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Melissa Burwell The Division of Student Affairs is pleased to welcome Melissa Burwell to Carthage as the new director of the Center for Student Success. Melissa will lead the center as they navigate new and expanded responsibilities following the recent strategic reorganization for student success at Carthage. The Center for Student Success will continue to develop the curriculum and facilitate instruction of the College Success Seminar for new incoming Carthage students, manage the Student Outreach System (SOS), provide ongoing support and outreach for all Carthage students as part of holistic advising, lead initiatives to support students on academic probation, serve as case managers for key student support needs, and offer programming for underrepresented student populations in collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Melissa will be relocating from the Minneapolis, Minn. area, where she has worked at Wallin Education Partners since 2014. While at Wallin, Melissa served as the deputy director and then director of scholar programs — designing, delivering, and evaluating advising, retention, and student support programming to ensure 1,000+ first generation, low income scholarship recipients graduated from college, ready for the workforce. Her responsibilities required that she led program and strategic planning, developed new initiatives in response to stakeholder input, built partnerships with campus and community organizations, monitored the budget, and established program-wide early warning system procedures and intervention plans for students. The program consistently reached 95%+ retention year over year. Melissa also has experience developing student learning outcomes, evaluation metrics, and implementation guides for staff to ensure consistent service and support for all students in the program. She also supervised a team of nine scholar advisors, two senior project managers, and one associate, along with seasonal interns.

Prior to her time at Wallin, Melissa worked with the Minnesota Alliance for Youth as the director of strategic initiatives and at Bethel University as a career specialist and internship coordinator. Melissa is also in the final stages of completing her doctorate in educational leadership and learning at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

We are excited for everyone on campus to get the opportunity to meet Melissa as the semester unfolds. Her office will be located in the Todd Wehr Center inside the Division of Student Affairs central office. You may reach her at mburwell@carthage.edu or 262-551-6082.

We would also like to acknowledge the tremendous work of Joseph Towey, who led the Center for Student Success as the interim director during a very unusual time of a pandemic and departmental change. He has taken things in stride, worked with a great team of student success advisors to make student experiences be positive and helpful, and continued to be an insightful colleague.

Kimberlie L. Goldsberry, Ph.D.
Vice President of Student Affairs/Dean of Students

SPONSORING DEPARTMENT, OFFICE, OR ORGANIZATION:

Division of Student Affairs

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Kimberlie L. Goldsberry — kgoldsberry@carthage.edu, 262-551-5800