• Moderator = Katie Conrad

A new FAFSA and application process will be here before we know it! This session will explain the new Federal Methodology, Pell need analysis, the new Student Aid Index, and direct data sharing between the IRS and the Department of Education that will be effective in the 2024-25 award year. NASFAA’s Student Aid Index Modeling Tool will also be introduced.

Champions Ballroom D/E 

Slides

Managing Expectations- Staff, Leadership, Colleagues, and Students; Alicia Keaton

• Moderator = Brenda Brown

Expectations are mental models that define how we and people around us want things to work out now, in the short- medium- and long-term. Whether expectations are aligned in an organization or not has an immediate impact on individual and organizational performance. In this session, we will discuss how to better and more proactively manage expectations.

Ballroom A

Slides

Eliminating Bias in Financial Aid Processes; Daniel Barkowitz

• Moderator = Susan Ambridge

Join as we explore our own journeys to remove bias from our practices and policies within the financial aid application, awarding, and disbursement cycles. We know and acknowledge that our structures and policies carry biases (whether intentional or not). What do we do to begin to pull down these biases and allow true equity and inclusion for all? What should we tackle first? Where do we even begin? 

Ballroom B

Slides

NASFAA Top AskRegs; Dana Kelly

• Moderator = J'Dale Berner

Have you ever wondered if your colleagues ask the same regulatory questions you do? Maybe there's a question you've been thinking about, but have been too busy to ask? Chances are, it has already! This session will review the top AskRegs questions NASFAA members have posed recently. In addition to providing answers, this session will review requirements related to these top issues and provide best practices when applicable.

Ballroom G/H

Slides

How to Avoid Double Dipping Financial Aid Funds, Waivers, and Research Grants; Jessica Ly

• Moderator = Becky Davis

Many of our institutions participate in waiver and/or research grant programs. Did you know that our Financial Aid offices should take into consideration payments made via such programs? If so, is your Financial Aid office accounting for the payments and how are they doing it? In this session, we will explore how you can prevent over-award or overpayment situations when Title IV recipients are also receiving waivers and/or research grants. 

Ballroom F

Slides

• Moderator = Concepta Williamson

Ballroom C

Slides

Opening Luncheon (in the General Sessions Champion Ballroom):

SASFAA Update

FASFAA Business Meeting/Elections

FASFAA Awards & Recognition

Rebuilding a Financial Wellness Program in the Age of Covid; Morgan O'Sullivan

• Moderator = Pedro Hernandez

Covid 19 has changed the university campus forever. This session will look at how you can relaunch a financial wellness program on campus, build a network to aid in the promotion around the campus, embrace the technological advances available, and finally develop a strategic plan on how to relaunch your financial wellness program. Attendees will be taken through step by step on how to set up a financial wellness program on campus. How can you get a campus involved, rather than letting it down to one or two individuals. This will be done via PowerPoint, but will include interactive elements from PollEverywhere, Kahoot and YouTube. Attendees will also be show different technology aspects to facilitate virtual financial wellness such as how to best utilize Zoom and such for sessions. Finally, attendees will be shown how to develop a comprehensive financial literacy plan.

Ballroom A 

Slides

When Your "Business" Impacts Your "Business": A Mental Health Awareness Discussion; Lou Murray

• Moderator = David Cooper

Mental well-being impacts all aspects of one's life. This conversational session will delve into the necessity of self-care and comprehensive wellness.

• Moderator = Amy Gerber

This session will be an opportunity for an experienced financial aid professional to share best practices to tackle the challenges associated with managing the federal work-study program.  The presenter will share audit and program review findings and corrective actions to improve managing FWS and mitigate compliance risk.

Ballroom C 

Slides

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access; Mia Mwango

• Moderator = Amy Darecca

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access: Is IDEA treating everyone the same, or recognizing and appreciating differences? Isn’t the Financial Aid Office supposed to be a neutral zone?... Why IDEA is essential in financial aid and what FAA’s can do to promote these essential concepts.

Ballroom F

Slides 

How Our Technology Aids in Financial Aid; Angelica Parrales

• Moderator = Scott Orris

Bring your laptops and get ready to get organized! Angelica uses technology in many ways to organize herself, teams, and at times other department projects. She will go over applications such as OneNote, SharePoint, TEAMS Channels, Outlook and other tips/tricks. The purpose is to set yourself up for success and free up your mind and energy to focus on the bigger goals.

