2023 Keynote & PANEL Speakers

**Opening Keynote:**
**Dr. Régine Debrosse**

***Assistant Professor & William Dawson Scholar, McGill School of Social Work***

Resisting narrow expectations and finding their way across educational spaces that were not designed with them in mind are central challenges for students of color, as well as for first-generation or low-income students. How do their identity and community experiences interact with this context and shape the paths they take? As a Vanier scholar, a SSHRC and a William T. Grant Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University, and now an Assistant Professor and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University, Dr. Régine Debrosse has been conducting research on this question both in Canada and in the United States. Her work takes a strength-based approach in examining how underrepresented students experience negotiate complex and at times conflicting identities and how they experience community.

**Closing Keynote: Aneesh Sohoni**

***CEO of One Million Degrees***
Aneesh is currently the Chief Executive Officer at One Million Degrees (OMD), an organization that accelerates community college students’ progress on career pathways to economic mobility. Aneesh is the child of immigrants and was compelled to begin his career in education because of the meaningful role access to educational opportunity played in his family’s life. He started as a high school English teacher. It was his experience working with his students that brought to life for Aneesh the limitless potential of students and the need to ensure all students had access to opportunities to meet their potential. Since leaving the classroom, Aneesh worked in the public and non-profit sector supporting education reform efforts at a city and state level. This includes his time at the Tennessee Department of Education where he played a major role in the design and implementation of the state’s transformative teacher evaluation system and at TNTP (formerly The New Teacher Project), where he supported human capital and academic reform efforts in Camden, NJ and Boston, MA. Most recently, Aneesh served as the Executive Director for Teach For America in Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana for nearly six years. Aneesh was previously named to Forbes 30 under 30 for education, is a 2019 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, and serves on the board of Teach For India – U.S.

"Emerging Strategies in Educational Access:
Promoting Pathways for Transfer Students and Military Veterans"

In the wake of the Supreme Court decisions on the consideration of race in college admissions, many institutions have publicly announced or internally shared renewed commitments to the recruitment and yield of FGLI students. Alongside this, some have stated their intention to develop areas of this work that have not previously been at the center: the admission of transfer students from community colleges and the admission of military veterans.

As we strive to ensure our student success and support programs and campus resources are poised to serve all members of our FGLI student community, what can we expect from these emerging strategies and how can we best prepare to welcome new students who might not find many others on our campuses who have journeyed similar pathways?

Learn from a panel of colleagues representing both non-profit practitioners and university administrators:

**Panelist: Amin Abdul-Malik González**

***Vice-President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Wesleyan University***
Amin Abdul-Malik González is currently Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Wesleyan University. Prior to this, he served as director of admission at Choate Rosemary Hall for three years and associate director of undergraduate admission and co-director of multicultural recruitment at Yale University for eight years. In every professional role he’s occupied, he has been a strong advocate for underrepresented students, especially those of first-gen and/or extremely modest socio-economic backgrounds. As an FGLI student and member of the “privileged poor,” he had the opportunity to attend an independent boarding school and small liberal arts college as an Albert G. Oliver Scholar. He went on to complete his undergraduate education at Wesleyan, where he was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, studied abroad in Egypt, and earned his bachelor’s degree in history.

**Benjamin Fresquez**

***Senior Program Manager with the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program***
Ben Fresquez is a Senior Program Manager with the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, helping oversee initiatives to increase bachelor’s degree attainment. In this capacity, he supports the American Talent Initiative, the Transfer Scholars Network, and other innovative programs addressing higher education quality, equity, and efficiency. Ben and his colleagues at the Aspen Institute conduct community college transfer-focused research, providing insight into best practices leading to more equitable transfer student outcomes. His work in the field centers strong, leadership-driven two- and four-year partnerships, early engagement and advising throughout the transfer process, and clear programmatic pathways-elements that work together to strengthen transfer ecosystems across institutions.

Ryan Pavel

CEO of Warrior-Scholar Project

Ryan Pavel serves as Warrior-Scholar Project’s chief executive officer, channeling a deeply-held conviction that enlisted veterans have unlimited potential to leverage military service into enormous impact in higher education and beyond.

At the age of 17, Ryan enlisted in the Marine Corps, culminating in two non-combat deployments to Iraq. Ryan then earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan and J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, leading Student Veterans of America chapters at both institutions. His teaching experience includes working as a Teach For America corps member at an inner-city Detroit high school and as an adjunct instructor at Virginia Military Institute. Ryan has also worked for a variety of legal institutions, including legal aid organizations and a large national law firm, and has provided pro bono legal services to veterans.

Ryan is a 2023 cohort member of Obama Foundation Leaders USA, a nonpartisan leadership development program that seeks to inspire, empower, and connect emerging leaders across the country. He also serves on Teach for America’s Military Veteran Council, always on the lookout for veterans with an interest in continuing service in the classroom.