Business Development, Campus Reel

Matt Pellish serves as the Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at CampusReel where he currently oversees partner development and strategic service planning. Prior to joining CampusReel Matt spent the last decade as Managing Director at EAB where he founded and built out the firm’s Advisory Services function to provide excerpt advice and consultative direction to EAB’s partner network of colleges, universities, K-12 public school districts, and independent schools where he personally visited over 450 campuses in North America and Europe. Early in his career Matt developed a passion for education which expanded in roles as Director of Continuing Education, Chief of Staff, and head of New Program Development at several universities and colleges in the northeast including Harvard University, Cambridge College, Wheelock College, and Saint Joseph’s University. Matthew earned a B.A. with honors in English and Political Science magna cum laude from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA and a Masters degree in Education (Ed.M.) from Harvard University where he specialized in Higher Education Management, Organizational Design, and Leadership.

Senior Client Counsel, ADV Marketing

Few people in the nation have the higher education and brand experience Chuck brings to the ADV team. His knowledge of the education category spans community colleges to flagship universities, struggling independent institutions searching for a new path to some of the nation’s biggest and best private college brands who need research and insight to drive new thinking.

Chuck has worked in higher education as a practitioner or consultant for over 30 years, including as director of admissions at a regional public college and media relations director for a private liberal arts university. His consultancy work involves research, brand development, messaging, and planning—his benefit to any ADV client is how he translates the right research scope into appropriate and meaningful action, all without pre-determined solutions.

A writer by education and training, Chuck has crafted compelling messaging and distilled many institutions’ brand identities into compelling and measurably successful marketing strategies. Many of his projects have won regional and national awards, and his past professional articles and presentations focus on brand across higher education and our society as a whole.

Principal, Integrative Statistics

Accomplished, resourceful researcher and analyst. Skilled at helping clients define their key questions and passionate about investigating with innovative methods to find answers and solutions. Talented at communicating research findings through oral presentations, written reports, and effective displays. Dedicated to fostering productive collaboration, organizational efficiency, and colleagues' professional growth. Several dozen publications, many peer-reviewed, on research methods, special education, patient outcomes, and other topics, including a 2020 article in The American Statistician.