How America Plans, Saves, and Pays for College, Laura Dickerson

• Moderator = Mike O'Grady

How does America pay for college? Join us for a discussion of findings of “How America Pays for College 2021”, a national research study conducted by Sallie Mae® and Ipsos. We’ll discuss the range of funding sources families rely on to pay for college--from scholarships to 529s, and from federal grants to private student loans--and evaluate trends that impact decisions about how to pay.

Ballroom A

Slides 

Student Loans: Who Qualifies, How Much, and When; James Tynan

• Moderator = Eileen Brzozowski

This session will provide information on the eligibility requirements of federally funded student loans. The presentation will delve into student classification, loan limits, and applicable federal regulations.

Ballroom B

Slides 

Professional Judgment is K.I.N.D. (Verification is not...PJ); Daniel Barkowitz

• Moderator = Eroica Davis

Professional Judgement is a mighty power offered to Financial Aid Administrators by the Department of Education, yet many of us find ourselves at an impasse when reviewing PJ requests from students. As financial aid professionals, we need to better understand the difference between PJ and verification, as well as make full use of our statutory authority to apply our expertise on behalf of students. Let's review the pitfalls and practices of PJ and remember why KINDness matters.

Ballroom C 

Slides

The Admission Conundrum- Working Closely with Admissions to Resolve Student's Financial Accounts Before Beginning School; Morgan O'Sullivan & Evelyn Nelson

• Moderator = Isamari Medina Montes

Through collaborating closely with the Office of Admission to develop a sound financial plan for incoming new students, Student Financial Services helped to recruit record numbers in the midst of a global pandemic for the 21-22 school year. Accounts were resolved sooner, financial aid was processed quicker and the traditional stress and rush of the Fall orientation week evaporated into just another regular work day. Come to this session to learn how investing in time early, brought about this transformation in fortunes. We plan to provide a session via PowerPoint, while also using interactive tools such as Poll Everywhere, Kahoot and YouTube. The session will outline the strategies that Lynn University employed to help early resolution of student accounts. We hosted one hour zoom meetings with all of our new families in May, and p[provided our team with a structure to educate and resolve issues early rather than late. This session will outline the structure of the sessions as well as the subsequent communication strategy used by the university over the summer period. 

Preparing for the End of Covid-19 Forbearance and Avoiding a CDR Disaster; Dave Deibel & Irma Molinares

• Moderator = Brenda Ilojiole

With the current administrative forbearance latest extension, payment relief has come for millions of borrowers. With that relief though, comes certain anxiety from student readiness to student success and your CDR. In this session, we discuss where we think delinquency and default rates will head, the timeline you should be aware of, and what you can do now to help your students avoid disaster.

Veteran's Administration Updates; Brittany Beirmourtrusting

• Moderator = Sara Reese

Join VA VetSuccess on Campus Counselor Brittany Beimourtrusting to discuss VA students on campuses, different VA programs available, and how best you can assist and support your VA students in their academic pursuits to eventually transition to civilian employment or advance in their military career.

What's the Cost: Simple Strategies to Reassure Families of Your Institutional Value; Laura Dickerson

• Moderator = J'Dale Berner

Many students and families will consider financing a portion of their college education, but what resources are available to help you have an honest discussion about their investment? In this session, you will learn how to communicate value beyond price, how families share in the responsibility to pay for education and building confidence to discuss payment strategies for student success. 

Ballroom B

Slides 

State Grant: Who Qualifies, How Much, and When; Joseph Pence

• Moderator = Becky Davis

This presentation provides an overview of financial aid programs funded and administered by the Florida Department of Education.

Ballroom C

Slides

Believing the College Dream; Lori Auxier

• Moderator = Concepta Williamson

Believing the College Dream supports teachers, counselors and community organization staffs in their work to increase the expectations of prospective low-income, first-generation college students to pursue higher education. While geared toward middle school students, these resources can also be adapted to use with high school students and is designed to prepare students and their families for successful transitions along the secondary academic pipeline and on to postsecondary education.

Ballroom F 

Slides

Office of Inspector General Updates; Chris Hessberger

• Moderator = Karissa Lawson

The mission of the Office of Inspector General (OIG) is to assist the Commissioner of Education in achieving the department's mission of increasing student proficiency and maintaining an accountability system that measures student progress. The OIG accomplishes this by providing independent audits and reviews of programs and activities, conducting investigations of alleged violations, and offering consulting services to assist management in their efforts to maximize effectiveness and efficiency. Join Chris Hessberger from OIG to provide updates and how this office can assist you.

