Brian has been with Flywire for over 5 years working with Flywire's US higher education clients to solve their payments and collection needs. Brian holds a BS in Business at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Brian is from the Boston area and currently resides in San Diego.

Christina Cardinale is the Senior Associate Director of Student Accounts & Bursar Services at Manhattan College. She joined the college in 2001 and her current position incudes managing the Federal Perkins Loan portfolio, collection accounts, reviewing and negotiating delinquent accounts, government affairs, overseeing general office operations, adhering to and maintaining compliance with federal and state regulations regarding FERPA, Red Flag Regulations, Fair Debt Collection Practices, Bankruptcy regulations, etc. Christina also oversees collaborations with Residence Life, Public Safety, Financial Aid Administration, Study Abroad and other departments on campus.

Christina graduated from Manhattan College with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership. She has also completed coursework towards her Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling and has begun coursework towards her MBA. Christina currently serves on the board of COHEAO (Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organization) as the Agenda Committee Chair, planning monthly webinars, regional workshops and the annual conference. Christina is the recipient of the Distinguished Lasallian Administrator award (2012-2013), the Agnes Flynn Administrator Award in support of Veteran Student’s Administration from Manhattan College and the Institutional Member of the Year award in 2020 from COHEAO.

When Christina is not at work, she can be found volunteering with the Baking Memories 4 Kids Foundation, where she bakes, packs and ships cookies to raise funds to send terminally ill children and children battling life-threatening illnesses on wish trips to the Orlando area theme parks. She also facilitates grief counseling and therapeutic activities for children whose parents or siblings have died through the Bereavement Center of Westchester in New York.

Peggy Carey is a Director in Student Business Services at Texas A&M University. She currently oversees Payment Processing, Student Loans, Refunds, Specialized Student Billing, and Imaging and has previously worked with Collections, the ID Card Office and Customer Service. Peggy has been with the department for 31 years and loves serving Aggie students.

Peggy enjoys serving in her church and spending time with her family. She is married with two daughters and four grandsons.

Brett Cassell is the Bursar at the University of Colorado Boulder. Previously, he was the Bursar at the University of New Orleans and served in various roles at the University of Southern Mississippi in the Alumni Association, Bursar’s Office, and the Office of Contract and Grant Accounting. In total, Brett has worked in Higher Education for over 22 years. Brett currently serves on the board for COHEAO, PacWest SFS, AAU Bursar Group, and the Flywire Advisory Board. In his spare time, Brett likes to ski, hike, and spend time with his 7-year old son.

Lori S. Hartung is the Regional Sales Executive for ECSI a technology-based solution provider to the Higher Education community.

Ms. Hartung comes to ECSI with more than 30 years of experience in higher education. Before joining ECSI Lori was the Regional Director of Sales for Todd, Bremer & Lawson, a third-party collection agency, and she was the Senior Manager of Government and Industry Relations for University Accounting Service (UAS). Lori serves as the current President of the Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organization (COHEAO) and is also a member of the Minnesota Collections Network. She currently participates on the Board of both organizations.

ECSI is happy to have Lori share with you her professional superpower - she can take any dull topic and turn it into an exciting presentation. Her personal superpower is making vegetables taste delicious. (bring on the brussel sprouts!)

Lori is a 1989 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Bachelor degree in Political Science. She lives in Dousman, Wisconsin with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and 40,000 honey bees.

Rosemary Irvine has been in higher education for the past 19 years serving in both public and private institutions. For the past 3 years, she's served as Director of Student Financials at California State University, Northridge. Her experience includes collections, account billing, customer service, and payment processes. She’s passionate about Diversity, Equity and the first-generation experience. Rosemary holds a degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Humanities. She admittedly drinks too much coffee, has a love hate relationship with happiness journals and is a Bulldog Mom.

As the Senior Solutions Engineer, Karrol Leary helps colleges and universities determine the payments solutions that best meet their needs. She supports the sales, client management and consulting teams in dealing with prospect schools and current customers.

Karrol became part of the Transact team as a result of the Higher One/Cashnet acquisition in 2016. She joined Cashnet in 2007 first as a member of their support/consulting team, moving into consulting leadership, then ultimately in the current role of solutions engineering.

Previously, Karrol spent many years in retail system operations environments, went on to receive her California teaching credential and taught elementary education for a couple of years, prior to landing at Transact (f/k/a Cashnet).

A graduate of California State University, Hayward (now East Bay) and currently resides in California.

