Ava Evans

Student success and higher education leader with 20+ years of progressive experience leading advising, retention, student support, federally funded programs, staff development, and cross-functional initiatives across universities, community colleges, and medical education. Experienced in identifying student risk, translating performance information into targeted interventions, coaching teams, improving workflows, and partnering across academic and administrative units. Doctor of Behavioral Health in Management with a record of supporting diverse learners across campus-based, virtual, and distributed learning environments.

Student Achievement Specialist at A.T. Still University – School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (2024-10 – Present)

• Provide academic, career, and professional advising across a four-year medical education continuum, supporting a school population of 600+ students and approximately 200 directly assigned advisees.
• Monitor academic and professional progress, identify students at risk, conduct targeted outreach, and coordinate individualized interventions with faculty, learning specialists, tutoring, disability resources, and other university partners.
• Maintain student engagement across campus-based and distributed learning environments, including virtual advising, workshops, residency preparation, and outreach to third- and fourth-year students completing clinical rotations across the country.
• Partner with deans, faculty, and professional staff on academic standing, student performance, orientation, professional development, career readiness, and policy-aligned communications for complex student concerns.
• Use Canvas, ProgressIQ, E-Medley, Zoom, and Google Workspace to track progress, document advising, communicate with students, and support consistent service delivery across the student lifecycle.
• Translate recurring student concerns and feedback into recommendations for advising practices, communications, workshops, and support processes.

Nonprofit Director at Arizona Dental Cares (2023-03 – 2024-06)

• Led program operations, stakeholder coordination, volunteer engagement, compliance, and service-delivery improvement for statewide charitable healthcare initiatives.
• Supported Arizona Mission of Mercy, an annual two-day event mobilizing approximately 1,500 volunteers to serve roughly 1,800–2,000 patients and deliver about $1.8–$2.0 million in donated dental care.
• Strengthened intake, service, referral, documentation, onboarding, and communication workflows to improve consistency and participant experience across a complex, high-volume service environment.

Student Support Supervisor (Director) at GateWay Community College – TRIO Student Support Services (2021-06 – 2022-08)

• Directed a U.S. Department of Education TRIO Student Support Services program, aligning federally funded student-success objectives with institutional priorities for persistence, completion, and equitable access to support.
• Supervised, hired, trained, coached, and evaluated professional and student staff; established expectations, facilitated team meetings, and addressed performance and service-delivery needs.
• Partnered across Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Institutional Effectiveness, executive leadership, and grants administration to resolve student barriers and improve program operations.
• Managed compliance, reporting, documentation, program assessment, and fiscal stewardship for a five-year federal grant award exceeding $1 million.

Director at Arizona State University – TRIO Student Support Services (2017-10 – 2021-06)

• Directed recruitment, retention, persistence, advising, and degree-completion strategies for 165 federally eligible students annually, using proactive outreach and individualized success planning to address academic, financial, and personal barriers.
• Led and developed professional and student staff through hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance expectations, and ongoing professional development.
• Used student and program data to monitor participation, identify support needs, guide outreach, and inform continuous improvement while maintaining federal and institutional compliance.
• Managed program operations and fiscal stewardship for a five-year federal grant award exceeding $1 million and represented the program with university, community, state, and national stakeholders.

Coordinator, Academic Mentoring Operations at Arizona State University – Student Success Center (2015-08 – 2017-10)

• Directed Academic Mentoring and PASS initiatives supporting first-year and academically at-risk students, with emphasis on transition, engagement, retention, and academic performance.
• Recruited, hired, trained, and managed 10–15 peer mentors and learning leaders; developed mentor curriculum and supported CRLA-aligned training and recertification.
• Used TutorTrac, PeopleSoft, and institutional analytics dashboards to monitor service utilization, identify student needs, and guide targeted outreach and operational decisions.
• Collaborated with faculty, academic departments, and university leaders to coordinate interventions and strengthen student support delivery.

Program Coordinator at Pima Community College – TRIO Student Support Services (2013-06 – 2015)

• Managed an advising caseload of approximately 145 students while supporting recruitment, retention, persistence, transfer, career planning, and graduate-school preparation.
• Analyzed student and program data, supported federal reporting and compliance, developed procedures, and assisted with program budgets and expenditures.
• Designed and delivered academic success, career, financial literacy, and transition programming in collaboration with faculty, administrators, agencies, and community partners.

Academic Adviser at Miami University–Hamilton

Provided one-to-one academic advising, supported registration and academic petitions, conducted probation outreach, and connected students with academic, career, disability, and financial-aid resources.

Program Specialist II at University of Oklahoma Center for Public Management / Oklahoma Child Support Services

Developed curriculum and training materials and collaborated with university, state, and government partners on projects, grants, contracts, conferences, and program delivery.

Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) in Management – Arizona State University (2026)

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Psychology (Experimental) – University of Central Oklahoma (2006)

Graduate study in Clinical Psychology and Student Affairs/Higher Education – Miami University, Ohio (2006 – 2010)

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology; Minor: Sociology – University of Central Oklahoma (2003)