Institute Faculty

Trudy Bers is executive director of Research, Curriculum and Planning at Oakton Community College. Bers' research interests include the community college, the assessment of student learning outcomes, and college choice for community college students and their parents. She has been president of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, the Association for Institutional Research, the National Community College Council for Research and Planning, and the Illinois Association for Institutional Research, and is former chair of the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative Executive Committee. As a data coach with the Achieving the Dream initiative, she works with community colleges developing new approaches to fostering student success. Bers has been or is on the editorial boards of Research in Higher Education, the Enrollment Management Journal, and the Community College Review. She has published more than forty-five publications in professional journals, and made more than fifty presentations at professional conferences. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and holds an M.B.A. for the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, an A.M. in Public Law and Government from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Joseph Cuseo holds a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology and Assessment. Cuseo, now retired, has been professor emeritus of Psychology at Marymount College Rancho Palos Verdes where for more than 25 years he directed the first-year seminar, a course required of all new students that was designed to promote success in the first two years of college and promoting successful transfer from two-year to four-year institutions. He has delivered numerous workshops on the transfer student transition at national conferences conducted by the National Resource Center and other regional conferences. Cuseo is a fourteen-time recipient of the "faculty member of the year award," a student-driven award based on effective teaching and academic advising. He is also a recent recipient of American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Diamond Honoree Award (2010). He has delivered over 100 campus workshops and conference presentation, and authored numerous articles and chapters on faculty development, student retention, and the first-year experience, the most recent of which is: Thriving in the Community College and Beyond: Research-Based Strategies for Academic Success & Personal. Currently, Cuseo serves as an educational advisor and consultant for AVID, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote the college access and success of underserved student populations.

Thomas J. Grites serves as assistant provost at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He has been directly involved in the academic advising process in higher education for almost 40 years. He has served as a consultant, program evaluator, and faculty development workshop leader to more than 100 different campuses. He was instrumental in forming the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and held the position of president for two terms. He has authored more than 60 journal articles, position statements, book chapters, program evaluations, and consultant reports, and has delivered over 80 conference presentations. Grites co-edited the second edition of Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook and recently co-authored an orientation textbook for transfer students entitled the Transfer Student Companion. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Illinois State University and completed his doctoral work at the University of Maryland. Both institutions honored Grites with Distinguished Alumni awards, and he was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame at Illinois State.

James L. Hudgins is the president emeritus of the South Carolina Technical College System. Prior to his retirement from the system in 2005, Hudgins served as an executive officer in four colleges and the System office. Prior to his state level post, James served for 13 years as President of Midlands Technical College in Columbia, nine years as President of Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter and nine years as Vice President for Educational Affairs at Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, S.C. He began his technical college career at Greenville Technical College where he served as a counselor to students. On the national and regional level, Hudgins has served as chairman of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) where he has chaired over 30 accreditation committees for the Commission on Colleges. He has served as the President of the Southern Association of Community, Junior and Technical Colleges, as a board member of the American Association of Community Colleges and as the vice-chair of the Board of the Community College of the Air Force. In January 2006, James became the director of the Community College Alliance (CCLA) in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The CCLA is a unique partnership between the University and the South Carolina Technical College System for the purpose of developing future leaders of the Technical College System.

Jennifer R. Keup is the director of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (NRC) at the University of South Carolina . Before joining the staff of the NRC, she held professional roles that engaged her in the dialogue on the topics of first-year experience and students in transition on the national level as a project director at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) as well as with institutional programming and assessment experiences as the director of the Student Affairs Information and Research Office (SAIRO) at UCLA. Her research interests and scholarly work focus on students' personal and academic development during transition points in higher education; the influence of campus programming on adjustment to college; student development in college; and issues of institutional impact, responsiveness, and transformation in higher education.

Julie McLaughlin is an academic advisor and co-chair of the First-Year Experience (FYE) Advisory Committee at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. She also teaches a first-year experience course. She has a master's in college student personnel from Eastern Michigan University. She has assisted in creating the two- and three- credit hour first-year courses at Cincinnati State as well as the standardized syllabus and instructor training. McLaughlin 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. At Cincinnati State, she is also responsible for co-creating an Athletic Advising Program that has been recognized as an exemplary practice by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and contributed to the NACADA monograph titled Advising Student-Athletes: A Collaborative Approach to Success. She has presented at national conferences for FYE, NACADA, and National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A).

Patricia Stanley, now retired, is the former president of Frederick Community College. She served as the first deputy assistant secretary for Community Colleges in the U.S. Department of Education from 2006 to 2009. Prior to this, Stanley held a number of positions including administrator for workforce development in the state Chancellor's office, administrative dean at Orange Coast College, executive vice president at Cypress College and executive director of the California Institute for Career Development. She holds a bachelor's degree from Wittenberg University, a master's degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, and an Ed.D from the University of the Pacific. Active in numerous community and educational organizations at both the state and national level, Stanley has also participated in international education programs in Kuwait, Thailand, the former Soviet Union, China, and a number of countries in Europe and Scandinavia. She co-authored, co-edited, and contributed a chapter to the monograph, Fulfilling the Promise of the Community College: Increasing First-Year Student Engagement and Success.

Diane Stump is the area chair for the First-Year Experience (FYE) Program at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. She is also a licensed professional counselor and co-chair of the FYE Advisory Committee at Cincinnati State and teaches the first-year experience course. She has an master's in college student personnel from Eastern Kentucky University. Stump has assisted in creating all three FYE courses as well as the standardized syllabus and instructor training. She is an eleven time House-Bruckmann Faculty Excellence Award nominee and she won the award in 2002. Stump was president of the Faculty Senate from 2002 to 2005 and she was also the president of the Greater Cincinnati Counseling Association in 1998. She regularly presents workshops on study skills, time management, career development, and interpersonal communication to many area colleges and high school groups as well as the Cincinnati Police Academy, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Stump has also presented at the annual first-year experience conference.

As the dean of Academic Services at Oakton Community College, Donna Younger provides leadership for the College's academic support, developmental education, and faculty professional development efforts. She led the College's participation in the Foundation of Excellence pilot project for community colleges in 2004-05 and currently services as co-chair of the College's student success council. Younger has recently served on the National Advisory Board of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition and has served as a consultant and speaker for various community colleges and professional associations. Beyond these, she is a frequent contributor to conferences sponsored by the National Resource Center on The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, including a preconference workshop on the first-year experience in the community college. Her professional work beyond the first-year experience includes teaching at DePaul University (Emotional Intelligence, Teamwork, Facilitating Organizational Learning) and consulting with colleges, businesses, and government organizations on issues relating to adult learning and assessment. She holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in adult development and a master's of teaching in English education, both from the University of Memphis.