Dr. Claudia Petrescu is the Associate Vice President for Graduate Education and Internationalization Initiatives, Illinois State University, USA. She is an experienced higher education leader who served in leadership roles such as Vice Provost for Graduate Education & Dean of the Graduate School at Kansas State University, Chief Strategy Officer, and Dean of Graduate School at Oakland University in Michigan. Dr. Petrescu is a tenured professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University.

Petrescu has over 20 years of academic leadership, including 10 years of leading graduate schools at R2 and R1 institutions. She is a strategic thinker that builds partnerships with academic, non-academic and community partners to design and implement a data-informed graduate education culture. Petrescu’s work and research interests are in the areas of organizational change, strategic planning, student success, evaluation, nonprofit management, and capacity building.

Claudia has been published in journals such as the Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, International Leadership Journal, Nonprofit Management and Leadership among others. She is also a recent graduate of the American Council of Education (ACE) fellowship program. Claudia holds a doctorate in Public Policy and Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, and obtained graduate degrees from Duquesne University, the National School of Public Administration and International Relations, Bucharest, Romania, and Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

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Daniel J. Allen, Ph.D., is the 30th President of La Salle University. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in Catholic higher education, Dr. Allen is leading La Salle’s strategy focused on enrollment growth, student retention and enhancing the student experience.

Prior to joining La Salle, Dr. Allen served as senior vice president for advancement and external relations at DePaul University and held leadership roles at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, Lewis University and Loras College. He earned his Ph.D. in education from Loyola University Chicago and continues to pursue his interest in postsecondary educational access for low-income students. He also serves on the board of the International Association of Lasallian Universities, a global network of 64 universities.

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Deirdre H. McMahon, PhD, is a Teaching Professor of English, Department of English and Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Assistant Dean of Online Program Assessment in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies, College of Medicine at Drexel University. Her literary research focuses on nineteenth-century British literature and culture. A former Provost Fellow, Chair of the Online Learning Council Faculty Fellows, and Assistant Dean of Online Education at the Graduate College, she is leader in online education. Her portfolio also includes the design, support, and assessment of graduate programs across modalities.

Anne Converse Willkomm serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Curricular Support Services and an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University. In her current role, she leads university-wide efforts to support curriculum development, academic policy, and program innovation across undergraduate and graduate education. Previously, as Associate Dean of the Graduate College, she advanced interdisciplinary initiatives, oversaw academic administration and student affairs, and supported the growth and quality of graduate programs. With nearly 20 years of experience in higher education, Anne’s work spans curriculum design, assessment, and strategic planning across professional and liberal arts contexts. She has played a key role in launching new programs, guiding institutional policy, and leading cross-university initiatives, including assessment and AI integration. An award-winning educator, she continues to teach, grounding her work in a deep commitment to the student experience.

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Jennifer Wies has spent more than two decades working across teaching, research, and academic leadership. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and a Graduate Certificate in Medical Behavioral Sciences from the University of Kentucky. Her work focuses on applying anthropology to pressing social issues, including gender-based violence, incarceration, HIV/AIDS, and the experiences of college students and higher education more broadly. In her administrative role, Dr. Wies leads initiatives in assessment and accreditation, curriculum and faculty development, and student success, while supporting institution-wide program evaluation processes. She is also an active leader within the anthropology community, having served as President of the Association of Feminist Anthropology and as both Treasurer and President of the Society for Applied Anthropology.

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Susannah McGowan is the director for curriculum transformation initiatives at The Red House at Georgetown University where she leads institution-wide initiatives on curricular change and experiential education. Prior to Georgetown, she worked at University College London and King’s College London. While at King’s, she co-established King’s Academy in 2017, a center for educational development supporting integral programs for faculty and graduate students around inclusive pedagogy and assessment. She is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy/AdvanceHE in the UK. She serves as an advisory fellow of the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education working on global student success.