The FASFAA Music Experience

Wear your favorite music artist or band shirt and join us Wednesday night for an entertainment event like no other. Together we will celebrate our opportunity to network together while celebrating our favorite music. We'll play the most rocking form of bingo, sing, dance and share the stories of nostalgia that music often brings to us. Yes, there will be prizes!   

General Session 2- The Care and Feeding of Your Career During the Big Quit of 2021-22; Bill Ayers & Katie Conrad

• Moderator = Kristina Chavers

You've seen the headlines regarding the record number of people quitting their jobs to take advantage of strong employer demand. These numbers include Financial Aid professionals. How often do you take stock of your current position and long-term career path? Who is responsible for your career? Is it time to make a move?  How do you go about moving on?  What are your colleagues thinking? Do you need to network?   

We will guide attendees through an informative session to address these questions, assess your career path to date, and develop a plan to take it to the next level.

Large Rocks and Unwritten Rules: The Case of the Financial Aid Fee Implementation at Florida State Colleges; Kris Hatcher

• Moderator = Dameion Lovett

Join Kris to learn about findings from his recently completed EdD dissertation, which sought to answer how Florida’s public state colleges implement the financial aid fee that is authorized by F.S. 1009.22(5) & 1009.23(8). Please visit http://financialaidfee.info for more information.

 Ballroom A

Slides

Bringing Financial "Edutainment" to Your University; Morgan O'Sullivan

• Moderator = Pedro Hernandez

Learning should always be educational, but it can also be fun! Come to this interactive session to learn how to bring financial literacy to life for your students. Through learning about different activities and thinking with a different lens, you will be prepared to teach and facilitate a group of students on the vitally important topic of financial literacy. By the end of this session, you will be ready to bring financial “edutainment” to your college / university campus. While we can all be entertainers, only the chosen few can be “Edutainers”. This is the session for you! Attendees will be brought through a series of financial literacy activities to help them appreciate and understand the broad range of tools that we have available to connect with our students. This will then facilitate the designing of lesson plan for an individual class session. 

Ballroom B

Slides

There Is No PAUSE in Credit Scores: A Snapshot of Florida Consumer Credit; Bill Ayers and Veronica Herrera

• Moderator = Susan Ambridge

 Please join us for a deep diner into the impact of the evolving Federal Student Loan pause on Florida consumer credit and borrower attitudes. This session will analyze the impact of the Federal Student Loan repayment pause as reported by Experian, a world leading consumer credit bureau. Experian and College Ave Student Loans will combine data from the consumer credit reports with student loan borrower attitudes towards repayment to provide unique insight to the current situation with student loan repayment.

Some highlights include:

• Experian credit analysis of the status of Florida Federal Student Loan borrowers
• Experian predictive modeling of the impact on borrowers’ credit assuming the end of the payment pause, and proposed “fresh-start” elimination of delinquency and default.
• Results of a recent national consumer borrower survey on attitudes towards repayment vs. Other spending choice by Hanover Research.

Cost of Attendance Overview; Dana Kelly

• Moderator = David Cooper

Join NASFAA’s own Dana Kelly for an in-depth conversation about Cost of Attendance. In this session you will learn the principles and purposes of the student budget construction process, gain an understanding of how to build student budgets (including sources for setting the value of cost components) and learn about the various allowable budget components and restrictions for certain categories of students. 

Ballroom F

Slides 

Verification: What To Expect in the Upcoming Aid Year; Rachel Robinson

• Moderator = Amy Gerber

This session will include a discussion of the recent verification waiver requirements for the 2022-23 FAFSA cycle and review verification issues related to the 2021-22 cycle. We will discuss how to move forward with conflicting information and what our next steps will be in the verification realm.

AI Tools Driving Success in Financial Aid; Paul Burke, Ocelot

Students expect their campus to provide 24/7 virtual access to financial aid information. Affordable artificially intelligent (AI) technology is rising to the challenge. Learn how student engagement platforms can drive messaging services via chatbot, 2-way texting and live chat to meet students where they are while fostering efficiencies in financial aid and increasing student success

The CAS Experience: Collaboration for Success!; Brenda Brown, Kate Brabandt, and Sara Reese (College Aid Services), Sheia Pleasant-Doine (Flagler College) 

College Aid Services (CAS) is a higher education consulting firm whose consultants have spent decades in the field and have expertise in financial aid and higher education assessment, administration, and technology to support compliance and improve customer service. We take pride in providing services and solutions to institutions that are reliable and affordable.

