Yarbrah Peeples: Enabling Success

YARBRAH PEEPLES (Ph.D. 2012) began working with the Georgia College Advising Corps while still a graduate student at IHE and became director of the program after earning her doctoral degree.

Her interest in higher education access and success issues related to first generation, low-income and minority students dovetail well with her GCAC responsibilities.

“We are fortunate to have Yarbrah Peeples lead the GCAC program,” says IHE Director Libby Morris, who worked to establish GCAC as an outreach program of IHE in 2008. “As director, Dr. Peeples is in charge of the staffing and network overall, including relating to the high school principals and counselors. The position requires an incredible array of skills—from understanding the research and literature on college going, to measuring outcomes, to hiring and staffing, to making the dollars and cents work.”

Last year, Peeples applied to participate in the Education Policy Fellowship Program and was selected as a member of the class of 2015-16. The 10-month professional development program is sponsored by the Institute for Educational Leadership, a national organization based in Washington, D.C. that helps emerging leaders in education and related fields acquire new perspectives and skills through state-site programs.

“I learned a great deal through the EDFP,” says Peeples. “The readings and meetings and guest speakers helped me understand what our GCAC advisers are dealing with in schools.”

As a doctoral student at IHE, Peeples was the recipient of the Zell and Shirley Miller Graduate Fellowship for the 2010-2011 academic year. She holds an M.S. in higher education from Florida State University and earned a B.S. in business management, along with an MBA from Florida A&M University. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Peeples was an academic program specialist with the TRIO Student Support Services Program at Florida State.