Speakers
Dr. Saran Stewart
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Saran Stewart
Plenary Speaker
Saran Stewart, PhD
Saran Stewart, PhD is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Higher Education and Student Affairs, and Director of Global Education at the Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut in the US. She was formerly a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Dr. Stewart’s research examines issues in comparative education, decolonizing methodologies, critical/ inclusive pedagogy and access and equity issues in higher education. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow and the recipient of multiple awards including the 2019 Vice Chancellor Award for Excellence from the University of the West Indies and the 2018 African Diaspora Emerging Scholar award by the Comparative and International Education Society. She is editor of Decolonizing Qualitative Methodologies for and by the Caribbean (Information Age Publishing) and co-editor of, Race, Equity and the Learning Environment: The Global Relevance of Critical and Inclusive Pedagogies in Higher Education (Stylus). Most recently she co-edited and co-authored a special issue in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education titled, Black Deprivation, Black Resistance and Black Liberation: The Influence of #BlackLivesMatter (BLM) on Higher Education. She was also the co-author of the article, Transforming The Classroom At Traditionally White Institutions To Make Black Lives Matter.
Dr. Denzil Streete
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Denzil Streete
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Denzil Anthony Streete
Dr. Denzil Streete is currently the Chief of Staff & Assistant Dean for Diversity at the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley. In that role he simultaneously directs the Office for Graduate Diversity. Previously, Denzil was at Yale University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where he was Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Development and Diversity. Strongly influenced by his experiences while pursuing a PhD, Dr. Streete has devoted his career to addressing the recruitment and retention of minoritized students in graduate programs. While at Yale, in addition to speaking at campuses across the country and attending national conferences to engage underrepresented students, Dr. Streete initiated efforts to utilize web-based approaches to recruiting students. Among these efforts has been the Bouchet Bootcamp to provide minoritized students from around the country with the tools and knowledge for applying to graduate programs. Dr. Streete has also worked with graduate programs to improve their recruitment initiatives and departmental climates. Dr. Streete has served on the Executive Committee of The Leadership Alliance, a consortium of institutions which seek to develop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business and the public sector. Denzil was born in Morvant, Trinidad and Tobago, and moved to the USA to pursue a college education. He graduated with honors from St Francis College, Brooklyn, NY, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. Dr. Streete earned a Masters of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University, having attended Teachers College, Columbia University. His PhD is in Comparative and International Education, with a specialization in the Economics of Education. At Teachers College, Columbia University, Denzil served as Contracts Administrator in the Office of the General Counsel, and upon graduation worked as a Teaching Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Syracuse University’s School of Education where he specialized in teaching qualitative research methods. As part of his leadership in qualitative research methods at Syracuse University, Dr. Streete served as Qualitative Consultant for the interdisciplinary “Fit Families Research Project” examining ways families can maximize adapted physical activity for children with disabilities. His research interests include access and equity in higher education; the ‘Free College Movement’; minoritized males in higher education; and Caribbean education policy.
Kevin Hudson
Plenary Speaker
Kevin Hudson
Plenary Speaker
Kevin C. Hudson
Kevin C. Hudson joined Princeton as Assistant Director for College Opportunity in 2015. In this role, he works with the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity to facilitate Princeton University trustees’ and President Eisgruber’s commitment for Princeton to play a substantive role to expand socioeconomic diversity access and opportunity in higher education. He collaborates with university’s offices (e.g., Princeton University Preparatory Program, Office of Undergraduate Admission, Programs for Access and Inclusion) and external partnerships (e.g., American Talent Initiative, Council for Opportunity in Education and Matriculate) to support a variety of initiatives. He additionally manages outreach activities with school districts, college access programs, professional and community-based organizations to demystify selective college admissions and opportunity. Hudson previously managed college and career readiness districtwide at District of Columbia Public Schools and worked as Director of College Admission and Advising at a NJ non-profit boarding school placement organization. He began his career as an Admission Officer at Princeton University.
As a first-generation college student from a working class family, Hudson earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his M.S.Ed in Higher Education Management from University of Pennsylvania. Hudson has served as a reader for several national scholarship programs including Gates Millennium Scholars Program, Dell Scholars Program and Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. He serves on various boards including the New Jersey Scholars Program, Delbarton School, Princeton Blairstown Center, College Board Middle States Regional Council and the International Baccalaureate College and University Relations Committee.