Jennifer Lightfoot, the Executive Director for Student Business Services at Texas A&M University, plays a pivotal role in managing and overseeing all student-related financial activities across multiple campuses. Her responsibilities span Texas A&M-College Station, Texas A&M Galveston, and Texas A&M Health Science Center. Jennifer’s expertise in the software and accounting industry has empowered her to enhance the tools and processes that serve students and parents. She is a driving force behind Texas A&M’s commitment to automating the Bursar’s office, ensuring efficiency and accuracy in financial transactions.

As an active participant in higher education, Jennifer contributes her insights to various advisory councils. Additionally, she serves as a board member of the Bursars of the Association of American Universities. Her dedication to advancing financial services within academia exemplifies her leadership. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A) in Accounting from Sam Houston State University.

Maria Livolsi has been with the State University of New York (SUNY) for 34 years, serving as the Director of the SUNY Student Loan Service Center for the past 29 years. Prior to joining SUNY, Maria worked as an accountant in both public and private industry. Maria has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Siena College and a Master of Science degree in accounting from the State University of New York at Albany.

Maria oversees several federal financial aid programs for 30 SUNY campuses with annual expenditures in excess of $325 million. The majority of the services provided by the Student Loan Service Center pertain to the $80 million revolving loan funds for the Federal Perkins, Health Professions and Nursing student loan programs, which currently contain more than 30,000 active borrower loans.

Maria is currently serving on the COHEAO Board of Directors as the Immediate Past President and has served on the COHEAO Board in various roles for the past 16 years.

CJ Llewellyn-Ryan is the Senior Training and Development Specialist for Enrollment Management at the University of Colorado Boulder where she has worked for the past six years. Previously from the UK, CJ has a passion for values-based leadership, coaching, and team building with over 15 years of experience while working in the education, arts and entertainment, and non-profit sectors.

CJ is a member of the Association for Talent Development, and gained her Masters in Organizational Leadership at CU Boulder in 2021. In her spare time CJ is a silversmith, and dabbles in sewing while trying to stop her two rescue cats from knocking all her tools onto the floor.

John Mealy is a Senior Product Manager at TouchNet where is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle. He defines the product vision, gathers and prioritizes product and customer requirements, and collaborates cross-functionally to execute on that vision. John began his career with TouchNet in 2007 as an implementation consultant. Since 2010, John has managed TouchNet’s Bill+Payment solution, which gives students the convenience of 24/7 online access to manage their student accounts and enroll in payment plans while streamlining business office operations at higher education institutions.

Robert is the Director of Treasury and Student Account Services at Wesleyan University located in Middletown, CT. Before joining Wesleyan in 2017, Robert was the Director of Student Accounts at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY from 2013-2017 and the Assistant Bursar at Fordham University from 2009-2013. In Robert's current role as Director of Treasury and Student Account Services at Wesleyan, he manages a team of Student Accounts Associate Directors and Wesleyan's Treasury Analyst.

Robert holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Lehman College located in the Bronx, NY. In his spare time, he enjoys the sport of CrossFit where he recently became a certified level 1 trainer and coach, watching professional NY sports teams and spending time with his wife and two young children.

Kevin has over 15 years of experience in sales and leadership, spending the last 11 years at Bottomline working with the leading Higher Education supplier payment solution, Paymode-X.

Kevin’s role is currently a Sr. Account Executive specializing in helping colleges and universities with B2B payment automation to optimize their payment processes, reduce costs, monetize their supplier payments, and increase efficiency from invoice to pay. During the last decade at Bottomline, Kevin has also held roles as the Sr. Director of Sales Development, Director of Supplier Enrollment, Payer Relationship Management, and Channel Partner Solution Consultant. Kevin brings a wealth of knowledge to all the clients he speaks to and loves working with Higher Education to make their complex payments simple, smart, and secure.

Special Agent Jose Porras began his federal law enforcement career with the United States Postal Inspection Service where he was part of a miscellaneous team that allowed him to work an array of cases ranging from mail fraud and identity theft to robbery and dangerous mail. Jose currently works for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General where his focus is working investigations related to education fraud. Jose holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business from Texas Wesleyan University.

Karen is a graduate of Webster University in St. Louis. She has over 30 years of higher education experience. Karen began her career as an Admissions Officer for seven years with Missouri College, working with all aspects of student services. She has been with National Credit Management, servicing colleges and universities, for 23 years. Karen oversees all marketing and sales for NCM, including writing RFPS, maintaining our client base, site visits, and representing NCM at all industry conferences.

