Kathryn (Katie) Pedley is the director and R&D liaison for Global Higher Education at ETS. She is responsible for the oversight of the ETS Global Higher Education research agenda. Pedley has more than 25 years of experience in research, most recently as the director of psychometrics and data analytics for College Board programs at ETS. She has published numerous peer-reviewed publications, most recently co-authoring ETS Best Practices in Constructed Response Scoring (2021). Pedley holds a Ph.D. in psychological studies in education (measurement and evaluation), as well as a master’s degree in neurophysiology, from the University of Alberta; she earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from McMaster University in Canada. Throughout her career, she has been committed to the principles of fairness and equity in educational opportunities.

Bree Dority is the associate dean of curriculum and operations in the College of Business and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Her responsibilities are focused on curriculum management and assessment in undergraduate and graduate programs; accreditation reports and processes; transfer opportunities with community colleges and international schools; enrollment management, recruitment, and retention efforts; and college communication. Dority is a professor of finance and has taught a variety of classes for the economics, finance, and construction management programs. Her research is Nebraska-focused. Dority recently helped develop the first economic prosperity and quality-of-life benchmarking tool for the nonmetropolitan and small metropolitan regions of Nebraska, known as the Nebraska Thriving Index.

Bhavik K. Pathak is the associate dean of graduate programs and accreditation and professor of decision sciences at the Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics at Indiana University South Bend. His primary research interest is on the impact of internet technologies on business. He has been published in premier academic journals, including the Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Retailing, Electronic Markets, and Communications of the AIS. Pathak serves as associate editor of Decision Support Systems. He earned a Ph.D. in operations and information management from the University of Connecticut.

Michael Porter is the director of accreditation and continuous improvement at Alabama A&M University’s College of Business and Public Affairs. Porter has more than 15 years of experience working in higher education. Having worked at an accrediting body where he was directly responsible for drafting standards and overseeing continuous improvement initiatives in several colleges and universities, Porter has significant expertise in accreditation and augmenting institutional excellence. Throughout his career, Porter has had a strong emphasis on student success, accountability, and the types of strategic initiatives that colleges and universities establish to enable greater levels of student achievement. In his current role as director of accreditation and continuous improvement at Alabama A&M University’s College of Business and Public Affairs, Porter is responsible for leading and managing all of the college’s accreditation activities and overseeing its assessment systems and student success efforts. He is a graduate of Florida International University where he earned a doctorate in higher education. He has also earned graduate degrees in public policy and management from the University of York in England.

Terry Brown is the vice president for academic innovation and transformation at AASCU. She oversees a division that provides programming and services to help members fulfill their academic mission, primarily in the areas of civic engagement, international education, student success, and teacher education. She served for nearly 25 years in the University of Wisconsin System as tenured faculty in the field of English and as an academic leader at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and served as provost at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Most recently, she served as the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. She is an advocate for accessible, affordable public higher education, a cause which motivates her work and informs her decisions. In nearly 20 years of academic leadership, Brown has led colleges and universities in integrated and strategic academic and enrollment planning, aligning budget and space resources to academic priorities. As a first-generation college student, she is committed to student success and spearheaded several efforts to increase college completion.

Christina Hubbard, Senior Director in Research Advisory Services, EAB

Christina Hubbard joined EAB in 2017 and is a Senior Director in Research Advisory Services. Christina has spent nearly 25 years in higher education serving post-traditional learners. Prior to joining EAB, she served in a variety of roles at Northern Virginia Community College and gained experience in academic advising, program management, student access and success, financial aid, online teaching, workforce development, and community engagement. Earlier in her career, she served military students in the Pentagon and in university and graduate school environments.

Angela Street, Director of Research Advisory Services, EAB

Angela Street serves as a director of Research Advisory Services at EAB, where she delivers best practice research and advises higher education leaders on student mental health, campus climate, student retention and success, and transfer success. Angela’s career in higher education began working in Student Activities and Leadership at the University of Georgia. She later found an interest in student retention and teaching first-year students. Her career has afforded her the opportunity to work with student success programs and teach at public, private, online and two-year institutions including The University of South Carolina, Edgewood College, Blackhawk Technical College, American Public University System and most recently, North Carolina Central University where she served as Interim Executive Director of Student Academic Success.

Ed Venit, Managing Director, EAB

Ed Venit manages student success research for EAB. In this capacity, Venit leads the development and dissemination of best practices for using data and technology to improve retention and graduation rates. Venit provides consultative guidance to senior leadership across the Student Success Collaborative and is responsible for understanding shifting needs and trends. He has over a decade of experience researching data analytics and student success technologies. Venit presents at conferences using case studies to highlight how looming demographic declines are forcing colleges and universities to rethink student retention as an enrollment challenge. This new mindset is triggering investment in proactive advising and the development of support strategies that pay for themselves (and more) in retention gains. By documenting and sharing these trends, Venit hopes to help senior leaders develop self-sustaining strategies that graduate far more students. Venit earned a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Duke University and a bachelor's degree in biology, also from Duke. His doctoral work looked at how simple things (ants) evolve to make complex things (ant colonies). He also taught classes about marine biology and dinosaurs.