I'm newly retired and in the process of sorting through 40 years of books and papers! My professional life has been shaped by a variety of experiences, including my childhood in South Dakota, my experiences at rural and tribal colleges and universities, travels to Latin America and the South Pacific, nonprofit agency and board leadership, teaching undergrad and graduate students, and advocating for social justice. These experiences have taught me how to approach student concerns holistically and to trust the student’s instincts and my own. I seek to bring a diversity of viewpoints to find creative solutions to complex problems, whether that's in a large system workgroup or in a classroom.

I was educated at the University of Sioux Falls, graduating with a degree in Psychology, and Sioux Falls Seminary, where I served as a graduate teaching assistant and was awarded a Masters in Counseling. When I became a licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist and Chemical Dependency Counselor, I provided clinical supervision and executive leadership to a large nonprofit organization that provided K-12 prevention education to an 18,000 student school district, outpatient treatment services, city/county detox services, county jail and state prison treatment programs, a halfway house for men coming out of treatment and the state’s first halfway house for women and their children. I returned to graduate school at South Dakota State University, where I was accepted into the Honor Society of Agriculture, Gamma Sigma Delta, and awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy. The field research for my dissertation, Higher Education in Rural America: A Study of Northern Plains American Indian and Non-Indian Attitudes, Aspirations, Expectations and Perceived Barriers, was conducted with over two hundred people living within a twenty-five-mile radius of Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation, home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Chief Spotted Tail (Sinte Gleska), was noted for his interest in bringing education to his tribe.

In 2008, I came to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to work with stakeholders across the system’s 54 campuses to develop, implement and assess academic programs and transfer policies and procedures. The Minnesota Legislature had just passed degree credit cap legislation, and my first assignment was working with the seven state universities and 30 colleges to reduce associate degree programs to 60 credits and baccalaureate degree programs to 120 credits. During my tenure I facilitated the system’s Transfer Governance Team, sat on the Policy Council, Graduate School Council, and the Transfer Pathway Coordinating Team, charged with improving student transfer through the development of 26 “Transfer Pathways” designed to guarantee acceptance of all associate-level and junior status for students transferring to the system universities.

Ron Cole, Ph.D., is the 23rd president of Allegheny College. As president, he leads the senior leadership team of the College to drive holistic student success and an interdisciplinary, 21st century education.

Under his direction, the College has implemented a bold Strategic Pathway that emphasizes five primary goals focused on academic excellence, broadened academic offerings with an emphasis on student engagement, community and economic development, a vibrant and inclusive campus and financial sustainability. The message has boosted student enrollment and resonated with benefactors, as Allegheny College’s largest and most ambitious campaign ever, “In for Allegheny: Our Pathway Forward,” launched in the 2024-25 semester has already shattered records for donor support in the College’s 210-year history.
After serving as a faculty member for 20 years, Dr. Cole became provost and dean of the college in 2015. He held a range of leadership positions (including department chair, faculty moderator and a member of the trustee diversity task force), and he chaired the natural science division, faculty council, the faculty review committee, and finance and facilities committee. As chief academic officer, Dr. Cole promoted data-informed change to improve student success that led to revisions to first-year curriculum and course sequencing in STEM and humanities fields and new structures to unify and advance holistic student advising.

He established student retention as a top collaborative priority at the College through the Gardner Retention Performance Management program, achieving a five percent increase in first-to-second year retention within two years. Dr. Cole planned and led strategic work to achieve operational savings while investing in new programs including Informatics, Business, Art/Science and Innovation and the Allegheny Lab for Innovation and Creativity.

Dr. Cole advanced diversity of faculty and the curriculum with an interdisciplinary cohort program in race, gender and/or social justice. He was recognized in 2021 by the Council of Independent Colleges with their Chief Academic Officer Award. As a teacher-scholar, Dr. Cole received the Allegheny College Thoburn Award for Excellence in Teaching and established an active student-focused undergraduate research program in the geosciences with more than $500,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society and the American Chemical Society. He was named by City & State PA to their 2022 Power 100 list and Trailblazers in Higher Education in 2023. He is a sought-after speaker and has authored more than 100 published articles and book chapters.
Dr. Cole is a proud alumnus of Allegheny College, having earned a B.S. in Geology in 1987. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Rochester (NY).