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Chuan-Chin Chiao obtained his PhD from University of Maryland in 2000, and finished his postdoctoral training in Harvard University in 2002. He joined Department of Life Science, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan, in 2002, and is currently a Tsing Hua Distinguished Professor in this department. He is interested in a variety of vision related topics, including retinal neurobiology and cephalopod neuroethology. Multidisciplinary approaches are undertaken in the lab to seek deep understanding of vision in the context of biology. In addition to research, he is passionate about teaching. He has won the Best Lecturer Awards for three times from NTHU. In 2020, he has also obtained the Best General Education Teacher Award from Ministry of Education in Taiwan. He has produced three MOOCs and several OCW online courses. He has served as the Vice President for Academic Affairs in NTHU in 2020-2021. In 2021-2025, he served as the Director General of National Museum of Natural Science, the largest science museum in Taiwan. In February 2025, he returned to NTHU and continued his research and teaching. Particularly, he helped to advocate the First Year Experience movement in Taiwan, and served as Advisory Consultant at the Center for Exploration and Life Transitions (equivalent to the FYE office) in NTHU. He has taught the First Year Seminar course since fall 2025. Most recently, he has helped to organize the first Taiwan-FYE conference in NTHU.

Dr. Hsinyi (Sindy) Peng holds a B.A. in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan Normal University and a Ph.D. in Information Science and Learning Technologies from the University of Missouri.

Her career spans K–12 teaching, teacher education, and higher education. She began her career as a Chinese teacher in Taipei and later served as an assistant professor at National Chiao Tung University. She also spends a decade in the United States raising her two daughters—an experience that deeply shapes her perspective on life transitions, identity, and the challenges of restarting a career. During that time, she continued teaching as an online instructor with Oregon State University.

Now based at National Tsing Hua University, Sindy works at the intersection of student development, learning design, and higher education innovation. In May 2025, she founded the Center for Exploration and Life Transitions (ExALT), where she leads efforts to support first-year students in exploring their academic and life paths, develops first-year seminars with faculty across disciplines, and trains peer leaders to guide new students. She also organizes Taiwan’s first national conference on first-year education, The 1st Annual Conference of the Taiwan First-Year Experience (T-FYE), in collaboration with Prof. Chuan-Chin Chiao and Prof. Ming-Chi Wu.

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Geordie Hyland is the President and Chief Executive Officer of American College of Education (ACE). ACE is an accredited, fully online college that specializes in high-quality, flexible, and affordable programs in education, business, leadership, healthcare, and nursing. ACE has over 13,000 students and more than 54,000 graduates and is focused on providing a strong value position to students. 85% of ACE’s students graduate with no debt, and 3rd party market research calculates that for every $1 invested in ACE’s tuition, graduates receive $19.20 in future career earnings. Geordie holds a bachelor's and an MBA from Harvard, as well as an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Stephanie Bannister is the president of FirstGen Forward. With over two decades of experience in higher education, she has dedicated her career to advancing student success, community building, and leadership development. Stephanie previously served as the assistant vice provost for student success at Kansas State University (K-State), where she began working in 2001 within the division of student life and housing and dining services.

Before her time at K-State, Stephanie was the associate director for student living at the University of Kansas, directed two residence halls, and traveled nationwide as a consultant for Alpha Gamma Delta International Fraternity. A sought-after consultant, Stephanie has worked with higher education institutions and non-profit organizations on strategic planning, reaccreditation, and philanthropic support. She also serves as an external reviewer of programs.

Stephanie holds a B.A. from Fort Hays State University, an M.S. from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in education from K-State. She is a graduate teaching faculty member in the College of Education at K-State and is an active member of the Manhattan, Kansas, community.

A passionate advocate and ally for first-generation students, Stephanie resides in Kansas with her husband, the Honorable Grant D. Bannister, chief judge for Kansas' 21st Judicial District. Together, they are proud parents of Sydney and her partner, Jake; William and Grace; and grandson Lawrence Miles

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