It is my good fortune to serve students in higher education for over 35 years as both a student affairs practitioner/scholar and as a faculty member. My areas of expertise include developing  partnerships between student affairs and academic affairs, budgeting and budget management, organizational change and models of practice in student affairs, law and policy in professional practice, residential life, housing, food service, facilities planning and operations, diversity issues, internationalization, supporting the success of students/staff/faculty who are Native American and working with tribal communities,  building campus community, campus crisis response and crisis management planning, student employment as high impact practice, graduate and professional students services, intramurals and athletics, assessment, creating and enhancing professional development programs, and student affairs administration.

I joined the University of Mississippi community as Associate Professor of Higher Education in 2017. Prior to joining the Ole Miss community, I served as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), Vice President for Student Development at Dickinson State University, Interim Director of Assessment and Research for Campus Life at the University of Arizona, Director of Graduate and Off Campus Housing at Northwestern University, and several other early career positions.

Authoring and editing for students affairs and higher education is important to me, and I greatly enjoy engaging in these scholarly activities with partners. My books and monographs include: A Good Job: Campus Employment as a High Impact Practice (with Krissy Creager and Marianna Savoca); Better Together: A Guide to Shared Governance and Student Affairs (under contract); Budgets and Budget Management in Higher Education (2nd and 3rd editions with Peggy Barr); Getting Ahead of the Game:Understanding and Addressing Gambling on Campus (with Tom Hardy and Jim Caswell): In Search of Safer Communities (with Gene Zdziarski, Dave Ambler, Renee Barnett-Terry, Les Cook, John Dunkle, Bob Gatti, Elizabeth Griego, and Joanne Kindle); Making Change Happen in Student Affairs (with Peggy Barr and Art Sandeen); Serving Native American Students (with Mary Jo Tippeconic Fox and Shelly Lowe); Stepping Up and Stepping Out: Preparing Students for Life after College (with Jill Parker); The Handbook of College Athletics and Recreation Administration (with Don Rockey and Chris King); and The Handbook of Student Affairs Administration (3rd and 4th editions with Jeremy Stringer). I am also fortunate to have authored or co-authored dozens of articles, books chapters, book reviews, and published papers.

Involvement with professional associations is also something that is important to me. I am a member of ACPA, ASHE, and NASPA.  I received the Outstanding Contribution to Research In American Indian Higher Education Award from ACPA’s Native American Network in 2003 and was named Annuit Coeptis Senior Scholar by ACPA in 2017. I was blessed to be recognized in 2010 as a Pillar of the Profession by the NASPA Foundation, was honored by the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community in 2011 for my support for the success of Native American students and student affairs professionals, received the Outstanding Contribution to Higher Education Award from NASPA Region IV-East in 2012.

I earned my Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona (2003). Both my M.S.Ed. in Higher Education (1998) and B.A. in English and American Literature (1982) were earned from Northwestern University.

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