GENERAL CONFERENCE INFORMATION

The conference registration table is located in the Longboat Key Club. If you need any assistance, please visit the registration table or contact a conference committee member. All sessions, continental breakfasts, refreshment breaks, and luncheons will be held in the Longboat Key Club. Suggested attire for conference sessions is casual. Suggested dress for the banquet is business casual. The resort requests business casual for dining at on-site restaurants. Smoking is not permitted in the public areas or at meeting or social functions. Please wear your conference badge to all sessions and functions. Please turn off ring tones during the meetings.

The reception on Tuesday, June 13th is at Spike n Tee’s Terrace, which is located near the golf course near the main resort. Dinner for June 13 will be from 6 to 8 pm inside the Island House Dining Room, which is connected to the terrace.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER - 2023

Dr. Bonita Jacobs, President, University of North Georgia

In 2011, Dr. Bonita C. Jacobs took office as the 17th president of North Georgia College & State University, becoming the University’s first female president and only the second woman to lead one of the country’s six Senior Military Colleges. Jacobs oversaw the consolidation between North Georgia and Gainesville State College to become the University of North Georgia in 2013. She has been named by Georgia Trend magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Georgians" and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of the "Top Education Leaders in Atlanta" and to its list of “Women Who Mean Business”. She received the “2020 Distinguished Citizen Award” from the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and the “2020 Circle of Excellence Award” from the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. Jacobs currently serves on the Truist Georgia Regional Advisory Board and is chair-elect of the Peach Belt Conference Executive Committee. Recently, Jacobs served on the American Council on Education (ACE) “National Task Force on the Transfer and Award of Credit” and the AASCU Board of Directors. She has served as a mentor in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative and the University System of Georgia (USG) Executive Leadership Institute.

Jacobs is the founder and first executive director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students. Before coming to the University of North Georgia, Jacobs was Vice President for Student Development and a tenured professor of counseling and higher education at the University of North Texas. She previously served as Assistant Vice Chancellor and as Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Development at Western Carolina University and in student development positions at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Jacobs received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and history and a master’s in counseling from Stephen F. Austin State University, and she earned her doctorate in educational administration from Texas A&M University.

A recipient of multiple awards for leadership in higher education and student development, Jacobs is a frequent speaker on transfer and student success issues, and she has conducted a significant amount of externally funded grant research. She is the former editor of The Journal of College Orientation and Transition and served on three other editorial boards. Her publications include Strategic Mergers in Higher Education, The College Transfer Student in America: The Forgotten Student, and Starting From Scratch: Your First-Year Experience, as well as numerous chapters, journal articles and reviews.

Her most recent publications include, Strategic Mergers in Higher Education, (Johns Hopkins University Press), UNG The Gold I See: The Legacy of UNG’s Dahlonega Campus, and The Best Day Ever! The Legacy of the UNG Gainesville Campus, published in August 2021. Jacobs is originally from Huntington, Texas, and she and her husband, Glenn, live in Dahlonega, Georgia.

Rbca Conference Committee

Conference Chair

Deborah R. Marinski, Ph.D., Interim Dean of Campus and Community Relations

Ohio University Southern 1840 Liberty Ave.

Ironton, OH 45638

740-533-4610 marinski@ohio.edu

RBCA Conference Administrative Support Kim Hayden, Special Assistant and Director of Administration Ohio University Regional Higher Education hayden@ohio.edu

Rbca Program Committee

Walt Collins, Dean University of South Carolina, Lancaster collinsw@sc.edu

Leslie Hafer, Provost St. Petersburg College/Gibbs hafer.leslie@spcollege.edu

Jill Martin Rend, Director Butler County Community College, Pennsylvania jill.martin-rend@bc3.edu

Michael E. Sonntag, Dean

Conference Management

Registration Maryann Lape Ohio University Lancaster lape@ohio.edu

Website B. Kreig Prior Manager of Communications and External Relations Regional Higher Education, Ohio University Lancaster priorb@ohio.edu

University of South Carolina, Sumter sonntagm@uscsumter.edu

Sandy Ott, Executive Director Oconee Campus, University of North Georgia sandy.ott@ung.edu