Alumni News

Kelly Rosinger (Ph.D. 2015) co-authored an article in Educational Researcher (volume 48, issue 5) on potential pitfalls of using Pell Grant eligibility to estimate income data in research. Rosinger and co-author, Karly S. Ford, acknowledge the attractiveness of using grant status as a commonly available marker for identifying lower income students. Drawing comparisons with the free and reduced-price lunch data, the authors note that researchers have investigated the appropriateness and limitations of lunch data.

Yarbrah Peeples (Ph.D. 2012) is the new Senior Regional Director, East for the national College Advising Corps (CAC). She will be guiding and supporting initiatives that expand CAC’s reach and also deepen its impact across eight states in the Southeast and Northeast.

Yarbrah will provide leadership and support to the four eastern regional directors, cultivating relationships with key stakeholders and senior university leaders, and identifying and advancing new opportunities for expansion.

The recently published book, Unequal Higher Education (2019, Rutgers University Press), by Barrett Taylor and former IHE postdoctoral associate, Brendan Cantwell, appears in the Bookshelf section of the May 24, 2019 issue of The Chronicle. In "More Diverse, Still Stratified: Colleges Fall Short on Offering 'Good Value' Spots," Peter Monaghan provides a lengthy summary of the timely book.

Alumna Heidi Scheusner Leming (PhD ’13) has received the 2019 John Jones Award for Outstanding Performance as a Senior Student Affairs Officer from the leading student affairs organization, NASPA, Region III.

Alumnus Jeff Stein (EdD, 2017) has been named vice president for strategic initiatives at Elon University where he has been serving as an associate vice president and the chief of staff under two Elon presidents.

In his new role, Stein will oversee creation and implementation of Elon’s next 10-year strategic plan and support special projects and partnerships between the university and local and regional governments and organizations. Jeff will also oversee Elon’s Office of Cultural and Special Programs. He is also an assistant professor of English. 

Alumnus Todd Holcomb (EdD ’92) has been named the eighth president of Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa, beginning July 1, 2019. Hawkeye Community College serves more than 25,000 individuals and awards nearly 1,500 diplomas and degrees annually. Since 1966, the college has had a significant impact on the Waterloo and Cedar Rapids area, by graduating more than 50,000 students, with 94 percent staying in Iowa.

Several IHE alumni and friends contributed to the Institute of Higher Education fund during the first-ever Georgia Giving Week, held April 20-26. Participants received a special discount on items at the University Bookstore and a limited edition UGA mini pennant magnet.

Everyone at the Institute appreciates your generous support. Thank you for taking the time to make a donation.

Alumna, Tracey Ford (Ed.D., 2002), returned to IHE on Thursday, April 18, 2019 to conduct a brownbag discussion with current students and faculty. Dr. Ford, the Vice President of Student Affairs at Tennessee State University, discussed anecdotes and lessons from her distinguished career in student affairs. 

Unequal Higher Education: Wealth, Status, and Student Opportunity, a new book by IHE alumnus Barrett Taylor and former IHE postdoctoral associate Brendan Cantwell, has been published by Rutgers University Press.

IHE alumna Theresa Wright is one of five faculty members and service professionals who received the 2019 Walter Barnard Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach at the Faculty Recognition Banquet held on April 1.

Wright earned her Ph.D. in 2011 and is the director of assessment and evaluation for the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach and the unit manager for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s Survey Research and Evaluation Initiative.

Lori Hagood (PhD 2017) has an article, "The Financial Benefits and Burdens of Performance Funding in Higher Education," released Online First by Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and scheduled to appear in the journal's June 2019 issue.

IHE Alumnus Jonathan Turk was part of a team at ACE that recently launched a microsite and a seminal research report on race and ethnicity in higher education, Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report.

ACE and Hobson recently released a new report, A Look at Five Key Outcomes in Early Adulthood for Associate Degree Earners, the fourth in series that explored early outcomes for recent high school graduates who enroll in community colleges.

Jonathan Turk (Ph.D. 2016) published an article in Research in Higher Education, entitled "Estimating the Impact of Developmental Education on Associate Degree Completion: A Dose–Response Approach.”

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09549-9

Noble Jones’ (PhD, 2018) dissertation is one of two selected to receive the 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award given by the American Education Research Association (AERA), Division J. One of the leading research societies, AERA - Division J, is part of a community of postsecondary education researchers who promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

Juanita Hicks (Ed.D. 2018) is the new vice chancellor for human resources at the University System of Georgia. Juanita comes to USG from Georgia Tech where she was the deputy director of human resources & special projects.

Emmanuel Little (PhD, 2018) is featured on the cover of the Milledgeville Scene magazine. He is recognized as one of their "20 under 40" rising stars who are making a significant impact on the Milledgeville/Baldwin County area. Little is the founding director of the Call Me MISTER program at Georgia College and State University.

Kelly Rosinger (PhD, 2015), Andrew Belasco (PhD, 2014) & James Hearn examine the relationship between adoption of universal and targeted no-loan policies and the economic diversity at elite colleges. Their paper, “A Boost for the Middle Class: An Evaluation of No-Loan Policies and Elite Private College Enrollment,” appears in The Journal of Higher Education, 90:1, 27-55.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2018.1484222

Andrew Pearl (Ph.D. 2015) has been named the new director of community engagement research and publications in the University of Alabama’s Center for Community-Based Partnerships (CCBP), effective February 1, 2019. Drew will provide support to students and faculty in Bama’s new Student Community Engagement Center, as well as work across campus to offer support on academic publications, presentations, and research related to community-engaged scholarship. He is currently the director of academic engagement and assistant professor at the University of North Georgia. 

Tiffanie Spencer (Ph.D. 2017) started a new position at the University of Vermont in September 2018. As the director for diversity and community engagement, Dr.

In addition to being an IHE alumna, Yarbrah served for six years as program director for the Georgia College Advising Corps (GCAC), an outreach program of UGA's Institute of Higher Education.

In her new national role, she will support current programs in Georgia and South Carolina (including GCAC) and assist with the onboarding of new programs across the country. Yarbrah says, “My goal is to help programs increase their impact so they can help more underserved students achieve their dreams of attending and graduating from college.”

IHE alumna Brooks Seay (Ed.D. 2011) has been appointed interim president at Young Harris College, where she has been serving as vice president for finance and operations and chief financial officer.

Young Harris Board of Trustees Chairman Brantley Barrow made the announcement this week and said she will begin serving at the conclusion of President Cathy Cox's term on July 1.

IHE alumna Lucia Brajkovic has received Honorable Mention in the 2017 Best Dissertation Award competition established by the Comparative and International Education Society’s Higher Education Special Interest Group.

She was presented with the award in March at the CIES HESIG business meeting in Atlanta. CIES is a scholarly association dedicated to increasing the understanding of educational issues, trends and policies through comparative, cross-cultural and international perspectives.  

IHE welcomes visiting scholar and IHE alumna Haixia Xu.

The Institute of Higher Education welcomes visiting scholar and IHE alumna Haixia Xu,  a Research Fellow at the National Center for Education Development Research (NCEDR) of the Chinese Ministry of Education. NCEDR is charged with providing consultancy to the leadership of the ministry and its various departments on macro-level education policies in China.

Three doctoral students in the Institute of Higher Education were honored at an awards luncheon hosted by IHE on Dec. 12.

Kristin Linthicum and Tiffanie Spencer were the inaugural recipients of awards honoring the memories of IHE faculty members Thomas G. Dyer and J. Douglas Toma. Rachel Burns was named the 11th recipient of the Zell and Shirley Miller Fellowship, established in 2005 to honor the former Georgia governor and his wife.