A Partnership Advancing the Graduate & Professional Student Experience
Partnering to Advance the Graduate & Professional Student Experience
The Gardner Institute and Georgia Tech share a commitment to improving the graduate and professional student experience through research, institutional learning, innovation, and collaboration. This partnership combines the Gardner Institute’s experience in student success and institutional transformation with Georgia Tech’s expertise in graduate education.
Georgia Tech brings experience and emerging approaches in areas including holistic well-being, professional development, student support, and the evolving landscape of graduate education. These efforts provide valuable institutional insight to the needs of today’s graduate and professional students and contribute to the broader national conversation around how institutions can adapt to better support student success. Together, the Gardner Institute and Georgia Tech are connecting research, institutional experience, and emerging practices to strengthen the graduate and professional student experience. This partnership creates opportunities to share what institutions are learning, explore emerging challenges, and develop new approaches to supporting students from prospect to professional.
Who Shapes the Graduate & Professional Student Experience?
Graduate & Professional Student Experience Advisory Group
The Graduate & Professional Student Experience Advisory Group brings together graduate education leaders, researchers, practitioners, institutional leaders, and partners who provide guidance and perspective as this initiative develops.
Stephanie J. Bannister
President, FirstGen Forward
David Brightman
Gardner Institute Fellow
Jaydale Codrington-Poyotte
Director of Strategic Operations, Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Georgia Tech
Jody Fournier
President, Baker University
John N. Gardner
Founder and Executive Chair, Gardner Institute
Gardner@jngi.org
Drew Koch
Chief Executive Officer, Gardner Institute
Koch@GardnerInstitute.org
Katie Locke
Associate Vice President and Director of Marketing and Communications, Gardner Institute
Locke@Gardnerinstitute.org
Deirdre H. McMahon
Teaching Professor of English; Assistant Dean for Online Program Assessment, Drexel University
Alicia Morey
Chief of Staff, Gardner Institute
Morey@GardnerInstitute.org
Claudia Petrescu
Associate Vice President for Graduate Education and Internationalization Initiatives, Illinois State University
April Perry
Professor, Higher Education Student Affairs Program, Western Carolina University
Teresa Rivenes
Senior Vice President, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)
Rob Rodier
Associate Vice President for Technology, Informatics, and Data Security
Rodier@GardnerInstittute.org
Sara Stein Koch
Institute Fellow and Senior Associate for Institutional Support, Gardner Institute
SaraJ@GardnerInstitute.org
Valerie Shepard
Senior Content and Assessment Analyst, UCLA Recreation
Kelly Schrum
Assistant Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs; Professor in the Higher Education Program, George Mason University
Felita Williams
Senior Vice President for Programs, Gardner Institute
Williams@GardnerInstitute.org
Ethan Williams
Assistant Director of Student Engagement, UNT Health Fort Worth; Gardner Institute Intern
Anne Converse Willkomm
Assistant Vice Provost and Associate Teaching Professor, Drexel University
Deanna Wagner
Vice President for Student Affairs, Baker University
Dan Volchok
Gardner Institute Fellow
Assistant Dean of Student Success (Retired), Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
dan.volchok@comcast.net