Meet our team of eTutorial moderators! Each eTutorial module is moderated by a NACADA leader with many years of advising and administrative experience in higher education. Together we are excited to work with you in this terrific online environment! 

Melinda J. Anderson serves as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Director of the University College at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Melinda has over 16 years of experience in academic advising and higher education administration at four-year and two-year institutions. Previous to this role she served as the Director of Pre-Health Advising at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been an active member of NACADA since 2009 and has held several regional level positions including Region 2 Chair and Virginia liaison. She has also served as a mentor in the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP). Currently she serves as the Region Representative on the NACADA Council. She earned her EdD in Higher Education Administration from the College of William and Mary.

Chrissy Davis Jones joined NACADA in 2004. Chrissy serves on the Administrators’ Institute Advisory Board, Core Values Taskforce, Finance committee, Publication Advisory Board. Over her years of membership with NACADA, Chrissy feels privileged to have served on various advisory boards, commissions, councils, and other task forces. She has over 18 years of experience working at different post-secondary institutions.  Currently, Chrissy is the Acting Vice President of Student Services at Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) in Spokane, WA. She has worked at SFCC for seven (7) years serving in different capacities including Director of Academic Advising & Counseling. 

Dr. Howard received her B.A. in Sociology from Montclair State University.  She earned a M.S. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.  Dr. Howard joined the University of South Florida as the Assistant Dean for Upper-Level Initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Studies the fall of 2017.  She previously held positions in higher education with Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Virginia Commonwealth University, and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  Her professional experience over the last 15 years in the areas of student success, structural reorganization, and strategic planning contribute to meeting institutional goals and, above all, supporting students.

Dr. Howard is a proud first generation college graduate who had a positive transformative undergraduate experience, which has influenced her approach to student success.  She fosters a student centered environment to enhance engagement and connectedness.  Her personal approach to student support is holistic. Dr. Howard purposefully seeks to understand the whole student, especially underrepresented and marginalized populations (both clearly visible and non-visible) in order to guide their academic and personal goals pre and post-graduation.

Melissa Johnson serves as the associate director of the Honors Program at the University of Florida, as well as an affiliate faculty member for the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. Her NACADA involvement has included serving as a faculty member for the Research Symposium, past chair of the Advising High Achieving Students Commission, Emerging Leaders Program mentor, and editorial board member for the NACADA Journal. Melissa is the author of several publications related to high achieving students, first-year experience, and professional development, and is a member of the Academic Advising Consultant and Speaker Service. She received her Ph.D. in educational technology from the University of Florida.

Fabiola Mora serves as the Director of the Academic Advancement Center at Colorado State University. As a first generation college graduate who grew up with a low-income and undocumented background, she has a deep personal connection, commitment, and love for working with and advocating for underrepresented students in higher education.

She has worked in higher education since she became a student in 2004 and is committed to helping increase access and equity in higher education. Fabiola has been a member of NACADA since 2011 and was a participant in the Emerging Leaders Program. She is excited about the opportunity to serve as an eTutorial moderator!

Susan Poch calls Washington State University in Pullman, WA home.  As an advising administrator, she has been a member of NACADA for more than 20 years.  Susan has participated in NACADA Winter Institutes, worked as faculty for the Summer Institutes, and now enjoys her time as a moderator of NACADA’s eTutorials. She received NACADA’s Advising Administrator Award in 2012 and recently completed a chapter in the upcoming Advising First Year Students book.  

Kimberly Smith serves as Assistant Provost for Academic Advising Initiatives at Virginia Tech. Kimberly has over 20 years of experience in academic advising and higher education administration. She has been an active member of NACADA serving at the national level and holding several regional level executive positions. Most recently she has joined the Academic Advising Consultants and Speakers Service (AACSS) within NACADA. 

Wendy G. Troxel was named the inaugural Director of the NACADA Center for Research at Kansas State University in the summer of 2016. Opened officially in the Fall of 2017, the Center provides opportunities for research and professional development to a diverse global membership and the academic advising profession. As an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs (SECSA) she teaches graduate level classes in research methods and supports the scholarly work of students. She is also a past co-editor of the NACADA Journal and still serves on the Editorial Board as a manuscript reviewer. Her research interests are in the area of teaching, learning, and academic advising throughout the critical transitions of higher education, formative assessment techniques in the classroom, the program assessment process, and strategies for success for first generation students. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), with special emphases in both educational research and education law.

