Joe Cuseo, Ph. D., holds a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology and Assessment from the University of Iowa. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Marymount College (California) where for more than 25 years he directed the first-year seminar, a course required of all new students. He is a columnist for a bimonthly newsletter published by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, and has received the Resource Center’s “outstanding first-year advocate award.” He is also a 14-time recipient of the “faculty member of the year award” on his home campus, a student-driven award based on effective teaching and academic advising.

He has delivered over 100 campus workshops and conference presentations, and authored numerous articles and chapters on faculty development, student retention, and the first-year experience, the most recent of which is a textbook for first-year seminars or student success courses, titled: Thriving in College and Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success & Personal Development, and a textbook on diversity, titled: Diversity & the College Experience: Research-Based Strategies for Appreciating Human Differences. Current writing projects to be published in 2010 include: Thriving in the Community College & Beyond:Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development; The First-Year Seminar: Research-Based Guidelines for Course Design, Delivery, & Assessment; and Humanity, Diversity, and the Liberal Arts: The Foundation of a College Education for summer reading programs.

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Aaron Thompson, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. He holds a doctorate degree in sociology in the areas of Organizational Behavior/Race and Gender Relations. Previous positions he has held include: Executive Director of the Student Success Institute; Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and University Programs; Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management; Professor of Sociology; and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

Dr. Thompson is nationally recognized in the areas of education attainment and academic success. He has researched, taught and/or consulted in areas of diversity, leadership, ethics, multicultural families, race and ethnic relations, student success, first-year students, retention, cultural competence and organizational design throughout his personal career.

He has over 30 publications and numerous research and peer reviewed presentations. Thompson has traveled over the U.S. and has given more than 400 workshops, seminars and invited lectures in areas of race and gender diversity, living an unbiased life, overcoming obstacles to gain success, creating a school environment for academic success, cultural competence, workplace interaction, leadership, organizational goal setting, building relationships, the first-year seminar, and a variety of other topics. He has been or is a consultant to educational institutions (elementary, secondary and postsecondary), corporations, non-profit organizations, police departments, and other governmental agencies. In addition, his research has been cited in popular publications such as Cosmopolitan, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune, and other.

His latest co-authored books are Thriving in College and Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development; Diversity and the College Experience: Research-Based Strategies for Appreciating Human Differences; Focus on Success and Black Men and Divorce and three books that will be published in 2010: Thriving in the Community College & Beyond: Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development; Humanity, Diversity, & the Liberal Arts: The Foundation of a College Education for summer reading programs, and Infusing Diversity into the College Experience.

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Michele Campagna, Ed.D.is the Executive Director of the Center for Advising and Student Transitions at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Dr. Campagna provides leadership for a comprehensive and holistic program designed to retain and engage first-year, freshman, sophomore, and transfer students. The Center oversees undergraduate advising, New Student and Family Orientation, Learning Communities, a peer leadership and advising program, New Student Seminar, the Adult Success Seminar, and sophomore success initiatives. Dr. Campagna has twenty years of experience teaching various types of first-year seminar courses and directing services for students in transition at both two-year and four-year institutions.

Dr. Campagna holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education She is the author of “New Student Experience: A Holistic and Collaborative Approach to First-Year Retention” in Exploring the Evidence: Campus-Wide Initiatives in the First College Year published by The National Resource Center on First-Year Students and Students in Transition. Dr. Campagna has presented at many statewide and national conferences on designing and implementing engagement and retention initiatives, strategic planning, assessment, and diversity.

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Julie McLaughlin is a faculty member (academic advisor) and Co-Chair of the FYE (First Year Experience) Advisory Committee at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. In the last decade Cincinnati State has built its program from a one credit, non structured FYE course to offering three FYE course options that are very structured. Retention for students who successfully complete one of the FYE courses is higher than the general student population. Julie assisted in creating the two and three credit hour FYE courses as well as the standardized syllabus and instructor training. She also teaches all three FYE courses offered at the school. Julie is a four-time House-Bruckmann Faculty Excellence Award nominee. She co-authored the book Thriving in the Community College & Beyond: Strategies for Academic Success and Personal Development for FYE courses at the community college level. Julie has presented at national conferences for FYE, NACADA (National Academic Advising Association), and N4A (National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics). She has an MA in college student personnel from Eastern Michigan University.

 

Tim Vick, M.Ed., is the Director of the Freshman Year Experience (FYE) program at Macon State College in Georgia. For the past 14 years, he has been deeply involved in the success, retention and progression of beginning college students. He has, in his role as an administrator at Macon State, directed the Academic Advising Center, Academic Testing, the Academic Resource Centers, and New and Transfer Student Orientation.  Most recently, he led the development and implementation of the College’s Freshman Year Experience program. In addition to directing the program, Tim enjoys teaching FYE seminar classes each semester. Tim also designed, and has taught for the past nine years, a beginning course for the School of Information Technology at Macon State. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and won his College’s highest award for outstanding customer service in 2010.

Tim is currently ABD toward receiving an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership. He has presented at several regional, statewide, and national conferences on the topics of student success and retention; the successful development, implementation, and assessment of freshman-year programs; and integrating technology into educational settings.

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