As the Legislative Chair, Karen currently serves on the Board of Directors for COHEAO (Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organizations). Karen also sits on the Texas Higher Education Business Officers (THEBO) and New York State Organization of Bursar and Business Administrators (NYSOBBA) Board of Directors. Karen presents at regional and national industry conferences on Compliance in Higher Education and Identity Theft and represents COHEAO with Legislative and Washington updates.

Caleb assists a wide variety of fintech companies, consumer and commercial lenders, student lenders, alternative finance companies, and banks with federal and state regulatory issues. This includes working with those companies or their investors to draft and implement business practices to comply with numerous consumer finance regulations affecting multiple aspects of the business. Caleb also advises traditional and alternative finance companies and their investors on usury, licensing and recharacterization issues and other compliance risks.

Chris Selmi, AAP, APRP, serves as Executive Vice President of Regulatory Compliance for Wespay, responsible for developing processes and programs designed to facilitate member compliance with payment regulations and industry standards. Chris also serves as the President of Wespay Advisors, Wespay's subsidiary, offering consulting and risk management services in the areas of payments strategy, compliance, process improvement, and treasury management. Prior to joining Wespay in 2012, Chris spent 16 years in the electronic payments organization at Bank of America, his last position as Senior Vice President, Group Operations Manager, Global Payments Operations Compliance and Control.

With more than two decades of payments industry expertise, Brad Smith works to raise awareness of the benefits of ACH as Senior Director, Industry Engagement and Advocacy, at Nacha. His focus includes increasing EFT in the Dental and Medical industry as well as nonprofits and subscriptions. And higher education.

Brad is an Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) who has served on Nacha’s Rules and Operations Committee. He also held a leadership role in the Payments Innovation Alliance and led Nacha’s WEB/TEL workgroup.

Prior to Nacha, Brad helped analyze emerging payment trends and technologies as part of Capital One’s digital strategy team. He earlier served as Chief Technology Officer for EastPay (now ePay Resources).

Sean Steinmarc is improving the affordability of education for all students through innovation at TFC Tuition. A graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Sean spent the first part of his career in financial services leadership roles at a Top 5 global bank and Fortune 100 company, where he converged technology & business strategies to improve operational processes. After a few years in education financing, Sean launched an award-winning startup to help brands & nonprofits solve consumer engagement challenges through a combination of gamification & cause marketing. Sean now applies his financing, technology, and customer experience skills at TFC, which has spent over 50 years helping schools offer student-focused financing solutions to ensure school longevity and student success.

Annamaria Veneziano is the Student Accounts Coordinator at Salem State University in Salem, Ma. She has worked in the higher education field for 10 years in for profit, private and nonprofit universities. She has worked her way up from a call center rep all the way to assistant director. Not a traditional numbers person, her philosophy has always been about bringing the heart into student accounts, working creatively to find solutions and giving students and employees the tools to find their way.

Linda Wilson is a seasoned professional in the financial management and campus technology industry, currently serving as a Senior Growth Account Executive at Transact Campus. Linda leverages her extensive experience and expertise to consult with clients, problem-solve, and build solutions that support university business goals and enhance the student experience. Linda is a dedicated professional who embodies strategic planning, innovation, and a passion for enhancing the educational landscape.

Linda spent nearly two decades at Gonzaga University, where she was instrumental in managing financial systems, enhancing business efficiency, and ensuring PCI compliance. As the Director of Finance Systems and Services, she demonstrated leadership by coordinating teams and liaising with IT to meet development needs. Her deep understanding of business needs and processes, coupled with her ability to streamline workflow, significantly contributed to the University's operational success.

Linda is deeply committed to helping universities finance teams navigate challenges and develop “bullet proof “continuity strategies.

Lottia is a sought-after conference speaker, host, and workshop facilitator. She is the central regional director of financial aid campus operations/outreach for Austin Community College. She previously served as the Financial Wellness Chair for COHEAO, and she is the Founder and Executive Director of Relay Heroes Today Leaders Tomorrow, a nonprofit based in the DFW, TX metroplex with advocacy in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Nairobi, Kenya. Relay was founded in 2017 to assist families in college readiness, financial literacy, scholarship, and consulting. The organization's mission is to work with people as young as kindergarten to enhance opportunities for individuals and families in financial responsibility and educational success. Since the organization's inception, they have awarded over $100,000 in aid and scholarships to students and families in need. Lottia's commitment to financial aid, student accounts, and financial literacy has led to over 20 years of experience in higher education. She recently submitted her final edits for her dissertation in Divinity and Leadership (D. Min) from Liberty University and anxiously awaits her approval and a scheduled date to defend her research. She resides in a suburb in the Austin Metro Area of Austin, TX. In her spare time, Lottia enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and volunteering.