For nearly a decade, Amanda worked in TRiO programs, spending a year with Talent Search and the next nine leading an Upward Bound project. In 2008, she joined the staff at Marietta College directing the Academic Resource Center (ARC). As the Director of the ARC, Amanda has led the center in tremendous growth including such activities as developing the PioPREP Academy bridge program, the Campus Food Pantry, and co-advising the Tri-Alpha first-generation national honor society to name a few. Under her direction, the ARC has achieved and renewed national certification from the College Learning Center Association’s (CRLA) International Tutor Training Program Certification team. In 2021, The ARC was named the National College Learning Center Association (NCLCA) Frank Christ Outstanding Learning Center Award winner for four-year institutions. Amanda has been recognized for her outstanding service at Marietta College, receiving honors for numerous areas of service. She was recently named the Distinguished Alumna of the year by Washington State Community College for outstanding professional achievement. In addition to her role in the ARC, Ms. Haney-Cech teaches First Year Experience (FYE) courses, a gender studies course, and the PIO 101 and 102 Pio Pathway courses.

Amanda is highly active both on campus and off, working with myriad committees and organizations that promote student success and positive staff engagement. Amanda has been active in promoting academic success and the value of the learning center profession on the state and national level as well. She has served on the board of directors for the Association for the Coaching and Tutoring Profession (formerly ATP), Ohio TRiO (formerly OAEOPP), and most recently, the Ohio College Learning Center Association (OCLCA) where she was engaged with the founding board for the NCLCA affiliate. Amanda has presented numerous conference workshops over the past 20 years and was the featured keynote speaker at the New York College Learning Skills Association annual conference in November of 2021.

Gregory (Greg) L. Heileman, Ph.D., currently serves as the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona, where he is responsible for facilitating collaboration across campus to strategically enhance quality and institutional capacity related to undergraduate programs academic administration. He has served in various administrative capacities in higher education since 2004.

Greg Heileman’s experience includes work in the areas of faculty development, institutional research, accreditation and academic program review, curriculum management, student success, academic advisement, tutoring, student health & wellbeing, student conduct, budget and finance, economic development, policy development, information technology and data governance, and strategic planning.

From 2017-2019, he served as the Associate Provost for Student & Academic Life and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky, where he was responsible for providing vision, leadership and strategic direction for campus-wide student success efforts, while also serving as the university’s Chief Student Affairs Officer. From 2011-2017, he served as the Associate Provost for Curriculum and then as the Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning and Innovation at the University of New Mexico (UNM). During that time, he led campus-wide student academic success initiatives, and worked with key stakeholders on campus, to produce all-time record retention and graduation rates.

His work as a professor began in 1990 when he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at UNM. He subsequently advanced through the academic ranks to Professor. He has more than 170 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of machine learning and data analytics, information security, and student success in higher education. His research activities have generated more than $9,000,000 in external funding, and he has served as the advisor for 48 M.S. and Ph.D. students. From 2005-2011 he served as Associate Chair (Director of Undergraduate Programs), and led the department through two ABET accreditation visits. In 2011 he became an ABET program evaluator. In 2009 he was also awarded the IEEE Albuquerque Section Outstanding Educator Award. He was the recipient of ECE’s Lawton-Ellis Award for combined excellence in teaching, research, and student/community involvement in 2001 and again 2009. He held ECE’s Gardner Zemke Professorship from 2005-08. He received the School of Engineering’s Teaching Excellence award in 1995, and the ECE Department Distinguished Teacher Award in 2000. During 1998, he held a research fellowship at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and in 2005, he held a similar position at the Universidad Politénica de Madrid. He earned the BA degree in Biology from Wake Forest University in 1982, the MS degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1986, and the PhD degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 1989.

Dr. Taylor W. Acee is professor in and program coordinator of the Graduate Program in Postsecondary Student Success in Learning, Literacy, and Mathematics at Texas State University. His research is focused on college student learning, motivation, and self-regulation, and assessments and interventions related to these areas. A major area of his research and practice is focused on postsecondary learning-to-learn courses.

Faculty profile: https://faculty.txstate.edu/profile/1921174

Dr. Russ Hodges is an associate professor in the College of Education at Texas State University (TXST), where he co-created and teaches graduate courses in the doctoral and master's program in Postsecondary Student Success in Learning, Literacy and Mathematics. Dr. Hodges also coordinates the university's learning frameworks courses for undergraduates. His current research focuses on postsecondary student success interventions including learning-to-learn courses, peer-mentoring, peer-tutoring and academic coaching. Among his many publications, Dr. Hodges is co-author of Handbook for Academic Transformation: The Road to College Success (2015, 3rd ed., Pearson), and co-editor of The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Peer Tutoring (in press, Rowman & Littlefield), and Handbook for Training Peer Tutors and Mentors (2012, CRLA & Cengage).

Dr. Hodges has held leadership positions including treasurer and president of the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA), chair of the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA), and co-founder and current co-editor of the Journal of College Academic Support Programs (J-CASP).

Dr. Hodges has received many awards throughout his career including the Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Award, TXST, 2020; Gladys R. Shaw Outstanding Service to Developmental Education Students Award, National Association for Developmental Education, 2016; Distinguished Teaching Award, CRLA, 2015; Teaching Award of Honor, TXST Alumni Association, 2015; National Fellow, CLADEA, 2009; Lifetime Achievement Award, College Academic Support Programs, 2008, and the Robert Griffin Long and Outstanding Service Award, CRLA, 2007.