Office of Academic Affairs

Dr. Fay Yokomizo Akindes has directed the Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) since August 2017. Previously she was Professor of Communication at UW-Parkside where she taught for 20 years. She chaired the Communication Department, directed the Center for Ethnic Studies for eight years, and served as Faculty Director of Community-Based Learning and Research. She was a 2005-06 Fulbright Teaching Scholar at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, West Africa, and taught at Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian, Scotland in spring 2017. She received UW-Parkside’s Stella Gray Teaching Excellence Award in 2004 and was a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow in 2000.

Among her publications is Diversity in the College Classroom: Knowing Ourselves, Knowing Our Students, Knowing Our Disciplines co-edited with Eugene Fujimoto and Roseann Mason. The book is based on a four-year Diversity Summer Institute at UW-Parkside that was partially funded by the UW System.

She received a Ph.D. in Mass Communication and an M.A. in Telecommunication Management at Ohio University. Her doctoral dissertation, Hawaiian-Music Radio as Diasporic Habitus, earned the 1999 Outstanding Dissertation Award by the National Communication Association’s International and Intercultural Communication Division. Prior to graduate school, she worked in broadcast marketing and promotion in San Diego (NPR) and Honolulu (CBS-TV and PBS). Dr. Akindes was born, raised, and public schooled on Molokai.

Dr. Shanna Nifoussi serves as the Director of Academic Student Success Initiatives in the Office of Academic Affairs. Prior to this role she was an Associate Professor of Biology and Pre-Health at the University of Wisconsin–Superior, where she taught for six years. In addition to teaching, she was a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow (in the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows & Scholars program), mentored undergraduate research projects, and was actively involved in faculty governance.

Shanna received her bachelor's degree in biology from the College of St. Catherine (now University) and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Iowa. Her graduate work investigated the role of post-translational modifications in mitochondrial dynamics. She did her post-doctoral research at Dartmouth College, focusing on how patterns of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation modified the function of anti-apoptotic Mcl-1.

Dr. Diane Treis provides consultation to University of Wisconsin (UW) universities in developing academic degree programs to meet current workforce and student demand and in applying UW System academic program policies and procedures. She serves as the principal system resource on matters relating to the assessment and credit award for prior learning. Since joining UW System Administration (UWSA) in 2009, she has served many cross-functional roles, leading major projects and policy development in areas of the recognition of prior learning, credit transfer including the Universal Credit Transfer Agreement (UCTA), and degree completion.

Throughout her career, her mission has been to develop, operationalize, and evaluate solutions to best serve Wisconsin students and families. Before joining UWSA she directed and managed precollege, credit outreach, and non-credit programming at UW-Richland and UW-Madison. Outside of higher education, she led and provided direct services to families, and she implemented economic and community development initiatives at the county level. She earned her Doctor of Education from Vanderbilt University, and an M.S. in Human Ecology and a B.A. in Political Science from UW-Madison.

Diane Waters, Program Associate, joined UW System’s Office of Academic Affairs in September 2000. Before joining the office, she began employment with the Wisconsin Department of Veteran’s Affairs in June 1993 and worked in the records department. In her current position, she assists with travel arrangements, travel expense reports, purchasing and invoice payment, and also assists with the Regents (Academic Staff Excellence, Diversity, Teaching Excellence, and University Staff Excellence) Awards, and Alliant Energy (Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Achievement and James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching) Awards. In addition, she assists with planning and executing various events and meetings, including the systemwide governance meetings for the Vice President’s Office, and events and meetings for the Office of Professional and Instructional Development. She received her certificate in event planning from Madison Area Technical College in 2009.

Dr. Sheryl Zajdowicz (pronounced Zah-doe-witz) joined the UW System Office of Academic Affairs as the Director of STEM and Applied Research Initiatives at the beginning of October 2023. She previously served as an Interim Associate Dean for Data and Enrollment Management (and academic advising, and marketing and outreach) for the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver in Denver, Colorado. Over 18 years at MSU Denver, Dr. Zajdowicz served as adjunct faculty, full-time lecturer, tenure-track faculty, tenured full professor, faculty associate for undergraduate research, and chair for the Department of Biology, and she has led numerous committees including curriculum, marketing and outreach, and others. In each of these endeavors, Dr. Zajdowicz’s commitment to student success and inclusivity has always been a driving force.

A first-gen student, Zajdowicz earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Virginia Wesleyan College (now University) and a doctorate in biomedical sciences with an emphasis in pathogenic microbiology from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She gained post-doctoral training in microbiology at the University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus. Her research investigated the many ways by which medically important pathogens cause disease, and her work also explored forms of prevention and alternative means of therapeutics. That expertise was applied not only in the classroom, where she enthusiastically taught pathogenic microbiology, immunology, clinical immunology, and microbial physiology courses, but also in the laboratory setting, where she mentored undergraduate students in various microbiological and molecular research projects. To provide additional resources and networking opportunities to her students, she also maintained active research collaborations with colleagues from the University of Colorado-Anschutz Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine and the University of Colorado-Boulder Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering.