Carrie Besnette, Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Metropolitan State College
Denver, CO

Carrie Besnette is Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Metropolitan State College of Denver. As chief advancement officer and executive director of its foundation, Besnette oversees the development, communications, and alumni departments of the College and is responsible for external and public relations, strategic marketing, and building community and campus partnerships. Before joining Metro State, Besnette served for nearly seven years as Vice President and one of the original senior officers of the Daniels Fund, the $1B charitable legacy of Bill Daniels. She was responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the largest single component of the foundation. She also created the Daniels Opportunity Awards, resulting in the distribution of $6M in grants to colleges across the Fund's four-state region to support non-traditional students. From 1997-2000, Besnette was Assistant Director of State Relations at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Prior to moving to Colorado, she was based in Los Angeles as the Regional Director of Admissions and Alumni Affairs for the University of Arizona, her undergraduate alma mater. During this period (1990-97), she also completed graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) at UCLA. She now holds adjunct faculty status at the University of Denver.

Dr. Besnette received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Kristen S. Betts, Assistant Professor
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Betts is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education’s Higher Education Program at Drexel University. Dr. Betts’ expertise is online education with a research focus on recruitment, engagement, and retention of students, faculty, and adjunct faculty. She has over 14 years experience in online program design, strategic planning, and evaluation. Dr. Betts publishes and presents nationally and internationally on online education, retention, instructional strategies, and professional development.

Dr. Betts received her doctorate in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University and received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the College of William & Mary. Dr. Betts’ dissertation focused on the recruitment and retention of online faculty.

Paul Bucci, Director
Higher Education Management Services
Academy for Educational Development
Washington, DC

Dr. Bucci is the Vice President and Director of the Higher Education Management Services Center at the Academy for Educational Development (AED). He is an expert in higher education development, grant writing, and program evaluation. His international service with AED includes work in Honduras and Panama. Before taking on his current responsibilities, Dr. Bucci was the Associate Director of the Information and Learning Technologies Division. He has published several reports, most recently an evaluation of the South Carolina Advanced Technology Education Exemplary Faculty Project.

Dr. Bucci received his Ph.D in Higher Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Alberto Cabrera, EPI Senior Scholar
Professor & EPI Senior Scholar
University of Maryland
College Park, MD

Dr. Cabrera recently became a Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a former Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He specializes in research methodologies, college choice, college students, classroom experiences, college students, classroom experiences, minorities in Higher Education, and the economics of education. Dr. Cabrera serves on the advisory boards of the Bill & Melinda's Pathways to College Network and the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC's) Student Outcomes. He has also consulted with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), the US Congress' Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA, the American Council on Education, Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, the US Department of Education, the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, the Argentinean Minister of Education, and with several universities in the US and abroad. Dr. Cabrera has been a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Higher Education and the Review of Higher Education and Research in Higher Education. His work on the role of finances on college persistence and on determinants of default behavior has received several awards.

Dr. Cabrera received his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Daryl Chubin, Director
AAAS Center for Advancing Science & Engineering Capacity
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Washington, DC

Dr. Chubin is the Director of the AAAS Center for Advancing Science and Engineering Capacity, which provides consulting services to individual universities and colleges seeking to increase the participation of US students, especially women and underrepresented minorities, in science and engineering careers. He is the former Senior Vice President for research and policy programs at the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). Before joining NACME, Dr. Chubin spent 15 years in federal service, beginning in 1986 at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1993 as a division director for Research, Evaluation, and Communication n the Directorate for Education and Human Resources. In 1997, Dr. Chubin served as assistant director for Social and Behavioral Sciences and Education at the White House Office of Science and Technology. Since 1991, Dr. Chubin has been an adjunct professor at the Cornell-in-Washington Program. He has published eight books and numerous policy reports, articles, and commentaries.

Among his honors are: AAAS Fellow, Past Chair of the AAAS section on Societal Impacts of Science and Engineering, Fellow of the Association for Women in Science, co-recipient of the American Society of Engineering Education Wickenden Award for best paper published in the 2003 volume of The Journal of Engineering Education, QEM/MSE 2006 Giant of Science, and Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer 2007-2009. Today, he serves on the board of directors of three not-for-profit organizations and on the editorial board of three professional journals.

Dr. Chubin received his Ph.D from Loyola University in 1973.

Dr. Jay Goff, Dean of Enrollment Management
Missouri University of Science & Technology
Rolla, MO

Dr. Goff currently serves as the university’s chief enrollment officer, directly overseeing the Enrollment Management Division offices of Admissions and Visitor Center, Registrar, Orientation/New Student Programs, Women’s Leadership Institute, Minority Student Services, Pre-College Programs and Student Financial Assistance. Dr. Goff is responsible for coordinating the campus’s marketing of academic programs, the Enrollment Development Team, PeopleSoft (ERP) student module implementation (executive sponsor) and the Recruitment Committee, as well as guiding research efforts in student market assessments, student assessment, student recruiting and retention efforts. The division is composed of over 70 staff members and 65 student employees. Oversee an operating budget exceeding $3.1 million and over $60 million in scholarships and financial aid.

Dr. Goff earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Drew Gitomer, Distinguished Presidential Appointee
Educational Testing Service
Princeton, NJ

Dr. Gitomer is a Distinguished Presidential Appointee at Educational Testing Service (ETS). He first joined ETS in 1985, where he was a Senior Vice President. In 2004, Dr. Gitomer joined the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago as a Senior Fellow, returning to ETS in 2006. He served as the project co-director of Arts PROPEL, a portfolio assessment effort involving middle and high school teachers and students in music, visual arts, and writing. Dr. Gitomer also co-directed several NSF-sponsored projects focusing on alternative conceptions of assessment in science education. He is currently engaged in work examining efforts to improve the effectiveness of the teaching force.

Dr. Gitomer earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Lawrence E. Gladieux, Education Policy Consultant

Mr. Gladieux is an independent consultant. His clients have included the US Department of Education, The College Board, The McKenzie Group, the American Federation of Teachers, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Mr. Gladieux has presented testimony to Congress and been a frequent speaker on topics related to government and education at meetings of college administrators, state education officials and legislators, researchers and students. He has written numerous articles, and has co-authored and edited several books. He is the former executive director of the Washington Office of the College Board and past director for policy analysis. Through his leadership, the College Board's Washington D.C. office gained a reputation for reliable, independent policy analysis on issues of the high school-to-college transition, college affordability, and equal opportunity for higher education.

Mr. Gladieux holds a Masters degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Dr. Howard T. Everson, Executive Director, NAEP Statistical Services Institute
American Institutes for Research
Washington, DC

Dr. Everson is currently the Executive Director of the NAEP Statistical Services Institute at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington, DC. Prior to joining AIR, he served as the Chief Research Scientist and Vice President for the College Board in New York. In the fall of 2006, Dr. Everson will join the faculty in Psychology and Psychometrics at Fordham University in New York. He also serves as Research Scientist at Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Everson's research and scholarly interests focus on the intersection of cognition, instruction, and assessment. He has contributed to developments in educational psychology, psychometrics, and quantitative methods. Before joining the College Board, Dr. Everson was a Psychometric Fellow at the Educational Testing Service. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a charter member of the American Psychological Society, and past-president of the Division of Educational Psychology (Division 15) of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Everson received a Ph.D. from the City University of New York.

Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, Principal Research Scientist
American Institutes for Research
Washington, DC

Dr. Rodriguez serves as a Principal Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). He is nationally recognized for his expertise on issues of equity, access, and educational attainment for minority populations in K-12 and higher education, especially in STEM in higher education. Over the past 14 years at AIR, he has served as project director for national evaluations of STEM-related high school, undergraduate, and graduate initiatives. He has ongoing work with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on evaluation issues related to underrepresented minorities and cultural contexts, and has chaired NSF proposal review committees. Among his accomplishments, Dr. Rodriguez authored the national report, America on the Fault Line: Hispanic American Education, which informed the Hispanic Education Action Plan (HEAP) guiding Hispanic educational initiatives in federal agencies.

Dr. Rodriguez received his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Arizona.

Ms. Lesley Sanchez, CEO
Impacto Group LLC
Washington, DC

As the founder and CEO of Impacto Group LLC, one of the few women-owned communications and market research firms in the United States, Leslie Sanchez has become a much sought after voice on social and economic trends affecting women and the emerging U.S. Hispanic community. Hispanic Business magazine named her one of the nation's "100 Most Influential Hispanics."

A former Bush administration official, Leslie is known for her straightforward style and in-depth understanding of the political and cultural landscape inside—and outside—Washington, DC. A veteran of numerous local, state and national campaigns, in 1999 she served as deputy press secretary at the Republican National Committee where she helped create the Republicans’ first-ever multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at Hispanic voters. She later served as executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Leslie is a frequent columnist and her public analysis has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, as well as NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Univision, Telemundo and leading PBS programs, including News Hour with Jim Lehrer.