Council members to collaborate with other schools and EAB to drive research and strategy for the company’s student success technology and advisory services

EAB, which harnesses the collective power of more than 2,100 educational institutions to identify and apply proven practices that help education leaders achieve their goals, has named Melissa Sturm-Smith, Drake University’s associate provost for academic excellence and student success, to the company’s Student Success Innovation Council (SSIC). She is one of 23 new SSIC members who have agreed to serve one-year terms on the council to network with likeminded leaders at other institutions and work collaboratively to drive EAB’s student success strategy and product roadmap.

Now entering it ninth year, the SSIC was formed by EAB to gather the collective experience and expertise of student success leaders from across the U.S. Council members will help EAB set its research agenda and continue to refine the company’s market-leading student success management systems, Navigate and Starfish. Those systems link administrators, faculty, staff, advisors, and students in a coordinated care network to support students from enrollment to graduation and beyond.

As a member of the SSIC, Melissa will draw on her 22 years of experience working in higher education to help identify at-risk students and to coordinate cross-campus resources to keep those students on track to achieve their educational goals.