AASFAA Symposium Agenda
March 27, 2015
8:00 – 9:00
Registration
9:00 – 9:15
President’s Welcome and housekeeping (Ocotillo Ballroom)
9:15 – 11:00
Federal Update w/Bruce Honer (Ocotillo Ballroom
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Bruce Honer has been an FSA Training Officer for 7 years now. Prior to his current position as a
training officer for ED, he served as a financial aid trainer for EDFund. He’s also served in various
financial aid positions (Advisor, Loan Coordinator, Director, and more) for schools throughout
the Western Region of the United States over a span of 10 years. Additionally, he has served for
nearly 4 years for the student loan servicer, Unipac (now Nelnet). He holds a BA in English and
an MA in Education. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Elena.
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:30 Session I
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Chia Room: SULA (Bruce Honer)
Desert Star Room: Finding Balance: Improving your CDR in a Changing Financial Climate to
Cultivate Student Success (Dennis Christich, Inceptia)
o Communicating with student loan borrowers helps support the successful
repayment of loans and can improve a college’s cohort default rate (CDR). However,
due to increasing to-do lists and staffing limitations, it has become more difficult
than ever to perform outreach and regular communication with students. Whether
you’re an institution that is concerned with a rising CDR or you’re simply looking to
implement a default prevention strategy to maintain your rate and improve student
success, the thought of outsourcing has probably crossed your mind. When
considering default prevention, it’s important to find the proper balance: do it
yourself; hire an expert vendor; or use a combination of efforts. This presentation
will show you why you need a default prevention strategy, regardless of your rate,
the pros and cons of both outsourcing and insourcing your default prevention
strategy, along with tools needed to evaluate and choose a successful partner if you
decide to outsource.
o As Inceptia’s strategic business director for Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and
Southern California, Dennis is ready to help guide your students toward financial
success. Using his wealth of knowledge and experience gained as the vice president
of sales at Education Loan Source and his previous 16 years in higher education
lending, Dennis roots out problems and strategically finds solutions. Dennis also
assists post-secondary educational institutions with financial education solutions
over a national landscape. Dennis offers a holistic perspective when offering
solutions for students and schools.
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Golden Poppy Room: Effective Communication (Joe Peterson, Delta Career Education
Corporation)
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Administering financial aid is the easy part of our jobs! I’ve heard it said that most,
if not all, frustration comes from unmet expectations and an inability to resolve
conflict in healthy ways. Effective communication is absolutely necessary to
overcome the challenges and obstacles that stand in our way of best serving our
students. This session will provide insights into causes of communication
breakdowns and ways to personally and collectively solve them.
o
Joe Peterson, is currently serving as the Senior Director of Title IV Compliance at
Delta Career Education Corporation. He serves as a main point of contact on all
financial aid compliance related issues or concerns and ensures internal policy and
procedures are consistent with current regulations. In various capacities since 2004,
Joe has been engaged in student financial aid administration; first as a financial aid
administrator, then a financial aid director, followed by four years as a senior
institutional review specialist at the U.S. Department of Education (Department),
and now as a senior director of compliance. Joe also served on the NASFAA
Negotiated Rulemaking Task Force last year to assist NASFAA staff and negotiators
during the Program Integrity and Improvement negotiated rulemaking
sessions…which focused on cash management, state authorization, and adverse
credit for PLUS loans, among other topics. During his time at the Department, Joe
assisted in building direct loan origination functionality, within COD, for foreign
school’s participating in the Title IV programs for their American student
population. In addition, Joe has assisted schools at Ask-a-Fed booths and presenting
at annual FSA Conferences. When not spending time with his nose in financial aid
regulations, Joe spends as much time as possible with his wife raising their three
beautiful daughters.
12:30 – 1:30
Lunch
1:30 – 2:45
Session II
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Chia Room: R2T4 in modules (Bruce Honer)
Desert Star Room: Default Prevention Strategies - Applying Analytics to Improve Default
Prevention Results (Christopher Jordan – Regional Account Executive, USA Funds)
o Understanding the characteristics of borrowers who default and those who
successfully pay back their loans is a prerequisite to a targeted, cost-effective
default prevention program. You will learn how to develop profiles of both types of
borrowers and how to use these profiles with customized communications
campaigns to more effectively deploy your default prevention resources.
