Academic Search March 2022 Newsletter

March 2022

Introducing New Team Members

We are excited to introduce our newest team members, as our organization continues to grow and thrive. These individuals build on our tradition of hiring professionals with extensive campus experience and whose backgrounds will complement our partner institutions. We are so proud that they have joined the team, and we know that they look forward to working with our campus partners in the coming months.

Tondrika Dilligard, Director of Technology Services

Dr. Dilligard is an experienced higher education professional, having served as a program chair and an undergraduate faculty member. She brings diverse knowledge in teaching, program administration and management, advising, retention, student success, and accreditation. Dr. Dilligard has worked at public and private institutions at the community college and four-year levels. Prior to her career in higher education, Dr. Dilligard was a small business owner and held positions within the State and Federal government.

Anne Briggs, Consultant

Throughout her career, Dr. Briggs has worked at numerous private colleges and universities of all sizes, including R1, faith-based, and liberal arts. She brings more than 20 years of experience leading teams and organizations through unexpected crises and strategic planned change. She is a skilled project manager with a proven track record of strategically visioning and developing out innovative programs as well as managing them through to implementation in key leadership roles in student affairs and nonprofit administration. She is highly skilled at program design and evaluation, organizational change management, and grant writing leveraged by clinical experience focused on mental health and student success.

Elizabeth Baker, Associate Consultant

Ms. Baker brings over 15 years of higher education experience with most of her time spent in student affairs. She is a firm believer in education and understands the importance of college completion, having been a non-traditional student herself. She is an advocate for adults seeking to return to college and understands the dynamics of career, life, and personal changes that may have hindered a student’s completion.

Amy Bonsiero, Associate Consultant

Ms. Bonsiero brings diverse experience in higher education, having served in many roles including as full-time faculty, Institutional Effectiveness Coordinator, and Executive Assistant to the Dean of Academic Affairs. Ms. Bonsiero has worked to develop department-wide assessment materials to assist with department improvements and to support institutional effectiveness efforts and has helped oversee multiple successful accreditation reaffirmation visits while working in higher education.

Schee Moua, Associate Consultant

Mr. Moua brings 10+ years of higher education experience to Academic Search, providing expertise from a wide spectrum of higher education administration comprising enrollment management, policy development, and dean’s office administration and leadership. Not only diverse in administrative function, his expertise spans a multitude of institutional sectors within higher education, garnering experience in private college, for-profit, and land-grant universities. Most recently, he served as the Director of Graduate Education at the University of Minnesota, overseeing policy development and student advocacy programs for the College of Education and Human Development.

Javier Serrano, Associate Consultant

Dr. Serrano has over 13 years of higher education administration experience within the public and private universities and colleges in the Southern California region. Dr. Serrano is a researcher on quiet leadership and classroom management, and he brings specialized experience in academic HR operations, particularly academic and faculty affairs.

Amanda Stupakevich, Associate Consultant

Ms. Stupakevich is an experienced higher education professional, having worked at both private and public institutions including Simmons University, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has served in a variety of areas including advancement and student activities. Just prior to joining Academic Search, Ms. Stupakevich worked in the internal recruitment department at a mid-sized insurance agency, supporting all recruitment strategies in attainment of staffing demands.

Rachel Griffith, Proofreader and Copy Editor

Ms. Griffith bring more than a decade of professional writing and editing experience to Academic Search. After graduating from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Ms. Griffith began working as a sportswriter and editor. During her career as a journalist and newspaper editor, Ms. Griffith earned numerous Alabama Press Association awards, including first-place honors for Best Sports Page and Best Sports Column.

Rita Kaffer, Proofreader and Copy Editor

Ms. Kaffer comes to Academic Search with more than 20 years of experience providing direct, supervisory, and consultative services in the fields of clinical speech language pathology and education. This includes working with individuals spanning the educational continuum, from early childhood to the graduate level. Whether gathering initial diagnostics, targeting individual learning goals, assessing present levels of academic performance, or documenting classroom observations, evidence-based writing has been a major component of her daily work.

Academic Search Partnerships

In February and March, Academic Search served as a proud sponsor of the following events:

National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) 2022 General Counsel Institute

National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) 2022 Annual Meeting

National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education (NAPAHE) 2022 Annual National Conference

American Council on Education (ACE) 2022 Annual Meeting, where Steve Titus, Maya Kirkhope, Virginia Horvath, and Shawn Hartman presented on “Executive Coaching in Times of Uncertainty and Transition”

National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) 2022 Annual Conference

Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU) 2022 Presidents’ Retreat

Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) 2022 Annual Meeting

Podcast: Leaders on Leadership with Jay Lemons

Jay talks with Dr. Beatriz González, President of the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College. Dr. González shares her family’s story as Cuban exiles and how that experience influenced her desire to give back to others through leadership in higher education. She also discusses the need for leaders to be authentic, humble, and open to opportunity, and to surround themselves with a talented team and strong support network.

Please click here to listen to all of our podcasts.