Admissions director candidates slated to visit campus

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Four admissions professionals from around the nation will visit the Western Michigan University campus in the coming weeks in their bids to become WMU's next director of admissions.

Each candidate will spend a day on campus meeting with a variety of campus personnel, and each will make a public presentation that will give members of the campus community an opportunity to get to know the candidates and their views. All presentations will take place from 1:45 to 2:50 p.m. in the Fetzer Center's Putney Auditorium. The candidates and the days and dates of their presentations are:

• Clark V. Brigger, senior associate director of admissions at the University of Michigan, Wednesday, Nov. 12;
• (Canceled) Kelly S. Westeen, interim assistant dean of admissions at the University of Arkansas, Monday, Nov. 17;
• Dachea Hill, admissions director at Northeastern Illinois University, Tuesday, Nov. 18; and
• Michele M. Brown, director of student recruitment and outreach at Illinois' Oakton Community College, Friday, Nov. 21.

The successful candidate will succeed Penny Bundy who is now the University's director of graduate admissions. 

Clark Brigger has worked in undergraduate admissions at Michigan since 2007, working first as an associate director and then being named senior associate director in 2011.  In his current role, he is responsible for a three-state recruitment market as well as prospective students who are veterans or intend to be part of ROTC. His role is one involved with data mining and analysis as well as print and electronic communication with prospective students. Prior to joining the U-M team, he was a U.S. Naval officer who had administration responsibility for a Navy Officer Education Program. Brigger earned a bachelor's degree at St. Olaf College and a master's degree from the U.S. Naval War College.

Kelly Westeen has been at Arkansas-Fayetteville since 2005 serving in a variety of roles including honors thesis consultant and tutor, senior graduate teaching assistant, assistant director of nationally competitive awards and associate director of admissions for operations and interim assistant dean of admissions. She has served in the latter role since February, with responsibility for credentials evaluation and the admissions modules on the university's Student Information System.  Prior to serving in Arkansas, she was a teacher at the Institute for Reading Development and a graduate assistant at Northern Michigan University. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees at NMU, and she expects to earn a doctoral degree in English literature from Arkansas in May.

Dachea Hill has been admissions director at Northeastern Illinois since 2013, playing a key role in expanding the university's recruitment reach and admissions yield. Her background includes technical skills in a number admissions-related programs and experience in applying them to recruitment. Prior to taking the position at Northeastern, she was at Purdue University-Calumet from 2007 to 2012, beginning as a recruiter and academic advisor and ending with a 10-month stint as interim director of admissions. She also has served as an academic coordinator at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an admissions officer at DePaul University. She earned a bachelor's degree from DePaul and a master's degree from Purdue University.

Michele Brown has overseen recruitment at Oakton since 2001 and served as director of student recruitment and outreach since 2009. In that role, she implemented a recruitment strategy based on a four-year college model and more personal recruitment efforts. Prior to joining the Oakton staff, she held admissions positions at the Illinois Institute of Technology, beginning in 1995 and ending after three years as assistant dean of admissions in 2001. Her background also includes advising and admissions roles at the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Illinois State University. She earned a bachelors degree from Illinois State and a master's degree from USC.

To view the candidates' complete credentials, visit wmich.edu/provost/administrativesearches.html.