Biography

Dawn Coder is the Director for Academic Advising & Student Disability Services (AA&SDS) for The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), World Campus.   She has over twelve years’ experience in the field of higher education and online learning in both public and private institutions, five years’ experience in Human Resources for a private non-profit company and fourteen years’ experience in a leadership role.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Penn State and a master’s degree from Penn State in Adult Education. She has three published articles titled Retention Efforts from an Academic Advising Office; Becoming a Positive Leader by Using Mutual Goodwill: A Concept of Interacting Positively with Students, and Colleagues, and Stakeholders; and An Online Course for Faculty Advisors: Promoting Excellence in Academic Advising in NACADA’s Academic Advising Today. 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 Effective Practice Award from the Online Learning Consortium, The Partnership Award from UPCEA, and NACADA’s Advising Technology Innovation Award. She is a follower of Servant Leadership and is passionate about sharing positive changes an organization can make to improve team morale and to promote efficiency.