Check in at the PDG Registration & Information desk to pick up your name badge and conference materials. Conference staff are here throughout the conference to answer your questions.

Meet exhibitors with creative technology and service solutions in the Exhibit Hall. Don't forget to have your Sponsor Passport stamped at each exhibitor table to be eligible for fun giveaways.

Presenter: Steven Selander - President, Professional Development Group

Presenter: Lori Hartung - ECSI/COHEAO

A briefing on higher education policy developments in Washington, D.C. and their impact on institutions and their third-party service providers.

Enjoy coffee, tea, and sodas in the ballroom foyer while you network and visit with exhibitors on service/product offerings.

Presenter: Charlotte Wade - University of North Georgia

Is service excellence just another way of saying customer service? No! Customer service is a part of service excellence, but there is much more to it than just using basic customer service skills in your engagements with all institutional stakeholders.

This session will be interactive and allow participants to engage with others to consider standards of service excellence for their areas and institutions. Topics to be considered are accessibility and responsiveness, empathy and understanding, efficiency and effectiveness, personalization and customization, knowledge and expertise, and accountability and transparency. Collaboration and breaking down silos across the institution are key to successful service excellence.

Presenters: Alyse Kwapian - UCONN & Peggy Carey - Texas A&M University

Moderator: Brian Carchedi - Flywire

With uncertainty and ever-changing regulations around how higher education institutions can collect unpaid debt, schools need to be forward thinking, anticipate the impacts change may bring to campuses, and together find innovative ways to navigate the road ahead.

Join an informative review of recent legislation, observations, and research that highlight what you need to know, followed by an insightful panel discussion. Learn how the University of Connecticut and Texas A&M University are embracing change to get ahead of the collections game by taking proactive steps to collect on past-due accounts and reduce agency collections.

Takeaways:
How are changing regulations impacting today's campuses? What current policies and practices are being affected? What tools are needed to continue protecting schools and students? How can processes be streamlined to help staff work smarter? 

Presenter: Lottia Windham - Austin Community College

Attention, Financial Ninjas!

Ready to take your savings game to the next level? Join us for an interactive session where we’ll reveal advanced strategies that go beyond the basics and explore the art and science of smart saving.

If you're already familiar with budgeting and have mastered the fundamentals of saving, this session is tailor-made for you. We’ll uncover hidden gems of financial literacy that can elevate your personal savings strategies, improve your financial wellness programs, and take everything you do with money to new heights. You’ll leave this session equipped with actionable strategies to implement and build upon, allowing you to create your own customized "Save Your Money" program.

Presenters: Karen Reddick - National Credit Management & Maria Livolsi - SUNY

Join Karen Reddick, Vice President of Business Development at National Credit Management, and Maria Livolsi from SUNY for an insightful session on identity theft—the fastest-growing crime in America. Colleges and universities are prime targets for security breaches, making identity protection more critical than ever. This session will provide practical strategies to safeguard personal information and guide you on the necessary steps if you or your students/customers fall victim to identity theft. Additionally, you’ll learn about Higher Education Safeguarding Rules and how to implement compliance measures on your campus effectively.

Join us at the 27 Palms Fire Pit for drinks and appetizers. Mingle with your colleagues and relax.

Reception sponsored by Transact.

PDG conference staff are available during this time if you have any questions.

Meet exhibitors with creative technology and service solutions in the Exhibit Hall. Don't forget to have your Sponsor Passport stamped at each exhibitor table to be eligible for fun giveaways.

Join your colleagues for a hearty breakfast and conversation in the Majestic Palm Room EFG.

Presenter: Linda Wilson - Transact

Join us for an in-depth session exploring why managing payments, processing transactions, and reconciling financial data across departments can be complex and time-consuming for Higher Ed. Transact Payments can fully integrate with your ERP and can streamline current manual processes, allowing the treasury and business office to operate more efficiently, eliminate redundancy, and enhance the overall experience for students, parents, faculty, and administrators. Understanding the full value Transact Campus has to offer.

Key Learnings Outcomes:

Operational Efficiencies by eliminating redundancies.

Benefits of consolidation and eliminating data silos.

Address PCI Compliance now on campus and leadership strategy.

Scalability and Future Proofing your payment system.

Target Audience:

All Levels.

Enjoy coffee and tea in the ballroom foyer while you network and visit with exhibitors on service/product offerings.

