Melody Larson Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Wa, Us

Provide wraparound advising and support services to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Coach students to pilot their educational path through successful career and academic planning, degree auditing, course sequencing, and course registration. Advise students on campus policies and procedures. Actively contribute to college retention strategies and initiatives.

Advised new students throughout their first year of education via proactive outreach. Helped students successfully transition to college and persist in their degree programs. Identified barriers to student success and offered support to overcome them. Provided academic planning, degree auditing, course registration, and schedule adjustment to all students. Monitored satisfactory academic progress and worked actively with at-risk students in order to contribute to campus persistence initiatives.

Greater Seattle Area

Prior to school closure, provided academic counseling and advising to students. Assisted at-risk students with academic and personal challenges to ensure course attendance and program completion. Provided proactive outreach and intrusive advising. Managed academic appeals and re-enrollments. Coached at-risk students to create and achieve individualized success plans. Assisted new students in acclimating to college and their program. Facilitated referrals to resources. Provided course scheduling, educational planning and course registration. Actively support the retention efforts of the campus.Accomplishments:* Developed a monitoring and advising system for SAP students that resulted in achieving the highest ranking SAP student retention rate of all IADT campuses: 84% compared to 13 - 35%.* Key contributor in developing several student retention programs, including a peer mentoring program for new students, a multimedia campus communications initiative, and the establishment of a student government.

Online

Guided clients in transitioning to a holistic lifestyle based on wellness principles. Helped clients to identify goals and overcome barriers in order to achieve success. Advised clients on strategies for adopting new lifestyle practices and behaviors. Provided personal assessment tools. Wrote and published ebooks. Developed and facilitated online wellness courses. Designed and managed a wellness website. Engaged in digital marketing.

Responsible for the design, delivery and oversight of a faculty development program for 120 new and continuing faculty. Facilitated 8 faculty development courses per quarter. Coordinated 4 large-scale professional development events per year. Conducted new faculty orientation and 1:1 onboarding. Trained department directors on performance evaluation process. Coached new faculty 1:1 to improve performance success rates.

Hired, trained, managed and evaluated over 40 instructors. Delivered monthly professional development workshops. Developed performance improvement plans for instructors not meeting minimal satisfaction rates. Oversaw rollout and training on new program curricula. Developed training handbooks and other materials. Coordinated quarterly community Advisory Board meetings.Accomplishments:* Co-volunteered to play a leading role in preparing and guiding our campus through accreditation renewal, achieving the maximum accreditation renewal time of 5 years.* Successfully led faculty through a major curriculum restructuring. Developed standardized program calendars, syllabi, lesson plans and final exams in order to improve instructional consistency and effectiveness.

Served as the primary academic advisor and counselor for students. Responsible for student retention and program success rates. Tracked student progress and counseled at-risk students. Processed changes of status, including probations, leaves of absence, withdrawals and reentries. Facilitated new student orientations and commencement ceremonies. Proposed the creation of a new faculty coordinator position. Assumed that position in 2004. Until then, performed those duties along with serving as Associate Director.Accomplishments:* Increased student retention rates from the low 70s to the mid-90s for over 80% of programs within my first year of employment and for over 90% within my second year.* Successfully proposed, developed and piloted a new staff position for the Seattle campus after seeing the need to improve faculty retention. The Faculty Development Coordinator is now a key position at all 13 campuses* Voted staff member of the year 2002 and 2003.

Advised international students desiring to continue their studies in the US. Provided information on the US higher education system, degree levels and requirements, community college transfer degree programs, visa requirements, TOEFL testing, and application procedures. Counseled individual students struggling with culture shock, homestay issues, and academic stress and provided referrals to outside resources as needed.

Taught all aspects of English as a Second Language, including speaking & listening, reading & writing, English for Academic Purposes, TOEFL preparation, and Business English. Taught adults at all levels, beginner to advanced, from over 20 different countries.

Masters, Teaching English As A Second Language

Graduate Work, Russian Literature & Linguistics

Bachelors, Liberal Arts