Meet The Faculty

Submitted by Summer Institute and Leadership Symposium Committee Co-Chairs Jennifer Schroeder, Program Coordinator at Iowa State University, and Stephanie Petsch, Assistant Director at Eastern Michigan University

Thinking about registering for Summer Institute or Leadership Symposium? We have an experienced and excited faculty lined up to teach at this year’s conference. Get to know a few of the faculty we have lined up. We would love to get to know you more in Kalamazoo this summer. If you would like register for Summer Institute or Leadership Symposium, visit masfaaweb.org/Summer-Institute.

Manda Riley

Manda is a Financial Aid Adviser at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she has been in financial aid for one year! She attended Summer Institute in 2018 and had a wonderful experience so she is now volunteering her time back by being a SI faculty member. Manda’s involvement with MASFAA began with attending SI last year. After that she applied for MASFAA’s scholarship in order to attend the annual conference last fall in Minnesota. This year, she is honored to present a session at the annual conference in Chicago. Manda also serves on MASFAA’s Financial Literacy Task Force. In MASFAP (MO’s association), she serves on the Professional Development Committee, Program Committee, and Research Committee. Manda will be teaching Application Process, COA, and Student Eligibility & Packaging. Manda hopes to inspire participants to take the financial aid world by the reins, ask a lot of questions, and absorb as much as possible during SI. Manda has a background in social work helping college students with mental health and suicide prevention. She is a beagle mom and loves all things Harry Potter – you should check out her office- it’s decked out in all things HP!

Kelsey Ryder

Kelsey is an Assistant Direct at the University of Iowa. Kelsey has been in financial aid for 5 years where she began working in financial literacy and recently moved to the AD role overseeing the Counseling & Financial Literacy teams. Kelsey has been involved in IASFAA from the beginning of her career. She has served IASFAA on the Program Committee, Chaired the Association Communication Committee and currently is serving as Secretary. Kelsey attended MASFAA’s SI in 2016 and helped with local arrangements when MASFAA was in Iowa in 2015. Kelsey is excited to expand her knowledge and find creative ways to engage participants. Kelsey is also looking forward to meeting more financial aid professionals. Kelsey will be teaching SAP, COA, Direct Loans, and Application Process. On a side note, Kelsey has a sheltie names Sheldon who (unfortunately) cannot come to SI with her but she would be happy to share pictures and videos with anyone who is interested!

Melissa Van Meter

Melissa is currently the Associate Director of Operations at Ohio University. Melissa started like many as a work-study student and was then hired full-time where she has been for 20 years. Melissa has attended several MASFAA conferences and served on the Conference Planning Committee for our 2017 and 2019 conferences. Melissa is also involved with NASFAA, participating in several Angoff Study Teams and the Rapid Response Network. She has participated in two NASFAA Certified Financial Aid Administrator task forces. Melissa has not attended MASFAA’s SI or LS but is looking forward to sharing her varied experience and knowledge with the Leadership Symposium group. Melissa will be leading sessions on Personality Assessment, Building a Strong Team, and Campus Involvement. Melissa is looking forward to a great event where we can share ideas and learn from one another.

Chad Olson

Chad has been with the Office of Student Financial Aid at Iowa State University for 17 years, currently serving as the Assistant Director for Counseling & Loans. Chad has been actively involved in IASFAA and MASFAA while he has been in financial aid. Chad has served as IASFAA President and was recently elected as the President-Elect of MASFAA for 2019-20. Chad also serves MASFAA as the Donor Development Committee Chair. Chad participated in the inaugural MASFAA Leadership Symposium and admits it had a powerful effect on his career. He is very excited to be faculty this year and hopes to be able to give back to this year’s participants. Chad will be teaching Leadership sessions on Building Leadership & Supervisory Skills, Building a Strong Team, Conflict Management, Change Management, and Association Involvement. Chad is married with three kids and a dog. In his spare time, Chad coaches youth sports like wrestling, baseball, and football.

Val Meyers

Val has been in financial aid for almost 34 years. She began her career as a file clerk back when paper records were the thing! Currently Val serves Michigan State University as the Associate Director of Financial Aid. As Val advanced in the office, she was given an opportunity to serve on MSFAA. Val has served MSFAA as editor of the Newsletter, Membership Co-Chair and President. Val has also served MASFAA in several ways including Secretary, Treasurer and as a member of Federal Issues (now Advocacy and Legislative Initiatives). Val has also participated with Negotiated Rulemaking by representing financial aid administrators in that process. Val has earned all 17 NASFAA credentials and has previously taught Summer Institute two other times. Val loves to interact with other aid administrators and talk about real-life applications of what we learn in the credentialing sessions. Val has several well-tested teaching tools and stories she is excited to share including the explanation of this picture…

Val will be teaching Consumer Information, COA, Packaging, Verification and SAP at SI this summer. Val encourages you to attend because there are prizes and it will be fun!

For more information about Summer Institute and Leadership Symposium and to register for the event, click here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR MASFAA!

Submitted by Emily Haynam, Assistant Director of Compliance, The Ohio State University, co-chair of the MASFAA Communications and Electronic Initiatives Committee, and MASFAA Delegate-at-Large

Hello MASFAA! I hope your 2019 year has started out well and everyone is enjoying the recent announcement of changes to the verification requirements… can we just say, wooohooo!!!!  