Presenter: David Fawcett - Salt Lake Community College

Learn why a student financial responsibility agreement is important and needed. How does the SFRA support your collection efforts? What are some best practices for collections. Should you use a collection agency? What Federal laws apply to the institution? What is the CFPB and compliance to rules? Plus other compliance areas of concern.

Presenter: Brinda Nirmal - University of Louisville

This presentation explores how data analytics, AI, and machine learning are transforming expense management, enabling smarter financial decisions. It covers the role of analytics in optimizing budgeting and forecasting, and how AI enhances efficiency and accuracy. Real-world case studies, best practices, and tools for successful implementation will also be shared.

Presenter: Laura LaMura - East Stroudsburg University of PA

Do you make every effort to meet students where they are? Discover fresh approaches to connect to students on your campus. Emailing and texting are not the only options! Making appointments with students on hold every semester, giving presentations in classes and at New Student Orientation, and working with Financial Aid to reach students where they are on campus with our "Money Matters Crew" have all been successful. Learn the details to get out there and help those students who need your guidance.

Presenter: Anthea Jeffrey - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Are you frequently asked to take on more work with an ever-decreasing number of full-time employees? In this session, I'd like you to learn how Rutgers University's Student Accounts Department successfully managed a reduction in staff from 52 employees to just 25 while serving over 70,000 students and maintaining outstanding student service. Anthea will discuss her strategies for achieving high student satisfaction through data analysis, process automation, and departmental restructuring. As a result, the department could provide over 90% of services virtually, achieving customer satisfaction rates exceeding 95%. Attendees will receive a guide to implement similar strategies within their teams.

Join your colleagues for a delicious lunch of soup, salads, sandwiches, snacks, and desserts, as well as great conversations in the Majestic Palm Room EFG.

Presenter: Lottia Windham - Austin Community College

Discover how exceptional customer service can revolutionize collections in higher education! In this dynamic session, we'll explore practical strategies to enhance student and alumni interactions, address common challenges, and drive positive outcomes in the collections process. Learn how to blend empathy with efficiency, leverage technology for better communication, and implement best practices that turn collections into a seamless, supportive experience. Join us to transform your approach and make a lasting impact on your institution's financial health and student satisfaction.

Presenter: Peggy Carey - Texas A&M University

In this session, we will share our journey of implementing Lean continuous improvement processes within the Bursar's Office. We will discuss the reasons we implemented Lean continuous improvement, showcase a process we applied Lean principles to and discuss key successes and measurable improvements identified. Attendees will gain insights into practical applications of Lean principles and how they can drive efficiency and innovation in their own departments.

Enjoy coffee, tea, sodas, and snacks in the ballroom foyer while you network and visit with exhibitors on service/product offerings.

Presenter: Alice Seaton - University of Illinois

Utilizing student resources to tackle challenges while providing benefits for students and staff. Benefits include: preparing students for the real world; opportunities for students to build their resume; allows staff to focus on projects and professional development; allows staff to take advantage of proactive outreach opportunities; and in-person positive culture. In addition, our customers receive answers to their inquiries much quicker avoiding frustration.

Presenter: Russell Bomberger - Touchnet

In this session, you will discover how to empower your business office and other campus departments and staff to better support student success with a one-stop view of the student’s financial footprint. Attendees will hear how integrated student account technology helps institutions deliver on student expectations for payment types, streamline operations, enable informed conversations that resolve issues and identify opportunities to intervene to best ensure student success. We’ll share case studies on how a holistic dashboard enables proactive student support and discuss what features to consider to best empower student success. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the benefits of a centralized view of the student account.

Presenters: Maria Livolsi - SUNY & Glenn Karaban - TFC Tuition

This comprehensive session explores effective management of both Federal Campus-Based and Institutional Loan Programs while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations. Gain practical insights into strategic borrower communication and innovative risk mitigation techniques from experienced professionals. From navigating federal requirements for Perkins, Health Professions and Nursing loans to designing flexible and compliant institutional payment solutions that enhance student success and financial stability, this session will equip you with actionable tools to optimize your institution’s loan programs.

Key Takeaways:

• Current regulatory requirements for campus-based loan programs and compliance strategies

• Best practices for structuring institutional payment plans as retention and fiscal management tools

• Effective borrower communication approaches that increase repayment success

• Risk mitigation techniques to protect institutional assets while supporting student success

• Strategies for using flexible payment structures to keep at-risk students enrolled

Presenter: David Fawcett - Salt Lake Community College

Join in an interactive discussion on the future of Higher Education and a look into current trends and the challenges facing Higher Education. Discuss what innovations can be investigated and possible uses of technology and what the future may hold, as well as strategies for adapting to changes. The future of Higher Education is not that bleak.

