NEACRAO 2026 Sessions at a Glance

Note: Sessions listed are as of July 31 - proposals are still being submitted and reviewed. Sessions are listed in no particular order. Times and locations will be published in the program as we approach the conference.

Session Topic	Presenter(s)	Description
Communication 9-1-1: Registrar and the Faculty	Kristy Berg, Ph.D., Associate Registrar, Drexel University Quinn Cunningham, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Rider University	Is your program struggling with enrollment? Do you get resistance from faculty not wanting to utilize your degree audit system? Do students have a hard time making their way through your curriculum? Do you and your faculty/department find it difficult to make changes and update your program requirements? Do you need help with degree audit scribing? If you answered YES to any of these questions, we could be the answer you have been looking for. This session will help you: articulate the faculty perspective; recognize friction points in shared academic workflows (e.g., where communication breaks down and why these gaps occur; i.e., catalog edits, program requirements); learn proactive communication strategies for initiating clear and timely communication with faculty; reframe your role as a collaborative partner; and you will be able to draft at least one concrete action step towards improving communication on your campus.
Making the Invisible Work Visible: Practical Process Documentation for Registrar Offices	Donovan King, Assistant Registrar, Wellesley College	Registrar offices manage complex work that depends on a variety of factors all working together in perfect harmony timing: accuracy, policy knowledge, system fluency, and good judgment. Yet many recurring processes somehow rely on a combination of hard earned institutional knowledge and a collection of administrative muscle memory. It is a testament to the people who do this work day in and day out that so much is done so well in these situations, but couldn't it be better for everyone? This session will offer a practical approach to making registrar work more consistent, teachable, and resilient. Drawing from my experience working across K-12 administration, adult education, and higher education registrar operations, I will share methods for identifying vulnerable workflows, documenting process steps, clarifying ownership, building usable checklists, and creating lightweight quality-control points that reduce avoidable errors. This session will also address responsible ways to use AI as a drafting and organizing assistant for internal documentation, while keeping data, policy, and final judgment firmly in human hands. Attendees will leave with a starter framework they can use immediately to convert one undocumented or under-documented process into a clearer, more reliable operations resource.
Data, Process, Teamwork, and Deployment: Honest Lessons from an SIS Deployment	Karri Van Blarcom, Senior Associate Registrar, Wesleyan University, [email protected] Chris Barrett, Workday Student Analyst, Wesleyan University, [email protected]	Implementing or thinking of implementing a new student information system (SIS)? Come hear our hard-earned lessons about what is inevitably a complex, transformative, and rarely linear process involving corners of the campus you never imagined. Drawing from the dual perspectives of registrar and IT teams, this session will explore the realities of preparing for and navigating an SIS implementation—from data quality (spoiler: your data is probably not as clean as you think) and business process redesign to academic regulations, cross-functional collaboration, governance, and change management. Participants will gain practical guidance on what to prioritize early, common pitfalls to avoid, and how flexibility and thoughtful planning can help institutions adapt when surprises arise. We’ll share what worked, what we would approach differently if starting from scratch, and actionable insights to support a successful SIS implementation journey.
Our Transfer Credit Portal ... soup to nuts on what it is and how we did it!	Patrick Sullivan, Registrar, University of Massachusetts Amherst Janet Danylieko, Associate Registrar for Degree Completion and Transfer Credit, University of Massachusetts Amherst	UMass Amherst has transformed our business processes using new tools to speed processing of transfer credits. We will detail what we found when we looked under the hood of our old process and our metamorphosis from less than wonderful to state of the art. We will cover new tools we implemented, the challenges we encountered, and lessons learned along the way.
Registrar Roundtable	Andrew DePaolo, University Registrar, Bay Path University
Non-Traditional Transfer Credit - A Balancing Act	Ashley Ottman, Registrar, Nichols College	In the last few years, there has been a surge in students bringing in credit from non-traditional credit earning opportunities such as Study.com, Sophia Learning, and Straighter Line. These services that offer courses that have been evaluated and recommended for by the American Council on Education (ACE), but that doesn't mean every school accepts these courses for transfer credit. At Nichols College, we have seen a rise in students using these services to bring in credits towards general education requirements and other electives. The difficulty is balancing the credits these students are bringing in with the academic standards of earning a degree. Some students are using these courses to get ahead, some need them as a lifeline to fulfill their final credits to graduate. In the first half, we will take some time to go over the experience at Nichols over the last few years with students transferring in credit from these kinds of services, and how we are balancing the needs of the institution and the needs of the students with our policies for transferring in credit from non-traditional credit earning opportunities. We also will have an open discussion about what other schools have been experiencing. Does your institution award transfer credit for these kinds of credit earning opportunities? Why or why not? How are you handling student interest in these services? How do your faculty perceive these services? How do registrar's offices perceive these services? Please note, Nichols College does have partnerships with Sophia Learning, Study.com, and Straighter Line, but they will not be involved in this presentation.