Michael Benitez, Ph.D. is a nationally acclaimed educator in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, often called upon by colleges and universities, community organizations and corporations nationwide for his deep knowledge and practice of innovate equity and inclusion-based strategies and approaches to address some of higher education’s most pressing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and challenges.

Over the past two decades, Benitez has served higher education in different capacities, including academic and student affairs; diversity, equity and inclusion; and teaching. He brings deep knowledge and experience working in and leading areas in student success, organizational leadership and culture, intercultural development, race and ethnicity, policy and practice, inclusive leadership and pedagogy, and institutional equity, and has authored book chapters and articles on identity development, cultural centers and ethnic studies, hip hop culture, institutional research and campus climates, and faculty development. Dr. Benitez has been featured in educational documentaries, contributed to online magazines, scholarly databases, books, and peer reviewed journals, is often invited by media outlets to conversations on issues of significance, and collaborates with leading national scholars and practitioners.

Dr. Benitez has assumed roles at several institutions throughout his career, including Penn State University, Dickinson College, Lafayette College, Grinnell College, and the University of Puget Sound. He completed both his B.S. and M.Ed. at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), where he gained interest in pursuing doctoral studies as a TRIO student and McNair Scholar, his Ph.D. at Iowa State University, and has been recognized with multiple leadership and scholarly awards throughout his career, including the Iowa State University College of Human Sciences Alumni Achievement Award.

Dr. Benitez joined MSU Denver in 2019 as vice president for Diversity and Inclusion, where he also serves as an Associate Professor of Multicultural Education the School of Education. Dr. Benitez also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher

Education (NADOHE), is highly engaged with the National Conference on race and Ethnicity (NCORE) and serves as a subject matter expert for Colorado Inclusive Economy (CIE).

Dr. Kate Lehman serves as Director of the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (NRC) where she provides leadership for all center operations, strategic initiatives, conferences and events, publications, and scholarly and research activities. The NRC is the trusted expert, internationally-recognized leader, and clearinghouse for scholarship, policy, and best practice for all postsecondary student transitions. Kate also serves as an affiliated faculty member in the University of South Carolina’s Department of Leadership, Learning Design, and Inquiry. Dr. Lehman’s research interests center on the major selection process for first- and second-year college students, experiences that promote student retention and success in their major field (particularly STEM and computing fields), and the college-to-career transition. Prior to joining the NRC, Kate served as co-founder and Associate Director of Momentum: Accelerating Equity in Computing and Technology and as Assistant Academic Researcher and Assistant Adjunct Professor in UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies. Over her 12 years at UCLA, Kate worked alongside Dr. Linda Sax to establish Momentum’s reputation as a leader in computing education research. Kate continues to serve as co-PI on Momentum’s NSF-funded study of students at Center for Inclusive Computing institutions.

Tom Ranzweiler is an Edward R. Murrow award-winning and Emmy-nominated senior producer for NBC News. He currently oversees a two hour block of primetime programming for the networks pioneering free 24-hour streaming platform NBC News Now. He previously worked as a producer for NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera America. Ranzweiler graduated from Monmouth University in his home state of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in communications.

Bryan Dewsbury, Ph.D is a Gardner Institute Fellow and an Associate Professor Biological Sciences Florida International University. He serves as a Teaching and Learning Fellow at the Gardner Institute.

Bryan Dewsbury is the principal investigator of the Science Education and Society research program, which focuses on the social context of teaching and learning in a variety of education contexts. He is ultimately interested in helping to re-frame the education discussion to better address questions of equity and community-building. His work addresses pressing issues such as student retention in STEM fields (especially in higher ed), the under-representation of minority groups in certain STEM fields, and the role of affect (instructor and student) in promoting student learning gains. He also use the results of those efforts to help faculty develop inclusive curricula and sense of community in the classroom.