PDG conference staff are available during this time if you have any questions.

Meet exhibitors with creative technology and service solutions in the Exhibit Hall. Don't forget to have your Sponsor Passport stamped at each exhibitor table to be eligible for fun giveaways.

Join your colleagues for a hearty breakfast and conversation in the Majestic Palm Room EFG.

Presenters: Amy Jenkins - Meadow, Sean Ganas - Emmanuel College, and Andrew Ransom - Upper Iowa University

Reviewing the numbers at the end of a billing cycle or year lets us know where we ended up, but it is often too late to do anything about it. In this session we will dig into the key success metrics that matter to student financial services leaders and actionable levers that they can pull to influence those metrics, empowering leaders with proactive strategies to drive better payment outcomes at their campus. Data can be a powerful tool for changing behavior and influencing outcomes, but we often don’t know what matters and don’t have time to spend figuring it all out until after payments have been made (or not made!). The busyness of a billing cycle often makes it hard to do anything except for the thing that has to be done that instant. And leaves leaders at the end of a cycle looking back and wondering “where did we go wrong?” In this interactive session two SFS leaders will dig into why data matters, which data matters and how to use it to drive engagement and payment outcomes.

We will take a practical approach to:

• Defining key success metrics for student financial services and how to find it.

• Defining key levers that influence those success metrics Identifying strategies to use that data to drive operational efficiency, student action and payment outcomes

Our school leaders will share perspectives uniquely shaped by the size and demographics of their institutions, as well as highlight the things that matter everywhere. Participants will leave with a set of clear success metrics that matter to Student Financial Services and actionable recommendations for how to use data to influence those outcomes.

Enjoy coffee, tea, soda, and snacks in the ballroom foyer while you network and visit with exhibitors on service/product offerings.

Presenter: LeeAnn Pickett - Texas A&M University

Since the formation of the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, supplemental services, partnerships, development, and advancements have been necessary to ensure students using federal or state military or veteran benefits understand how those benefits are applied to the student bill, and who they can go to when help is needed.

Texas A&M University has a long history of supporting veterans and active duty students and their families, and has mobilized many departments to think critically and push boundaries to ensure our military-affiliated and veteran students receive top level service and care.

Presenters: Lori Hartung - ECSI/COHEAO and Gina Santoro - ECSI

Seven in ten officers of higher ed institutions (72%) say the dollar volume of their past-due (tuition and fees) receivables portfolio is $1 million or more, with one in three (33%) indicating it exceeds $5 million. What’s more, students who fall behind on payments are also likely to drop out, causing retention rates to dip.

Rather than sending students with past-due accounts to collections, RecoverySelect clients can drop delinquent accounts into a smarter, more student-friendly program that helps bring students back to your institution while increasing revenue and reducing administrative workload.

In this session, we’ll discuss strategies for driving retention and re-enrollment rates, including how institutions can help students with past-due tuition and fees recover their debt and continue their education.

Presenters: Karen Reddick - National Credit Management and Sean Steinmarc - TFC

This presentation will provide a high-level overview of state & federal compliance laws and current regulatory activity affecting higher education collections. The CFPB has been very active in higher education and this presentation will provide an overview of their activity and areas at risk. The presentation will address existing transcript laws, pending transcript legislation and the status of such. The panel will guide us in adhering to this ever-changing environment in order to mitigate liability for institutions.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the impact of recent changes in regulation on your institution and with your third-party servicers.

• Discuss best practices for collections in a highly regulated environment.

Presenter: Scott Campbell - Paymentus

Revolutionize your school’s payment operations with smarter processes, automation, and AI-powered student engagement.

Managing tuition and payments shouldn’t be a headache. In this engaging session, discover five powerful strategies to streamline payment processing, reduce administrative costs, and enhance the student experience. Learn how digital wallets, automated reminders, and AI-driven student portals can improve on-time payments while minimizing staff workload.

We’ll also explore real-world examples of how organizations are leveraging modern payment solutions—like PayPal, Venmo, AutoPay, and mobile payment alternatives—to create a seamless, future-ready campus payment system. Don't miss this opportunity to transform how your institution handles payments!

Join your colleagues for a closing town hall to share and learn from one another in small group round table discussions about the topics most important to us all. Following this session we’ll end with closing remarks from Steven Selander, President - Professional Development Group, as well as drawings for a variety of giveaways.