Maureen Hoyler
Plenary Speaker
Maureen Hoyler
Plenary Speaker
Maureen Hoyler
On October 1, 2013, Maureen Hoyler assumed the position of President of the Council for Opportunity in Education, a nonprofit organization that provides professional development, program improvement, and advocacy for nearly 2,800 federally funded college opportunity programs at more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide. Ms. Hoyler has been a voice for low-income, first-generation students and individuals with disabilities. As President, she oversees management of the Washington office and the fiscal affairs of the Association also while serving as the primary liaison between the Association and the United States Congress, the Executive Branch, all Governmental Agencies. She is the official representative of the Association with all other postsecondary educational associations.
Under her leadership, the Council has launched several new initiatives, including the Executive Leadership Institute for College Opportunity Professionals, which brings educational opportunity chapter leaders to institutions such as Princeton, Cornell, and Yale for instruction in various topics such as transformational leadership and public policy as well as provides on-going mentorship by highly experienced college access and success leaders. Hoyler also spearheaded the creation of the First-Generation College Celebration, during which hundreds of campuses recognize their first-generation students and faculty on the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (November 8). She has brokered partnerships with corporations such as Comcast to promote careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for underrepresented students.
Hoyler began her career at the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette University as an assistant to the then Director, Dr. Arnold Mitchem. Ms. Hoyler moved to Washington in 1981 to establish the Council’s office. As the organization’s Chief Operating Officer, she has played an integral role in the growth of the organization over the past 33 years, starting from a staff of one full-time professional. Ms. Hoyler has lectured widely on federal law and regulations. Over the years, she has received numerous awards from TRIO-based associations. She received her B.A. and her law degree from Marquette University from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Dr. Sari Byerly
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Sari Byerly
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Sari Byerly
Dr. Sari Byerly is the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Idaho State University, where she has the pleasure of overseeing nine U.S. Department of Education grants. Her leadership with Idaho State University's Access and Opportunity Programs spans across six campus/outreach locations, 21 high schools, and 250+ miles of the state of Idaho. During Dr. Byerly's tenure at ISU she has taken the reach of TRIO programs from three TRIO grants to its current level of service delivery to include: two TRIO Talent Search, TRIO Upward Bound, TRIO Upward Bound Math Science, TRIO Veterans Upward Bound, TRIO Educational Opportunity Center, TRIO Student Support Services-Classic, TRIO McNair Scholars, and a College Assistance Migrant Program. Dr Byerly has been blessed to have worked for TRIO programs since 2002, starting her journey with the TRIO Upward Bound program at the University of Utah as a student employee. She personally feels she found her home when she began working for TRIO. She was a first-generation college student herself and now holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Master’s of Science in Social Psychology from the University of Utah as well as a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of Idaho. She strongly believes in the positive impact College Access and Success programs have on people's lives at all levels whether a participant, an employee, the institution, or the community. Over the years, Dr. Byerly has had the privilege to work towards educational access through her various leadership roles. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Idaho Association of TRIO Professionals (IATP), regionally on Board of Directors for the Northwest Association of Educational Opportunity Programs (NAEOP), and nationally with the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE).
Dr. Linda Byrd-Johnson
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Linda Byrd-Johnson
Plenary Speaker
Linda Byrd-Johnson
Linda Byrd-Johnson is the Senior Director of the Student Service Division at the United States Department of Education. She also has served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary. In that role, she provided overall leadership for overseeing, administering and coordinating discretionary and formula grants, and contracts to over 100 employees in the offices of Student Service, Institutional Service and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. In addition, she has provided advice to the Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education and other Department leaders on the formulation of policy, the design of operating programs, legislative proposals and controversial and sensitive issues.
In her role as Director of Student Service, Dr. Byrd-Johnson oversees the TRIO Programs as well as GEAR UP and several graduate programs that include the Javits Fellowship Program, the Erma Byrd Scholarship, and the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need.
She began her career with the Department as a member of the Office of the Liaison for Minorities and Women and as a staff member of the presidentially appointed National Advisory Committee on Black Higher Education and Black Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Byrd-Johnson received her undergraduate degree in History and Africana Studies from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY and her Masters and Doctorate degrees in African Studies and Research from Howard University in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the Executive Potential Program and was honored by Howard University as a distinguished Ph.D. alumna in 1998. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Service Award from COE. The Lifetime Service Award is a special award established to honor individuals whose lives have been dedicated to promoting the cause of educational opportunity as well as committed to helping students overcome class, social, academic, and cultural barriers to succeed in college.