Dr. Nido Qubein serves as the president of High Point University where, even in the middle of the Great Recession, he increased enrollment by 261%, grew net assets from $56M to almost a billion dollars, created 10 new academic schools – most recently adding the Workman School of Dental Medicine, and attracted $500 million in philanthropic investments. His family is among the institution’s most generous donors. Qubein has led HPU’s total enrollment this year to a record-breaking 6,040 students this year, HPU’s largest ever enrollment.

He came to the United States as a teenager with limited knowledge of English and only $50 before going on to build business partnerships in banking, real estate, publishing, and retail businesses.

Prior to his role as HPU president, Dr. Qubein rose to prominence as an internationally known author and consultant who has given more than 7,500 presentations worldwide.

He serves on the corporate boards of several Fortune 500 companies including Truist, the 6th largest bank in the nation, La-Z-boy, and Savista. Qubein is also executive chairman of the Great Harvest Bread Company.

As a member of the Piedmont Triad Partnership executive committee, Qubein participates in discussions regarding industry recruitment and job-creation among many other important regional topics all tied Piedmont Triad economic growth. Additionally, President Qubein has previously chaired the Economic Development Corporation in High Point and the High Point Chamber of Commerce.

He is inducted into the Horatio Alger Association for Distinguished Americans, along with Oprah Winfrey and Colin Powell. He is also the recipient of the DAR Americanism Award and, along with four U.S. presidents, the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Dr. Qubein has also been recognized as both the Citizen of the Year and Philanthropist of the Year in his home city of High Point. Most recently, he was named the Honorary Chairman for the internationally recognized PGA Wyndham Championship.

Akilah A. Martin serves as an Assistant Vice President for the Gardner Institute. In this role, Dr. Martin serves as one of the leads for the Institutional Transformation Assessment project.

Akilah A. Martin, Ed.D., began her higher education career pathway as a TRiO advisor with Lone Star College, and she continued in higher education, holding positions in admissions, student activities, and advising. Akilah served as the Alvin Community College’s director of dual enrollment and then the director of college and career pathways, championing pathways reform for the institution. In 2020, Akilah became the first Black dean of students in Alvin Community College’s 70-year history. Dr. Martin last served on a campus as dean of student transition and academic engagement at Texas Southern University, and most recently served as a strategy director with Complete College America. Akilah holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Southwest Texas State University, a master’s degree in Counselor Education from Texas Southern University, and a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership – Higher Education from the University of Houston–Clear Lake.

As an Assistant Vice President for the Gardner Institute, Dr. Martin serves as one of the leads for the Intermediaries for Scale project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As a first-generation college student who struggled to find her academic stride, during her junior year in undergraduate school at (Southwest) Texas State University, she finally realized that she could be successful in college. During that year, she joined the first African-American Sorority founded in 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc., and she learned the value of time management, which led her to academic success for the first time ever! Akilah went on to earn a Master’s degree from Texas Southern University in Education and a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Houston – Clear Lake.

As an only child to parents who did not pursue higher education, Akilah’s educational journey developed within her a passion for students who have been able to succeed beyond their environment and circumstances. Her passion is evident in how she serves students, ensures their sense of belonging, and roots for their success in and outside of the classroom! Akilah has managed to positively impact students for over 20 years through her Student Services work as a student activities coordinator, academic advisor, director of programs, adjunct faculty, and Dean of Students. Akilah’s passion and experience with K-12, community colleges and universities has now led her to the Gardner Institute, where she brings her knowledge, strengths, and skillset to help cultivate relationships and influence policies that will significantly impact the educational experience of students across the states.

Akilah is mom to her 17-year-old high school senior! She enjoys creating memories (outside as much as possible despite the Houston heat) with family and friends. Traveling has become more of an interest, and she loves Christmas movies.