ECSU holds 155th Commencement on December 15
Kesha Williams
December 07, 2012
Elizabeth City State University will celebrate its 155th Commencement at 10 a.m. on December 15 in the Robert L. Vaughan Center. The speaker for the event is Youlonda Copeland- Morgan, associate vice chancellor for Enrollment Management at UCLA. Copeland-Morgan has been a recognized leader in higher education for more than 30 years. She served a two-year term (2008-2010) as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the College Board and in 2009, was appointed vice chair of the College Board’s Advocacy and Policy Center, which was established with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help transform education in America. In 2010, Copeland-Morgan was invited by Vice President Joe Biden to serve as an expert witness in a town hall meeting on the White House Middleclass Task Force. Copeland-Morgan is also serving a three-year term on the Advisory Council for the UNCF/Gates Millennium Scholars and just completed an extraordinary year as chair of the Committee on Access and Diversity for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators where she was awarded Committee of the Year for the outstanding contributions her committee made to the advancement of scholarship and services to colleges and universities that serve minority, first generation and low-income students. Copeland-Morgan has held numerous leadership positions in enrollment management, admission and student financial aid and has been honored for her commitment to sound enrollment management and financial aid policy that affects access, equity, and minority participation in higher education. As co-chair of the College Board’s Task Force on College Access for Students from Low-Income Backgrounds, she received national recognition for her leadership and innovation in creating the CollegeKeys Compact. At the state, regional and national level, she has been honored with distinguished service awards from numerous higher education associations, including the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), the California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (CASFAA), the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA) and the College Board’s Western Region. In 2006, NASFAA presented her with its Leadership Award, and CASFAA bestowed its highest honor, the Lifetime Membership Award, in recognition of her contributions to the profession. In 2012, she was awarded The Publisher’s Choice Award in Education Administration by the Inland Empire News (California). She has served several terms on the board of directors of NASFAA and WASFAA. Additionally, she has served as president of WASFAA, as chair of the College Board’s CSS Council, and its Financial Aid Standards Advisory Committee, and for the past nine years, as a trustee of the College Board. She also serves on the board of P&P Home for the Elderly, a multimillion dollar senior housing facility in Los Angeles. Copeland-Morgan is a member of the College Board’s distinguished College Scholarship Service Hall of Fame, which honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the best practices in financial aid, the body of knowledge underpinning the financial aid profession, development of successful advocacy and outreach programs, and development of meaningful training or professional leadership development programs. Prior to UCLA, Copeland-Morgan was at Syracuse University where she held the position of Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management.