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Governing Body: Student Success Council
Established in Fall 2025, the Student Success Council advances and operationalizes UW Tacoma’s student success vision, principles, and goals, with annual review and approval from campus executive leadership. Informed by the critical, data-driven work of the Student Success Strategy (2022-2025), the Council will maintain institutional focus on key student success priorities: retention, equity, and post-graduation success. The Council, along with newly integrated working bodies, forms a long-term structure that reflects our commitment to building a coordinated, equity-focused, and outcomes-driven approach to student success across campus.
This work is led by co-conveners Amanda Figueroa, AVC for Social Mobility (ambruner@uw.edu) and Bonnie Becker, AVC for Student Success (bjbecker@uw.edu).
For a complete record of activities and progress from 2022–2025, please review the Cumulative Student Success Report (forthcoming).
Student Success Structures and Programs
The following structures emerged from Student Success strategic work that occurred between 2022-2025, focused on improving retention, closing equity gaps, and supporting student thriving through coordinated, data-informed action.
The below work builds on previous efforts by embedding them into sustainable cross-campus bodies, fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation that enhances purpose and belonging for student success.
Cultivating Connection and Purpose
We will increase equitable access to high-impact practices in curricular and co-curricular experiences—such as internships, research, and study abroad—by integrating collaborative learning and career-readiness competencies that support student success.
Leads:
- Dawn Williams, Director, Career Development and Education
- Maeve O’Donnell, Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Curricular Access and Coordination Team
Forthcoming.
Leads:
- Bonnie J. Becker, AVC for Student Success, Academic Success Programs
Graduate Student Experience
Dedicated resources and staff hours for 2025-2026 will focus on graduate student support; this includes conducting a student needs survey, hosting graduate student events, and creating a campus-wide graduate orientation program.
Leads:
- BethAnn Hoover, Director of Academic Advising, Academic Success Programs
- Ashley Burchett, Associate Director, Writing Center
- Su-Miao Lai, Subject Specialist, Teaching and Learning Center
Slate for Student Success
Slate for Student Success is currently in use for select student communication and events coordination; we will continue to build out functions toward broader use of Slate across UWT (e.g., student appointments and advising notes).
Several individuals are engaged in this project now, representing many parts of campus (Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, IT, IR, and more).
Leads:
- Andrea Coker-Anderson, Registrar for Office of the Registrar
- Bethann Hoover, Director of Academic Advising, Academic Success Programs
- Ana Marie Alameda, Technology and Systems Specialist, Office of the Registrar
- Lisa Paul, Assistant Director, Information & Systems, Office of Admissions
Student Experience Project
We will expand and refine prior work for this professional development program, through which STEM faculty develop inclusive, evidence-based teaching practices.
Leads:
- Menaka Abraham, Interim Executive Director, Office of Undergraduate Education and Teaching Professor, School of Engineering & Technology
- Jutta Heller, Department Vice Chair and Teaching Professor, Sciences and Mathematics, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
- Seung-Jin (SJ) Lee, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering & Technology
Student Success Outcomes Framework
We will finalize an institutional dashboard with timely, disaggregated student success-related data to drive robust analysis and strategic action.
Leads:
- Bonnie J. Becker, AVC for Student Success, Academic Success Programs
- Andrew Chamberlain, Data Analyst, Institutional Research