Susan Campbell most recently served as Senior Director for Academic and Student Affairs in Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies. Prior to this, Susan worked at the University of Southern Maine and holds emerita status as Chief Student Affairs Officer. Susan served as President of NACADA, has held other leadership positions within the Association, and received NACADA’s Virginia N. Gordon Award in 2005. Her publications include contributions to the NACADA Guide to Assessment in Academic Advising (2005), the 2005 NACADA guide, Peer Advising: Intentional Connections to Support Student Learning, both editions of The Distance Learner’s Guide (1999 and 2004) published by Prentice-Hall, as well as the 2nd edition of the Academic Advising Handbook (2008) published by Jossey-Bass. More recently, Susan co-authored chapters in the 2013 NACADA/Jossey-Bass publication, Academic Advising Approaches: Strategies that Teach Students to Make the Most of College and in Beyond Foundations: Developing as a Master Academic Advisor, released in October, 2016. She received her doctorate in higher education management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Vanessa Harris has over six years of experience as the former Director of University Advisement at the University of New Mexico UNM-West campus and over 15 years in the field of academic advisement.  She is the current chair of the NACADA Advisory Board for Academic Advising Consultant and Speaker Service (AACSS). She has over 10 years of service with NACADA. She has served in various areas such as Emerging Leader Program, Assessment Institute Advisory Board and the Diversity Committee. She is also one of the co-chairs for the new Specialized Network on Advising and Academic Guidance with the Reinvention Center.

Dr. Joslin brings deep experience to her inaugural directorship of the Robert and Mary Cox Compass Center. The Compass Center connects incoming students with an entire team of academic and career advisors who will work with them from before their first day on campus through graduation. Since 2013, Dr. Joslin served as associate director of NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. She was responsible for training and creating top-flight curricula for academic advisors and administrators around the globe. Before joining NACADA, Joslin spent five years as director of the Office of Academic Advising at the University of Oregon and 13 years as associate director for training and development at the University of Iowa. Dr. Joslin holds a both Ph.D. and a master’s in health and sport studies from the University of Iowa. She earned a bachelor’s in diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Megumi Makino-Kanehiro is the director of the Mānoa Advising Center, an advising office for exploratory students at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is also a co-founder of the Mānoa Peer Advisor Program, a cross-campus selection, training, and placement program that she has developed and passed along to a faculty member. She is a unit supervisor of peer advisors and remains active in the training aspects of MPA. She was a panelist on the NACADA webinar, The Peer Advising Advantage: Creating Meaningful Connections, and was chair of the Peer Advising and Mentoring Commission. She was a member of the NACADA Core Values Task Force and served on the Advising Communities Steering Committee. She is currently a member of the NACADA Board of Directors and serves on the Awards Committee and the Annual Conference Advisory Board.

Cecilia Olivares is the Senior Student Services Coordinator at the University of Missouri. Prior to coming to Mizzou, Cecilia was the Interim Experiential Learning Credit Coordinator at the University of Memphis, where she previously served as the Director of the Center for Academic Retention and Enrichment Services and has over 10 years of experience as an academic advisor and advising administrator. She is a current member of the NACADA Council (Administrative Division) and past chair of the Emerging Leaders Program.

Dr. Kiana Shiroma is the Director of the Pre-Health/Pre-Law Advising Center and interim Director of the Student Success Center at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is the Region 9 Representative of the NACADA Research Committee and serves on the Editorial Board of NACADA Journal and as a reviewer for Academic Advising Today. Dr. Shiroma's research focuses on the motivational factors of underserved student populations.

George Steele has been a member of NACADA for over 25 years. He coordinated the exploring advising services at Ohio State University in the 1990 and was Executive Director to the Ohio Learning Network, an organization that coordinated distance learning for higher education in Ohio, during the first decade of this century. He is author and co-author of a numerous articles, predominately on working with exploring students and technology in advising. Currently he teaches part-time at Ohio State and assists NACADA on various projects. 

Leonor L. Wangensteen is an academic advisor in the University of Notre Dame’s First Year of Studies (FYS). She is particularly interested in issues of diversity, inclusivity, and equity in higher education and serves as the Director of FYS Undocumented Student Initiatives. Wangensteen received her B.A. in Spanish literature and fine arts (2003) and M.A. in Iberian and Latin American studies (2009) from Notre Dame. Previous to advising, Wangensteen taught Spanish courses at the University’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and was involved in community-based learning initiatives.