CAS collaborated with clients in identifying and reengineering business processes to improve compliance and customer service to support success for the staff, department, institution, students, and families.  In this session, CAS and clients will share how we collaborate with institutions by providing our services and customized solutions to help them overcome their challenges.  

The Great Repayment Debate: Should Federal Loan Debt Be Cancelled?

Kris Hatcher & Bill Ayers (College Ave) vs Bill Spiers & Chansone Durden (Earnest); Refereed by Daniel Barkowitz

You don’t want to miss this! Please join us as we follow a classic debate style to present opposing views on one of today’s hottest topics: Should Federal Student Loans Be Cancelled?

There will be no visuals or PowerPoint slides; rather, two heavyweight teams will engage in intellectual fisticuffs while giving Affirmative and Negative supporting cases. Each side will have 2 five-minute segments (opening and rebuttal) and closing statements. However, unlike classic debates, we will encourage the audience to weigh in throughout via live polling, possibly toss emoji applause or tomatoes, and vote to determine the winning side.

A moderator will open the session, introduce the teams, time each segment, manage live polling, and if the debate gets too heated, serve as referee.

How to Work with Scholarships; Charles Harper

• Moderator = Scott Orris

In this session you will learn what types of scholarships are out there, how to assist students in applying and collecting scholarships, who could oversee scholarships at different institutions and how you can better assist your students in this process.

Ballroom A

Slides 

Grad and Professional Debt Management Services; Jessica Ly

• Moderator = Mike O'Grady

An in-depth presentation on different debt management program techniques and services that have worked.... and not worked over the years in a grad/professional school.

Ballroom B 

Slides

R2T4 and PWD's: How The Changes Impact Student Eligibility; Cathy Kimball and Kristine Hibbard

• Moderator = Brenda Ilojiole

Join us for a conversation about Return to Title IV requirements and programs and Post Withdrawal Disbursements. 

OSFA Update; Pete Hernandez

• Moderator = Nadine Bailey

This session will be facilitated by the Florida Department Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance. The session will provide important updates pertaining to the financial programs funded by the Florida Department of Education.  

What is Student Loan Repayment Assistance?; Becky Davis

• Moderator = Karissa Lawson

Join us as we deep dive into loan repayment assistance and discuss the current student loan landscape and Student Loan Repayment Assistance (SLRA) background and features.

Ballroom A

Slides 

How to Survive and Thrive in F.A.; Dr. Pat Watkins

• Moderator = Amy Darecca

Financial aid administration is an ever changing and often challenging landscape. Thriving in this fluid industry requires a unique set of skills. This session will help financial aid administrators navigate the complexities of this rewarding yet challenging profession.

How To The Navigate Federal Handbook; Angelica Parrales

• Moderator = Kris Hatcher

Did you know that IFAP is now Knowledge Center? Are you looking to improve your knowledge and comfort with online federal financial aid material like FSA Partner Connect? Join Angelica as she provides an overview of navigating the Federal Student Aid Handbook and other resources available on the internet.

NASFAA Training Opportunities (Credentials & FAAC): Katie Conrad, Dana Kelly, Celena Tulloss, Daniel Barkowitz, Eileen Brzozowski

• Moderator = Jill Sellers

 NASFAA training opportunities: Are you interested in becoming a Certified Financial Aid Administrator?  In this session you will hear from our NASFAA Trainer and a panel of FA Administrators who have earned the FAAC designation.  See how the NASFAA Credentials and Certification can propel your career in Financial Aid. 

 Birds of a Feather

Clock Hour & Technical Schools
Moderator = Tiffany Randolph

Join your Clock Hour and Technical Schools colleagues for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions! 

State (Community) Colleges
Moderator = Kris Hatcher

Join your colleagues from State/Community college institutions for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions! 

Public
Moderator = Katie Conrad

Join your colleagues from public institutions for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions! 

Private
Moderator = Steve Booker

Join your colleagues from private institutions for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions! 

Graduate & Professional
Moderator = Rachel Robinson

Join your colleagues who serve graduate and professional students for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions! 

Business Partners
Moderator = Bill Ayers

Join your Business Partner colleagues for an informal discussion and conversation on shared interests. Bring your ideas and questions!