Meet Our Speakers

Chancellor Mone was appointed Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee (UWM) in 2014. To meet the needs of the region and state, his priorities are student success, research growth, partnerships, diversity and inclusion, and entrepreneurship while managing the headwinds facing higher education. To enable success in these areas, he has spearheaded the school’s most ambitious fundraising campaign, which raised more than $251 million. Chancellor Mone has served UWM for 32 years in faculty and administrative roles. He has an undergraduate degree in Organizational Management from Central Washington University, a M.B.A. from Idaho State University, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Organization Theory from Washington State University. Previously, he spent a decade as a chef, food and beverage director, and senior leader in hospitality operations.

Melanie Harris proudly serves as a Strategy Director with Complete College America. During her career, she has focused on identifying and narrowing the gaps prevalent in higher education that vastly affect marginalized groups. Prior to joining the Complete College America team, Melanie served as an Implementation Project Manager for one of the largest education technology companies serving over 80 percent of the world’s top academic institutions. During her tenure, Melanie worked with over 100 clients, working to advocate for client’s needs, serve as a liaison between clients and the company, and was the point person to successfully execute all project needs and goals. With a passion for student success, Melanie previously worked at Georgia State University as a Coordinator of First-Year Success Programs. She successfully revamped training and instructor resources for faculty, staff, and graduate students teaching the university’s required academic orientation course. Additionally, Melanie established Gen1: First-Generation Success Programs providing resources, scholarships, mentorship, and events to 4,500 first-generation students at the university.

mharris@completecollege.org

John supports student behavioral health initiatives and accessibility services, working with counseling, health, and disability services professionals at all of the UW System’s campuses. He is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience in higher education as a behavioral health practitioner, counseling center director, and student affairs administrator. He was a staff psychologist for 5 years in the Counseling Center at Concordia College-Moorhead before serving for 13 years as Counseling Center director at UW-Stout. Just prior to joining UW System, he served for 5 years as Associate Dean of Students at UW-Stout, where he chaired the behavior intervention team, was a Title IX investigator, and had supervisory oversight of counseling, health, and TRIO programs. John is passionate about serving students from all backgrounds and draws on positive psychology and trauma-informed approaches in his work.

jachter@uwsa.edu

Prenicia is a certified Praesidium Youth Protection Guardian and trained in youth behavior/assessments and Youth Mental Health First Aid. Her experiences in program development abroad has given her strengths in youth protection, program development and implementation, as well as best practices for addressing youth protection polices at the institutional level. Currently Prenicia is a member of the Higher Education Prevention Network serving on the membership committee as well a chair on the Big Ten Youth Policy Consortium. One of her major initiatives within the Big Ten Policy Consortium is “The Architecture of Compliance within Youth Programming in Higher Ed” a research document based on youth programming nationwide standards, historical gaps, and the translation of typical “camp” scenarios and vocabulary into higher education open campus settings.

pclifton@uwsa.edu

Warren Anderson was appointed System Senior Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer (SSEDIO) for the UW System in 2021. Warren leads the development and implementation of a systemwide strategic vision that ensures an equitable and inclusive learning and work environment throughout the University of Wisconsin System. To ensure that the System is meeting established benchmarks, his priorities are to develop a systemwide vision for EDI, expand access, expand EDI training and development, implement continuous assessment, and to increase transparency around EDI progress at the campus and System levels. Warren has over 20 years of experience providing leadership and guidance on issues related to college access, student engagement, diversity, and student affairs at the secondary, post-secondary and graduate education levels. He has his undergraduate degree in Liberal Studies from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, an M.Ed. in Multicultural Education from Eastern University, and a Doctoratein Higher Education Administration from Widener University. Prior to his role as SSEDIO, he served as the Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at UW-Eau Claire.

wanderson@uwsa.edu

Antoiwana has been at UW-La Crosse since she started her undergraduate career at UWL as an Academic Success Summer Institute (ASI) participant in the early 1990s. As the Director of OMSS, Antoiwana is committed to the retention, persistence, and graduation of all our multicultural students. Under her leadership, the office has narrowed its focus to a comprehensive support model, which features academics, finances, and community outreach at its core.