I’m today excited to announce the first live MASFAA webinar will be held on Monday, January 28 from 3:00pm-4:00pm ET (2pm-3pm CT). The first webinar topic “This Is MASFAA” will be presented by MASFAA President Marvin Smith (from IUPUI) and MASFAA Membership Chair Matthew Kearney (from Southeast Missouri State). Marvin and Matthew will be talking about the value of MASFAA membership and opportunities for involvement.

Speaking of opportunities for MASFAA involvement, we need the membership to “step up” and submit conference ideas by the end of January. Conference program co-chairs Betsy Johnson (from Bowling Green) and Susan Teerink (from Marquette) are planning for the MASFAA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL from October 6-9, 2019.

The theme for our 2019 Conference is Champions of Tomorrow and we’re looking forward to being in a great city while helping develop champions of tomorrow in all of you and also learning about ways to make our students champions as they strive to reach their goals.  However, to ensure we bring you a fantastic lineup of sessions and keynote speakers, we need your help!

The Conference Program Committee is seeking session proposals NOW, so please take a moment and think of ways in which you can contribute to our conference.  We invite you to submit interest session proposals now through January 31, 2019 for consideration.

Please visit https://goo.gl/forms/71ff3xQ2HZbhhpxJ3 to complete your session proposal. One thing to note - please do not use this form to submit your Business Solutions sessions. We'll be collecting those separately in conjunction with Chad Olson, Chair of the Donor Development Committee.

MASFAA 2018-19 Planning and Event Updates

Submitted by Marvin Smith, MASFAA President, Executive Director of Student Financial Services, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

Dear MASFAA Friends and Colleagues:

I hope all is well and you are ready for the holiday season.  Your MASFAA leadership has been busy since the wonderful conference in Minneapolis this past October. A lot of good work is occurring. Some of the highlights…

• MASFAA has a new “MASFAA Moments” YouTube Channel.

• MASFAA is planning a monthly training and development webinar series to begin in January, 2019. Members are encouraged to submit your ideas regarding our webinar series name. Stay tuned to your favorite MASFAA social media channel for more details.

• MASFAA is planning for the 2019 Summer Institute and Leadership Symposium to be held at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) June 3-7, 2019 around the theme “Soar to Your Future”.

• MASFAA’s 2019 Annual Conference will be held at the Chicago Lombard Westin on October 6-9, 2019. I encourage members to check out the inspiring 2019 MASFAA Annual Conference video built around our conference theme “Champions of Tomorrow”.

• Nick Prewett, Financial Aid Director at the University of Missouri and immediate past MASFAA president represented MASFAA at the Ohio fall conference in Columbus, OH where OASFAA celebrated their 50^th anniversary (!). OASFAA invited back all the past presidents and had them line up across the stage and give a bit of a background story for OASFAA.  Nick noted that he won thousands of dollars at their casino night. If anyone needs any money contact Nick Prewett.

• Michele Trame, Financial Aid Director at the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana and MASFAA president-elect represented MASFAA at the Missouri fall conference. MASFAP was held at the Lodge of the Four Seasons Resort in Lake Ozark, MO where apparently Missouri folks go to get re-energized. Michele got to hang out with Nick Prewett since Nick never misses a conference opportunity to play games of skill and chance like BINGO and have fun with colleagues.

• I had the pleasure of representing MASFAA at the West Virginia fall conference. Note this conference was actually held as a joint conference at the Rocky Gap Resort in Flintstone, MD in combination with the Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, DC area financial aid associations (referred to as the “Tri-State” association). WVASFAA made me feel special and welcome. The combination conference worked nicely. I will always remember this conference fondly—it was great to connect with friends and colleagues.

• We’ve had more than fifty MASFAA members volunteer to serve on a committee or taskforce. If you volunteered and have not been plugged into a volunteer opportunity please send me an email (Marvin Smith, mlsiii@iupui.edu).

• Finally, I’m pleased to announce that MASFAA has begun to develop a new Strategic Plan that will be led by past MASFAA presidents Sara Beth Holman (Lawrence University in Wisconsin) and Dick Battig (Model College of Hair Design in Minnesota). Watch for your chance to provide input in the coming months.

I hope you all have a happy holiday and a great new year. Stay tuned to hear more about the good work that keeps getting done by and for MASFAA members.  

FSA Coach Has Lots to Offer

by Melissa Haberman, Financial Aid Director, University of Wisconsin-Extension

On August 7, 2017 Federal Student Aid published an announcement letter about the new FSA Coach Advanced Training. I immediately went to the http://fsatraining.info/ website to check it out. I had to first create a new account because the one I had created in the past was tied to an email address from a previous position. Creating the account only took a minute.

The Federal Student Aid E-Training Web Site has a fresh new look and is packed with information. The FSA Coach 2016-2017 Suite includes a basic training, an intermediate training, as well as a basic training for foreign schools. I must admit I didn't realize the intermediate training was there. I'm excited to see the training covering summer and module awarding, R2T4 with modules and other beyond the basics topics.

The 2017-2018 Advanced Training is packed with great resources including a fantastic to do list for new financial aid directors. (You are required to log in to view the resource.) The three sections of the training are:

1. A Primer for New FA Directors

2. Audits and Program Reviews

3. Cash Management

I highly recommend taking the time to visit the site and take a look at the training offered.