Passionate student success advocate brings wealth of higher education experience to role
Student-Ready Strategies (SRS) today announced the appointment of Vanessa Keadle to the SRS team in the role of Vice President. Most recently, Keadle served as Senior Strategy Director at Complete College America where she helmed corequisite support efforts, designed and delivered in-depth technical assistance and represented the national nonprofit in collaborative efforts with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Charles A. Dana Center and other partners.
“SRS is a young and growing strategy and technical assistance provider that is building a staff and clientele of student-focused, equity-driven reformers dedicated to making higher education student-ready. Vanessa Keadle is the perfect addition to the Executive Team and I look forward to drawing from her passion and expertise as we together shape the organization’s strategy, vision and operations,” said Sarah Ancel, SRS Founder and CEO.
Keadle’s calling card is her passion and commitment to achieving equitable outcomes for historically marginalized students and populations. As a first-generation college student from a rural area, she has experienced how powerful education can be in the fight against socio-economic inequities – if it is designed to do so. “Vanessa is fearless in her efforts to overturn racist structures and policies, and she will always push systems to change instead of asking students to do so. She wholeheartedly embraces the vision of a student-ready system of higher education for this generation and the next,” Ancel said.
Keadle brings to SRS a portfolio of student-ready successes at the institution, state and national level. She is widely recognized as a national leader in developmental education reform, corequisite support models and guided pathways, but also has deep and hands-on experience with the student populations SRS aims to serve. At the institutional level, Keadle helped to create a more student-ready orientation, first-year experience curriculum and academic appeals process. She directly worked with students as a staff member, advisor and instructor for over eight years.
Her experience with students is complemented by her data and analytical skills. At the state level, she routinely used data to evaluate the effectiveness of programs, identify best practices and shape state priorities. She has been an integral player in national efforts to build a more effective postsecondary data system. Beyond that, she has developed processes for implementation at scale and has been part of a national conversation around institutional transformation.