Antoiwana earned both her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Master’s degree in College Student Personnel at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

awilliams@uwlax.edu

Vickie Sanchez has 15 years of experience in student affairs with a focus in diversity and inclusion. Vickie earned her master’s degree in Student Affairs Administration and started her career at UW- La Crosse in Admissions as the Multicultural Recruitment/Admissions Counselor. She will be celebrating 10 years in her current position as Student Services Coordinator, in Multicultural Student Services at UW-Stout. She coordinates Stoutward Bound (SWB) an early bridge program for incoming first year underrepresented ethnic minority students. SWB is designed to provide students a supportive environment committed to preparing them for success and their transition from high school to college. She provides intentional programming throughout the year geared to support academic and social transition, in addition to advising and supervising SWB peer mentors. She also is staff advisor to Latinos Unidos and Black Student Union student organizations. Her higher education and multicultural experience is devoted to recruitment, retention, intercultural and program development for BIPOC students.

sanchezv@uwstout.edu

Dang Yang is the Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. In this role, he leads the OMA team in providing direct services for students of color, supporting university wide efforts in equity and inclusion, and collaborates with stakeholders in strategic initiatives to foster a welcoming climate across the campus.

Yang’s research interests have included examining student leadership development among students of color, as well as exploring how dominant cultural narratives perpetuate inequities in higher education and its impacts on students of color. His academic background includes a B.A. in Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an M.A. in Multicultural College Teaching & Learning from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

yangd@uwec.edu

Karen McLeer, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Retention and Academic Support at UW-Platteville where she has been leading efforts to promote student success and persistence since 2015.

Under her direction, the university has successfully launched a new advising model, created an academic intervention team to oversee the early alert system and provide proactive outreach for targeted student populations, implemented the Navigate student success platform, expanded student access to academic coaching, reimagined new student orientation, and developed a more comprehensive first year program.  She does her best work when in collaboration with others to remove barriers and make the student experience as positive as possible.

Prior to her work at UW-Platteville, Karen was a professor of English and Associate Dean at UW-Richland (a campus of the UW Colleges), where attention to the individual student was central to her teaching.

mcleerk@uwplatt.edu

Vincent’s duties include the oversight and development of the Gateways to Phoenix Success (GPS) program, the development of academic access opportunities for underrepresented students, the coordination of GPS and related programs with Student Affairs offices such as the MESA and the Pride Center, the coordination of GPS and related programs with Enrollment Services offices such as Admissions and Advising, collaborating with CATL to expand student success and professional development opportunities, developing greater opportunities for student engagement in high impact experiences, and oversight of First-Year Seminars.

Lowery has been engaged in this work for several years, first as an instructor in the GPS and for the past year as interim director of Gateways to Phoenix Success (GPS) program. In this role he has provided crucial leadership in student recruitment, program development, staff training and organizational management. Lowery will continue to teach First-Year Seminars and in the GPS and Peer Mentors programs.

loweryj@uwgb.edu

Since 2014, J.J. Andrews has worked at the Precollege Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) with the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement at UW-Madison, first serving as a Teaching Specialist and now as an Assessment Specialist & Data Steward.  The role is a mixture of curriculum and instruction development blended with being the coordinator of college readiness and assessments.  Asked to define his approach to testing and data analysis, J.J. said, “The humanity of your data is the most important analytic.”

J.J. serves as Co-Chair of UW-Madison’s Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions, and Financial Aid (CURAFA) and has served on the committee since 2017.  Previously, J.J. worked as a high school teacher and curriculum developer in the areas of social studies and English for eight years.  Before that, J.J. was a journalist and editor for nearly 12 years in the print newspaper industry covering sports, government, and public education.

jj.andrews@wisc.edu

Ozalle Toms joined the Warhawk family in 2012 as a faculty member in the college of education and professional studies. She earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her areas of interest are teacher preparation, campus climate and culturally responsive instruction. She was a high school special education teacher for 8 years supporting students with learning disabilities, behavior disorders and intellectual disabilities.

Toms has served as Assistant Vice Chancellor since June 2019. At UW-Whitewater she is actively involved in initiatives relating to supporting university students who have aged out of foster care and faculty perceptions of mentoring as it relates to underrepresented and first generation college students.

tomso@uww.edu