About the Webinar
Your Starfish Retention Scores can be key in helping to improve outcomes for students and narrow equity gaps when used intentionally. This session will frame these scores within a larger context of retention theory to help partners better support their ongoing retention initiatives on campus. We will emphasize how to use Retention Scores to triage flags and for proactive outreach campaigns for specific student populations. Various Starfish partners will share how they strategically use Retention Scores on their campus to better intervene and support students in need.
Tracey Bender
Assistant Director of Student Success
Ramapo College
Tracey has worked at Ramapo since graduating from the College and was hired to implement the Starfish project in 2013. During that time, Tracey has served as both the functional lead and functional manager for the Starfish work. Tracey operationalizes Ramapo’s student success strategy within Starfish, which includes both a homegrown predictive model and Starfish retention scores. Tracey earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Ramapo College and a master’s in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Columbia University.
Joe Connell
Assistant Vice President of Student Success
Ramapo College
Joe has worked at Ramapo since 2012 and with the Starfish project since 2013. During that time, Joe has served as both the functional manager and the executive sponsor for the Starfish work. He worked with a professor and his Vice President to integrate a homegrown predictive model into Starfish starting in 2014 through Success Plans and attributes. Joe earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Lycoming College and a master’s in College Student Personnel from Miami University (OH).
John Grant
Dean of Student Development
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
John has worked in K-12 and higher education settings for over 20 years. John is also a holistic student supports coach at Achieving the Dream, Inc. His career mission has been to support community college students in their pursuit of life change through creative and impactful intervention strategies. He began his post-secondary career as a counselor and transitioned into leadership in 2006 with the task of designing and building an academic advising model from the ground up. At different points in his career, he has also been responsible for the strategic vision and execution of teams in career services, disability services, multicultural services, mental health counseling, academic advising, recruitment, student conduct and early alert.
Keisha Jones
Dean of Student Engagement and Completion
Davidson-Davie Community College
Keisha has been with Davidson-Davie for six years and has been working with Starfish at her college for the same amount of time. During that time, she has helped streamline processes related to Starfish, work with faculty and staff to get more usage from Starfish, and currently working on the rollout of Retention Scores and Strategic Analytics. Keisha has worked in higher education for 18 years, working at two year and four year institutions.
Matthew Petersen
Manager of Student Retention
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
Matthew has served as Starfish system administrator since 2019. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from Truman State University and a Ph.D. in Human Physiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has taught in the biological sciences for over 15 years, and has served in several administrative positions at. He has also engaged passionately in NWTC’s student success agenda for over a decade, with an emphasis on expanding the availability and use of data to promote evidence-based growth and transformation.