Principals, Staff, Affiliates, and Partners

Michael P. Ditchkofsky
President and Chief Executive Officer
Though Michael’s principal area of focus is graduate education and research, he has extensive experience in advising on complex organizational problems and issues in higher education in general and in international business development. Prior to co-founding the Yardley Research Group, Michael worked for 12 years in senior executive positions at Peterson’s, directing many of the company’s major initiatives in higher education planning and development and founding a subsidiary business in Singapore. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent seven years as faculty and administrator at several universities, including the University of Chicago and Lehigh University.  Michael is also the editor of The Journal for Higher Education Strategists.

Louise M. Williamson
Vice President and Managing Principal
Louise spent the bulk of her career (18 years) as a regional Program Officer for the Prudential Foundation, working with community-based organizations on the entire grant process—from proposal development to feasibility study to compliance auditing. She also has considerable experience in training and in organizational development. After leaving Prudential, Louise received an M.B.A. with an emphasis in international business, spending experiential rotations in Europe working with companies from the automotive, hospitality, energy, and pharmaceutical industries and with the European Union currency commission in Brussels. Co-founder of the Yardley Research Group and Managing Editor of The Journal for Higher Education Strategists, Louise is working on a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in higher education administration.  Her dissertation, Determining Influencers in Distinguished Graduate Placement, is an investigation of the mission, character, and emphases of doctoral programs in nine fields of study at public research universities in the U.S. and the corresponding influence those factors impose on placement of doctoral graduates of those programs into academic program settings.

Nancy Diamond
Senior Consultant
Nancy Diamond has been engaged in the study of research universities for more than a decade, following a longer period of professional administrative service in higher education. Her research has focused primarily on "rising" universities-those that traditionally have not been among the top tier, but nonetheless exhibit significant potential for advancement. As the co-author, with Hugh Davis Graham, of The Rise of the American Research University (Johns Hopkins, 1997), she has studied how institutions can improve research capacity. She also has proposed alternative ways of assessing and ranking research achievement, and served as a reviewer for the National Research Council's forthcoming assessment of graduate programs. Currently, she is the principal investigator for a study about the experience of women faculty and administrators since the 1970s. Dr. Diamond holds degrees in American Civilization and Information Science, as well as a Ph.D. in Policy Sciences from the University of Maryland Graduate School, Baltimore. She is Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Research Scientist at Temple University.

Ron Hedlund
Senior Consultant
Ron Hedlund has worked in higher education since receiving his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Iowa in 1967. In that year, he began a 22-year stint on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, eventually reaching the rank of full professor and holding a variety of administrative appointments. In 1989, he became Vice Provost for Research and Service at the University of Rhode Island, where he implemented a major reorganization of the research and sponsored projects unit and shepherded a doubling of extramural funding—to $53 million. Ron left URI in 1996 to become Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Education at Northeastern University in Boston, an appointment he held until September 2004. At Northeastern, Ron spear-headed the development of nine new research institutes—including Molecular Biotechnology, Nanomanufacturing, and Race and Justice—and oversaw an 88% increase in external funding for research and sponsored projects, a 92% increase in NSF-reported R&D expenditures, and a 14-fold increase in licensing and royalty income. Additionally, Ron has been active for more than 20 years in the national associations for research management and graduate studies, including the Council of Graduate Schools, for which he has taught a workshop in program review for the past six years. A specialist in legislative operations and policy-making, Ron is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including three books, 14 book chapters, and two anthologies. He is Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University.

Richard Hendrix
Senior Consultant
Since September 2005, Richard Hendrix has been the Dean of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education at New Jersey City University, where he oversees masterÕs and certificate programs in education, business, health sciences, criminal justice, and the arts, as well as non-credit programs for enrichment and professional development. Prior to his arrival at NJCU, he was for 14 years the Dean of the College of General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he had responsibility for strategic planning, budgetary oversight, and supervision of senior staff. Under his direction, the College administered adult degree programs, summer sessions, study abroad, non-credit programs, programs for high school students and senior citizens, on-site corporate programs, and English as a Second Language. Dr. Hendrix expanded the College's offerings to include professional master's programs and certificate programs and introduced Penn's first program of online credit courses. Prior to joining the administration at Penn, Richard served as Dean in two regional centers of Empire State College of the State University of New York and as a planning and program officer for FIPSE, where he had major grant-making responsibility. He has a doctorate in English from the University of Chicago and has taught at Williams College and Roosevelt University

