Kenneth Elmore
President, Dean College
Kenneth Elmore, J.D. is the 14th president of Dean College.
As president, Kenneth reports to the Board of Trustees. President Elmore leads Dean College in successfully implementing its mission and support Dean’s national recognition for The Dean Difference – the College’s distinct model for student success.
Kenneth has more than three decades of higher education experience as an accomplished leader, connector, and community builder. Throughout his career Kenneth has been an institutional catalyst dedicated to making and keeping the common ground compelling. Kenneth’s signature is his commitment to public engagement and the pluralistic ideal. His “work” is to break barriers of divisiveness by pushing communities to discover their shared humanity and to foster meaningful, authentic friendships. Kenneth has worked with students to expand their intellectual, social, and spiritual growth.
Kenneth has co-led efforts to facilitate climates for free speech and expression – to expose, debate, and wrestle with ideas, understand our bias, and encourage critical engagement. Early in his career as a dean of students, Kenneth pioneered a long-standing weekly discussion series – Coffee and Conversation – to foster an inclusive atmosphere through listening and idea exchange.
Kenneth led a university-wide initiative to refresh the pluralistic ideal by expanding the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground. As a thought-leader and roll-up-the-sleeves creator, Kenneth created a 19,000-square-foot physical forum for challenging presumptions, questioning easy and comfortable answers, and fostering dialogue amongst people, even when they differ. Cultural interchange, visible interaction, listening, inclusive atmosphere, hospitality, generosity, heart, and soul are the tenets of the Howard Thurman Center.
Kenneth has cultivated an institutional mindset that ensures that traditional non-academic departments understand that the student experience is multi-dimensional and not solely about social integration and skill-based experiences “outside the classroom” to achieve greater outcomes for students. He has written on and shaped co-curricular experiences within a large university’s general education requirements.
Colleagues recognize President Elmore as a visionary who has driven improvements and change while bringing people together. Kenneth has received several honors and professional distinctions, including being named a Pillar of the Profession by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and a Diamond Honoree by the American College Personnel Association – College Student Educators International (ACPA,) for outstanding work in student affairs and services, and in higher education. In 2019, Kenneth was selected by the Mayor of Boston to deliver the annual, historic Fourth of July Oration at Faneuil Hall.
President Elmore is a lifelong advocate, teacher and learner who believes in the potential of students and the value of education to change lives. He is a graduate of Brown University, Boston University, and New England Law.
Rebecca Kohn
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Elon University
As Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Elon University, Dr. Rebecca Kohn supports the university’s focus on the student experience, including substantial participation in study abroad. Her professional trajectory was shaped as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College where she majored in biochemistry and studied Russian language, spending a semester abroad in the Soviet Union.
After earning a Ph.D. in Biology at the Johns Hopkins University and completing a postdoctoral fellowship, she became a biology professor at Ursinus College. While there, she expanded her international experience as a Fulbright Fellow at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. Dr. Kohn transitioned to administrative roles to contribute to innovative programming on an institution-wide scale. She served as Senior Associate Dean of the College at Ursinus College and Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Arcadia University. She utilized funding from the NSF and HHMI for development of initiatives enhancing student success.
As a culmination of her experiences, she joined Elon University in her current role in January 2023.
Lubomila Jordanova
CEO, Plan A
Lubomila Jordanova is the co-founder and CEO of Plan A, a leading corporate carbon accounting, decarbonization, and ESG reporting software solutions provider. Lubomila is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 2,000 startups connected to more than 500 advisors from VC, media, and business.
She serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Sustainability Board at Chloé. Prior to Plan A, she worked in investment banking and venture capital as well as the fintech industry in Asia and Europe. She has been recognized as Obama Leader Europe 2022, MIT Innovator Under 35 Europe 2022, Marshall Fund Fellow 2022, Top 50 Women in Tech in Germany 2021 (Handelsblatt) and 30 under 30 (Forbes), among others.
Jennifer A. Malerich
Assistant Vice Provost, Academic and Global Engagement – ASU
Jennifer A. Malerich, Ph.D is a scholar-practitioner with over 20 years of experience in international education and higher education more broadly. Currently, Dr. Malerich serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Academic and Global Engagement at Arizona State University (ASU). In this role, she maximizes her unique experience in weaving together academics and global learning to improve student success. True to ASU’s charter, Dr. Malerich develops strategy for and deploys student experiences and partnerships augmented by data and cutting-edge technology to advance retention and degree attainment for a diverse student body comprising over 140,000 students.
Dr. Malerich also oversees the ASU Global Education Office (GEO) where she works to advance the internationalization of the undergraduate student experience and the development of global-ready graduates. Under her leadership, the GEO team has focused its mission to include online global learning programming, career-readiness, and further expanding access to traditional study abroad programming for online and on campus students.
Dr. Malerich holds a BA in International Studies from the University of Arizona (USA), a MS in Global & International Education from Drexel University (USA), and a Ph.D., awarded with distinction, in Internationalisation of Higher Education from Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy).
Amy Stevens
Vice Chancellor, Global Experiential Pathways, Northeastern University
Amy Stevens is the Vice Chancellor for Global Experiential Pathways, having joined Northeastern’s Education Innovation team in January 2022. Her portfolio includes Global and Experiential Learning, providing leadership to the Global Experience Office as well as our experiential learning programs in Honors, Community Engaged Teaching and Research, Community Engaged Community Service and Undergraduate Research Fellows.
Prior to joining Northeastern, Amy spent a decade in leadership at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), during a time of rapid and innovative expansion. In roles of increasing responsibility, Amy supported the growth of learning including access, affordability, and academic excellence.
Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Women’s Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, an MFA in Creative Writing from SNHU, a Masters in Teaching from Marlboro College and completed doctoral work at Boston College
Ben Waxman
CEO, Intead
Ben founded his own marketing agency in 1992, before desktop and handheld internet connections were present, much less ubiquitous. His first internet start-up venture began in 1995 and failed in 1997, before the internet bubble and ensuing tech crash even began. He considers this failure a badge of honor.
With the growth of Ben’s marketing agency (now Tessellati, LLC) as a niche firm focused on academic marketing and international student recruitment, the student mobility data was clear. In 2009, co-founding Intead was an obvious next step.
In the academic market, Ben manages strategic evaluations of recruiting initiatives by conducting market and competitive analyses. He is adept at listening to the many voices at the table and seeking effective approaches to the many challenges that organizations face when developing their brands or extending the reach of their current brand and their programs.
Using Intead’s proprietary research and by conducting custom research for specific client projects, Ben develops branding strategies that differentiate client brands, programs and services. He ensures that the resulting campaigns employ the most relevant mix of marketing tools from mobile apps and digital/interactive media to print collateral and traditional PR. He also relies on tapping a vast talent network for those key personal introductions that result in valuable marketing relationships.
Ben has traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East and taken business trips to Canada, Mexico, Russia, Hong Kong, and China. Ben participates and presents at international education industry conferences including AIEA, EAIE, AIRC, NAFSA, NACAC, ICEF, and The Forum on International Education.
Ben earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University and a Masters in Business Administration from Northeastern University. He studied Middle Eastern Politics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem during his undergraduate years and has continued his learning with an executive education course through MIT.