 Chris Jordan is the account executive and primary point of contact at USA
Funds. Chris’s background includes more than 20 years of experience in the
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higher education industry. He has served with a number of education
lenders, including Educaid and Sallie Mae. Most recently, Chris was at Next
Generation Insurance managing Tuition Refund Insurance programs with
institutions throughout the country. Chris resides in here in Phoenix, AZ.
Golden Poppy Room: Other College Financing Options (Grace Smith, Deena Lager and Kate
Hoffman)
o According to recent research, “Children with any college savings are six times more
likely to attend a four-year college than children with no dedicated college savings
account”. Join a panel discussion to hear of other funding options available to
college students including;
 The Arizona 529 College Savings Plan
 AZ Earn to Learn - an innovative new savings to scholarship program
 Arizona College Scholarship Opportunities
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Deena Lager, Director of Arizona Student Financial Aid and Director of the Arizona
Family College Savings (529) Program, Arizona Commission for Postsecondary
Education
Kate Hoffman, Executive Director, AZ Earn to Learn, Live the Solution
Grace Smith, Director of Scholarships and Education Initiatives, Arizona Community
Foundation
2:45 – 3:00
Refreshment Break
3:00 – 4:15
Session III
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Chia Room: Cost of Attendance: It’s a survey year, now what? (Rebekah Hoppel Salcedo,
UA)
o This presentation will cover the elements of a school’s COA prescribed in the HEA
and how to go about developing a survey, collecting data, analyzing results and
ultimately creating new budgets. It will also discuss differences in COA for different
populations and enrollment periods.
o Rebekah Hoppel Salcedo is a Senior Associate Director at the University of Arizona
Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. Rebekah joined the University of Arizona in
January 2008 first as a federal financial aid counselor and later as the first Student
Scholarship Services Coordinator for Scholarship Universe, a scholarship matching
system designed exclusively for UA students. Rebekah has also worked as an
academic advisor at Marymount University in Arlington, VA and a Residence Life
Administrator at Monmouth University in Long Branch, NJ. Rebekah holds a Ph.D. in
Higher Education from the University of Arizona, a M.S. in Human Services from
Capella University and a B.A. in Liberal Studies from Marymount University.
Desert Star Room: Satisfactory Academic Progress-SAP (Melissa Heinrich and Crystal
Taddei, ASU)
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In this session we will discuss Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) and how
students can benefit from the strict guidelines of the federal requirements. We will
talk through the importance of ensuring students are progressing towards degree
completion within a reasonable period of time, how to help students remain eligible
for federal, state, and some institutional aid programs and steps that Arizona State
University has taken to help students get back on track to graduate. We hope you’ll
take the time to attend and discuss with us your best practices in this exciting
session.
Melissa Heinrich is the Director of Corporate Enrollment Partnerships in the
Financial Aid and Scholarship Services Office at Arizona State University. Ms.
Heinrich’s areas of responsibility include overseeing the enrollment process and
experience of participants in the Starbucks College Achievement Program as well as
customer service management of the Finances and Student Services Help Desk.
Melissa began her career in financial aid in 2002 and has worked in several different
capacities, including processing, auditing, customer relationship management and
default prevention. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the
University of Tulsa and is currently pursuing a Masters in Higher and Postsecondary
Education at Arizona State University.
Crystal Taddei has been a Financial Aid Counselor in higher education for the past 8
years. Crystal joined Arizona State University’s Financial Aid and Scholarship
Services team in May 2014. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Global Business
from Arizona State University and her Master’s in Business Administration from
University of Phoenix. Crystal is in the process of pursuing a Masters in Higher and
Postsecondary Education at Arizona State University. Crystal enjoys assisting
students to inspire their journey to graduation. In her spare time, she enjoys
traveling, baking, and camping with family.
Golden Poppy Room: So, you just found out you’re having a Program Review…Now
what?! (Terra Benson, Executive Director and Norma Navarro-Castellanos, Director, PCC
Financial Aid)
o In this session, we will cover what you can expect before, during and after a
Department of Education Program Review, provide success tips and
recommendations on how to be prepared in anticipation of a review, how to host
the review, and general communication and response strategies. We will cover our
experience from A to Z. Examples of response “dos and don’ts” will be shared, and
will include suggestions on how to dispute findings.
o Ms. Benson has been with Pima Community College since 2005; Mrs. NavarroCastellanos since 2007. Together, they have a combined total of over 20 years in
financial aid. In June 2014, they successfully led Pima Community College through
their first Program Review in over 30 years.
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