Two Journeys to Your Goal: Maximizing the Value of TargetX for Community and Technical Colleges

Sarah has worked in higher education recruitment at both private and public colleges for more than a decade and has spent the last eight years as part of the Admissions Team at Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC). After years of recruiting and counseling students as an admissions counselor, she assumed the role of Associate Director of Enrollment Operations in January 2020 and is the primary TargetX CRM communications manager.

Eden has been an IT professional at Bellevue College (BC) for the last 16 years. She currently leads the Integration and Infrastructure teams as the Director of Enterprise Services. Eden served as the implementation project manager for the TargetX Recruitment and Retention suites. Leading the TargetX project was a natural extension of her current role as she has participated in many large and small software implementations across campus. Eden is a member of the Achieving the Dream (ATD) Core and Data teams which helped her, and the BC TargetX team, align the TargetX project around the BC ATD initiatives for student success. In addition to TargetX, Eden’s role includes overseeing software development and data integration projects, including the college website, SAS systems, and custom homegrown systems, along with managing the team responsible for the college networking and server infrastructure.

Eric has worked as the Enrollment Data Manager at Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) for nine years. When MWCC made the decision to purchase TargetX five years ago, Eric was chosen to lead the initial implementation team and later became the primary CRM system administrator. Eric is a certified TargetX administrator and is responsible for the day-to-day management and upgrades of the CRM as well as the data integration with the SIS (Banner).

Grace Fama is the Manager for Student Success Initiatives at Washtenaw Community College. She oversees the Student Success Coaching program and provides leadership for several student success and retention initiatives. Grace has worn many hats at several institutions including Arizona State University, Pima Community College, and Binghamton University.

Evan Pauken has served as Director of Student Retention and Completion at Kalamazoo Valley Community College for over four years. A primary component of his work has been the design, integration, and implementation of TargetX and Salesforce as a vital tool for improving student success. In addition, Evan collects and analyzes data on student attrition trends to inform the development and guide the execution of a college-wide retention plan, and oversees a number of initiatives related to student persistence, completion, and stop-out re-engagement. Evan has a Master's Degree in Higher Education Leadership and Student Affairs from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Central Michigan University.

Megan has been part of the Enrollment Management team at Kalamazoo Valley Community College for nine years. Currently, she serves as the director of the department. In her role at Kalamazoo Valley, Megan oversees domestic and international new student recruitment, leading a team that provides guided service to prospective students all the way through the enrollment funnel. She was part of the lead implementation team in the college's adoption of the TargetX CRM. Megan has a Master's Degree in Higher Education Leadership and Student Affairs and a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education, both from Western Michigan University.