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Meet the 2017-2018 Members of the Higher Education Advisory Council!

By Salesforce.org October 29, 2017

By: Florence Parodi, University of Miami, Higher Education Advisory Council executive committee officer

The Higher Education Advisory Council is a community-led group of Salesforce users and evangelists from 18 schools across North America that collaborate with Salesforce.org and other industry partners to help higher education institutions be even more successful with Salesforce. The Council is supported and recognized by Salesforce.org and serves the community through volunteerism and advocacy. Council members serve one-year terms beginning October 1st and are nominated and approved annually by the Higher Ed community.

Congratulations to the 2017-18 members of the Higher Education Advisory Council:

Officers

Chair
Florence Parodi, University of Miami

Vice Chair
Amjad Ayoubi, Tulane University

Secretary
Joanna Iturbe, University of Colorado-Boulder

Committees Chair
Phillip Knutel, Babson College

Immediate Past Chair

Kathy Lueckeman, Maryville University

Salesforce.org Liaisons

Chris Coppa, Success Engagement Director
Kim Egan, Success Engagement Senior Manager

Members

Ryan Clemens, Arizona State University
Dave DeMichele, Yale University
Jeff Dixon, Queens University
Debbie Duran, University of Miami
Haley Gould, University of Michigan
Rebecca Joffrey, Cornell University
Brian Karcinski, University of Florida
Melissa Kwilosz, Arizona State University
Ann LaFave, Cornell University
Cameron McCoy, Lehigh University
Carrie Otto, University of Minnesota
Reed Sheard, Westmont College
Michael Slade, Western Governors University
Erin Smith, Northeastern University
Corey Snow, Harvard University
Kalman Sweetwine, University of Colorado-Boulde
Amir Tejani, Lehigh University
Chris Tompkins, Indiana University
Colleen Whelan, Providence College
Nash Zgonjanin, Algonquin College

Connect with Advisory Council Members at Dreamforce 2017

Higher Education Advisory Council members will be at Dreamforce this year and we are looking forward to meeting you and answering questions – from getting started to scaling functionality for the enterprise and lots more.

Higher Ed Kickoff, Monday, November 6th at 9 a.m. at the Hilton Union Square
Be sure to look for the special Dreamforce pin to find council members during the kickoff session.

Monday is also “Spirit Day” at Dreamforce! Advisory Council members will be decked out in their school colors during the day to make it even easier to find them. But Spirit Day isn’t just for the Council! All higher eds are asked to wear their school colors on Monday – a t-shirt, sweatshirt, pullover or other gear – to identify yourself with your school. It’s a great way to find people at the schools you have heard so much about and want to learn from during this action-packed conference.

Salesforce.org Reception
Wednesday, November 8th at 5:30 p.m. on the 32nd floor of the Westin St. Francis
Watch for Advisory Council members at the reception. As part of their commitment to the community, members will be circulating, introducing higher ed folks to each other, and taking time to share their experience and knowledge about the platform.

Dreamforce Sessions
Many of the Higher Ed breakout and theater sessions at Dreamforce are being led by Advisory Council members. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself as you’re getting seated or connect after the session. Here are the sessions being led by Council members (all of these sessions are located in the Westin St. Francis).

Higher Education User Group LIVE, Tuesday, November 7th at 11:00am at the Westin St. Francis
If you like our demos during our (mostly) weekly virtual meetings, you’ll love our live and in-person meeting. An initiative of the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council and supported by the incredible Salesforce Trailblazer Community team, the Higher Education User Group meeting at Dreamforce will feature members of the council demoing their favorite apps. Join us for some great tips and tricks for using awesome apps in higher ed.

Higher Ed Office Hours LIVE, Thursday, November 9th at 11:00am at the Westin St. Francis
Have Salesforce questions? We have answers! Join the Salesforce.org Higher Education Advisory Council for Higher Ed Office Hours LIVE. Bring your questions, comments, hopes and dreams to discuss them with community’s most veteran users as we bring our monthly call-in program to Dreamforce for a LIVE session.

Not at Dreamforce this year? Join us at these other ongoing event:

In addition to Dreamforce, you can join in on the conversation in the Power of Us Hub. Advisory Council members are active in the Sector: Higher Education Chatter group. It’s a private group – no partners or vendors allowed – so click the “Ask to Join” link and introduce yourself. This community is incredibly generous about sharing their experiences and the Hub is the perfect vehicle to learn all about higher ed use cases and implementations. You can also join us at these community events led by members of the Council:

  • Higher Education Office Hours: Council members host this monthly call-in session to answer questions and spark conversation from their higher ed peers.
  • Higher Education User Group: Following a regular meeting schedule, this “virtual” user group brings together higher ed institutions for demos of products and solutions.
  • Custom demos and referral calls: Most council members start out sharing their success individually with other schools. They often progress to sharing their org through a demo with another school and even host – or travel for – site visits.
  • Session speakers: Council members lead sessions at Dreamforce and the Higher Ed Summit (March 21-23, 2018 at Georgetown), are featured in webinars, and present at other higher education conferences, investing their time to make sessions both inspirational and filled with practical advice.
  • Volunteerism and Advocacy: Members write guest blogs, host “birds-of-a-feather” conversations and lead Circles of Success training. They also step up to serve as beta testers and provide critical feedback to Salesforce and Salesforce.org product and services teams.

The Higher Ed Advisory Council exists, in part, to amplify the voice of the Higher Ed customer. Please feel free to connect with any one of us. We welcome meeting you and hearing about how we can work together to drive even more success for our institutions using Salesforce.

About the Author
Florence is an IT Senior Manager at the University of Miami and has been working in higher education for 15 years. She leads the Salesforce enterprise strategy to implement a connected campus system that supports CRM and custom development applications for prospective students and employees. Her team works to engage undergraduate and graduate students in more than 180 majors and programs in 11 schools and colleges. Florence and her team rolled out Lightning Experience and positioned the University to be the first to go-live on the Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA). The enterprise implementation included Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud (Exact Target), and a custom event registration solution. She is a Salesforce.com certified system administrator and Force.com developer.