William Herron
Consultant
Bill Herron is a marketing consultant with a particular focus on web analytics and design. He began his career as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. After leaving the Army, Bill held several technical, marketing, and management positions in operating companies of the Thomson Corporation, including West Group and Peterson’s. At West, Bill was a technical consultant, working for some of the country’s largest law firms, as well as government agencies and corporations. At Peterson’s, Bill was responsible for the management of student traffic to both Peterson’s and its partners’ web sites. He developed a system of web analytics and usability principles that made petersons.comone of the most frequently used education sites on the Internet. His current work seeks to integrate web analytics into all of the marketing and business functions of institutions. Bill holds a degree in Economics from Penn State.

Barbara Lawrence
Senior Consultant
Barbara Lawrence has held senior executive positions in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. She focuses on evidence-based planning (strategic, fundraising, and business), research (survey design, program evaluation, prospect discovery, and feasibility studies), and program development. She has an international reputation for the design and implementation of complex content management systems, particularly in scientific and technical fields. Barbara was Senior Vice President for Research at Peterson’s, Administrator for Technical Information at the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and—on a consulting basis—assisted in the establishment of the Urban Security Initiative at Polytechnic University. Barbara did graduate work in Chemistry at Yale University.

Kimberly Nagy
Research Associate
Kim Nagy is a research associate with extensive experience working in higher education, publishing, and not-for-profits. She received her M.A. from the Department of History at the University of Connecticut, where she completed archeological, anthropological, and historical studies of Native American culture. She has held marketing and editorial/research positions at two of the world’s foremost publishers—Princeton University Press and W.W. Norton—;as well as at Peterson’s, Routledge UK, Recording for the Blind, and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

John Pyrovalakis
Senior Consultant
John Pyrovolakis is an MIT-educated logician with expertise in entrepreneurship, particularly in the IT area. His client work includes formulating market entry strategies, leading product development and marketing initiatives, and evaluating early-stage software companies seeking venture capital investment. Since 2002, he has been retained by Mastercard International to evaluate potential strategic partnerships related to credit decisioning platforms, and he has served as a technical consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, the Graduate Management Admission Council, and the College Board. In 1996, he founded his own company, Collegescape, Inc., which he subsequently sold to a major multinational corporation. John maintains close contact with MIT, where he serves as a judge in the University's entrepreneurship competition and where he expects to complete, this winter, his doctoral dissertation in language and mathematical logic.

Mary Treisbach
Senior Consultant
Mary Treisbach is a marketing consultant with a focus on consumer marketing and communication strategy. She spent 15 years at Subaru of America, Inc., where she held increasingly responsible positions in advertising, market research, and customer satisfaction. As Director of Marketing, she led the company through a major brand repositioning, culminating in the launch of Subaru’s all-wheel drive strategy and the Subaru Outback. Her clients include the University of St. Francis, and a host of companies from a variety of industries, including energy, defense, and food. Through the Yardley Research Group and Peterson’s, Mary has also worked extensively with the Council of Graduate Schools, researching and writing their recent publications on inclusiveness in graduate education.

Educational Directories Unlimited
Educational Directories Unlimited is a bridge between students and educators, offering services for educational administrators, advisors, and students. Its flagship products are StudyAbroad.com and GradSchools.com. These, in turn, are the foundation of other online recruitment services, such as StudentProspector. EDU Internet Strategies is a full-service Internet and marketing consulting service that develops strategies, web sites, and marketing plans for academic clients.

Howard Design Group
Howard Design Group is a Princeton, NJ design firm specializing in communications services for higher education. Owned and operated by former admissions professionals and publishers, HDG produces advertising, annual reports, brochures, capital campaign materials, catalogs, CD-ROMs, web sites, and picture books. Its clients include Quinnipiac University, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Rider University, Educational Testing Service, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Dow Jones, and Discovery Capital.

Scott Healy and Associates
Scott Healy has worked in admissions, enrollment management, retention, and financial aid at small and large public and private universities, including Penn State, SMU, Ohio State, Alfred University, the University of Oklahoma, the College of St. Rose, Indiana University, Utica College of Syracuse University, and Adelphi University. His firm provides interim support and national and regional executive searches for leadership in enrollment management, admissions, financial aid, and alumni affairs. It also develops web sites and recruitment publications, and conducts institutional audits and studies related to admission, outreach, and retention.