Making it Personal	Michelle Mahoney, Senior Admissions Counselor, Mount Wachusett Community College; Kurtis Graeff, Senior Admissions Counselor, Mount Wachusett Community College	Session Description: Learn how admissions can create a personalized experience for students during the enrollment process. From first outreach through course registration and beyond. Through real examples and collaborative discussion, attendees will learn practical strategies for making admissions more personal while still using data to improve efficiency and student retention.
Reimagining Readmission: Productivity, Partnership, and Transparent Student Communication	Michael Burns, Lead Information Technologist, University of Rhode Island, and Debbie Suggs, Admission Director, Special Populations, University of Rhode Island	Readmission processes often require coordination among multiple campus offices, yet fragmented workflows, unclear ownership, and inconsistent student communication can create avoidable delays and confusion. This session will explore how our institution redesigned its readmission application process to strengthen collaboration, improve operational productivity, and provide students with a clearer understanding of what happens next.
Admissions Roundtable	Katie Wood, Graduate Admissions Specialist, University of Connecticut
Making the Grade: Securing and Navigating your First Role in Management	Walter Wrigley, Associate Registrar, Boston College	This session is intended for both registrar and admissions professionals who would like to become managers or who were recently promoted into management. It will touch on ways to prepare for management early on in your career, ways to earn a spot in management, and how to succeed as a first-time manager. It will be a presentation but will require audience participation to encourage engagement.
From Attendee to Leader: Your NEACRAO Journey Starts Here	Joe Wolk, University Registrar, Bridgewater State University	Have you ever wondered how to become more involved in NEACRAO? This session will provide a roadmap for turning participation into engagement and engagement into leadership. Hear from current and past volunteers about their experiences, learn about opportunities to serve, and discover how getting involved can expand your professional network, strengthen your skills, and create lasting connections across the region. Whether you have five hours a year or are looking for a larger commitment, there's a place for you in NEACRAO.
Herding Robots: Keeping Up with AI as Policy Chases Practice	Eric LePage, Assistant Vice President of AI & EdTech Innovations, Bridgewater State University	Somebody on your campus is using AI right now. Possibly in the next cubicle. The question isn't whether AI is on your campus, it's how we guide responsible adoption. Join Eric LePage, Assistant Vice President of AI & EdTech Innovation at Bridgewater State University, for a candid, upbeat look at how BSU developed its Administrative Use of AI Policy, why "version 1.0" is never the end of your policy story, and how the university is channeling the vibe-coding boom into useful campus apps while keeping confidential and FERPA data safe. You'll leave with practical policy ideas, real examples of day-to-day AI use, and a chance to share how your institution is navigating its own version of Mr. Toad’s Wild AI Ride!
Networking as Professional Development: Leveraging Social Capital to Navigate Career Advancement and Leadership Success in Enrollment Management	Dr. Shanni Smith-Arsenault, VPEMSS, Greenfield Community College	Enrollment management lacks a standard career ladder. Professionals arrive laterally, advance unexpectedly, and too often plateau without understanding why. The answer is rarely a credential gap. In most cases, it is a social capital gap. This session introduces social capital theory as a practical framework for professional development and career navigation in enrollment management. Drawing on research into the career trajectories and leadership styles of female EM leaders, which found that intentional network-building was the primary precondition for career mobility, not a supplement. Participants will leave with a concrete understanding of how the relationships they hold and those they lack shape the opportunities available to them. Social capital the value embedded in professional networks and relationships takes three forms: bonding capital within immediate circles, bridging capital across functions and institutions, and linking capital within vertical power structures. The research revealed a consistent pattern: leaders who intentionally cultivated bridging and linking capital reported more frequent, more varied, and more unexpected advancement than equally credentialed peers who did not. They also demonstrated more adaptive leadership because, the research found, leadership style is not fixed. It is modulated by the capital available. This session targets enrollment management professionals in roles such as registrar, admissions, financial aid, advising, and data analytics, aiming to help them develop their careers with the same purpose and focus they apply to their institutional responsibilities.
Chauncey's Odyssey: The Implementation of a One Stop AI Agent	Tara Arneson, Registrar, Champlain College and Meghan Broughton, Assistant Registrar, Champlain College	Registration questions at 11pm. Transcript requests on a Sunday. Policy confusion during finals week. What if students got real answers, instantly, without waiting on office hours? This session unpacks how Champlain College is building an AI agent as a one-stop shop and what it is taking to get there, guardrails and all.