Biography

Dr. Dawn Coder is the Assistant Vice Provost of the Chaiken Center for Student Success (CCSS) for The Pennsylvania State University, World Campus.   She has over eighteen years’ experience in the field of higher education and online learning in both public and private institutions, and twenty-one years’ experience in a leadership role.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Penn State, a master’s degree from Penn State in Adult Education and a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from Liberty University. She has six published articles related to academic advising and student success, restructuring an advising department, leadership, retention in higher education, and development of a faculty advising course. Additionally, she is the author of the book and handbook Mutual Goodwill: A Leadership Philosophy for Teams, Christian and secular versions, and a co-author of a book chapter related to artificial intelligence business needs. She has presented at professional conferences including NACADA, UPCEA, Madison-Wisconsin’s Distance Learning and Teaching, and Noel Levitz. Dawn was the recipient of NACADA Region 2’s Advising Administrator award and received an Advising Administrator Certificate of Merit from NACADA’s Annual Award Nominations. Her team has won several awards under her leadership including an Inclusiveness Award from Outreach & Online Education, an Effective Practice Award from the Online Learning Consortium, The Partnership Award from UPCEA, NACADA’s Advising Technology Innovation Award, and Google’s Customer Award-Education. Her passions are creating positive work cultures through her founding philosophy of Mutual Goodwill and supporting initiatives that encourage student success in higher education.