PhD, 2012 Dr. Yarbrah Peeples serves as the Director of College Success at Achieve Atlanta, a nonprofit organization dedicated to help student access, afford, and earn postsecondary credentials. In this role, she leads Achieve Atlanta's college success strategy, partnerships, and program execution to ensure scholars persist and graduate. She also manages university and non-profit partnerships, oversee data-driven student support initiatives, and strengthens systems, capability, and coordination across teams. Before joining Achieve Atlanta, Yarbrah served as Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at Leadership for Educational Equity and held multiple senior leadership roles at the College Advising Corps over a span of four years. Throughout her 20-year career in college access and success, she has led teams, developed high-impact programs, and advanced equity-focused strategies across both higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations. During her time at the McBee Institute as a PhD student, Yarbrah was the recipient of the Zell and Shirley Miller Graduate Fellow for the 2010-2011 academic year. She earned an MS in Higher Education from Florida State University and a BS and MBA from Florida A&M University. She brought to her degree experience as an academic program specialist with the TRIO Student Support Services Program at Florida State University. Her professional interests included examining organizational theory and behavior related to historically black colleges and universities and higher education access and success issues related to first generation, low-income, and minority students.
