Office of Academic & Student Affairs

Dr. Aaron Brower was appointed University of Wisconsin System Senior Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs and Executive Director for UW Extended Campus on July 1, 2018. His primary responsibility is to develop and expand educational opportunities for adult and professionally-oriented students, the largest segment of the state and nation now seeking higher education. UW Extended Campus has built a national reputation for creating award-winning innovative and student-centric programs that partner with and leverage resources across all University of Wisconsin campuses. Among the many collaborative programs within UW Extended Campus’s portfolio is the UW System’s UW Flexible Option, the first-in-the-country competency-based educational program. UW Flex was created under Dr. Brower’s leadership when he was Provost and Vice Chancellor for UW-Extension.

From 2012-2018, Dr. Brower served as Provost and Vice Chancellor of UW-Extension and was named Interim Chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension in 2014. Prior to that, he spent six years as UW-Madison's Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning, overseeing and supporting undergraduate education and professional development for teaching and learning. Dr. Brower remains a tenured professor at UW-Madison in the School of Social Work and in the departments of Integrated Liberal Studies and Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis.

Dr. Brower has written 4 books, more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and received over $18M in grants to support his work. His scholarship demonstrates the academic and social outcomes produced when colleges blend in- and out-of-class learning and experiences. Dr. Brower’s expertise is in educational innovation, student learning, and outcome assessment – engaging the whole university to support “whole student” education. He has created and led many teaching and learning programs focused on integrative learning and evidence-based curricular reform. He consults widely with institutions across the country.

Dr. Brower earned a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, a Master's Degree in Social Work, a Master's Degree in Psychology, and a Doctorate in Social Work and Psychology, all from the University of Michigan.

Carol Edquist joined UW System Administration as Budget Director for the Office of Academic and Student Affairs, coming from UW-Extension where she served as the Budget Director for the past 11 years. Carol will jointly maintain her role with UW-Extension in supporting budget operations through the close of fiscal year 2018-19, as well as continuing to assist with the current restructuring project and transition. She has over 18 years of combined budget and financial experience at UW System institutions, previously working at UW-Milwaukee as Business Manager for the Center for International Education. She brings with her a deep knowledge of UW System budget, fiscal, and administrative processes; policies; financial and human resources systems; tools for reporting and analytics; and management best practices.

Sandy Kallio joined the University of Wisconsin System Office of Academic and Student Affairs in September 2017. She provides strategic communications support for initiatives led by the Vice President, including the UW System Math Initiative, 360 Advising Initiative and Navigate student success management system implementation. Prior roles with UW System institutions included university relations positions with the former UW Colleges and UW-Extension to support the work of the Provosts and the Chancellor. Sandy also was a Senior Writer for a Lumina Foundation grant to chronicle the development of the UW Flexible Option. She started her professional career in K-12 education and subsequently worked for more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter and editor for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.

She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in education and M.A. in journalism. She serves on the board of Centro Hispano of Dane County.

Christine Navia is Associate Vice President for Student Success in the University of Wisconsin System Administration. She earned her M.A. and her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a B.A. in political science from Carleton College. Chris began her tenure at UW System in 2008 as an institutional planner responsible for the coordination of a wide variety of equity-focused efforts, including improving retention and graduation rates for underrepresented students; expanding precollege and summer bridge program offerings; aiding UW institutions in the implementation of their campus climate assessments; and administering grants specifically designed to help UW institutions close opportunity gaps for students of color. In 2012, Chris left the UW System to work as a higher education consultant in Washington, D.C., where she provided intensive support to other public state systems of higher education in the design and implementation of student success initiatives focused on increasing baccalaureate degree attainment among students of color. Chris returned to the UW System in 2014 as a senior academic planner responsible for the development and approval of new academic programs and policies. In her current position as Associate Vice President, Chris oversees the Office of Student Success whose central mission is dedicated to advancing the educational success of all UW students. Her direct areas of responsibility include creating a stronger educational pipeline from the K-12 system to college; supporting the design and implementation of student-centered retention and graduation initiatives; and further developing a more seamless system of transfer for students moving between UW institutions. Additionally, Chris serves as the liaison to the UW System’s Senior Student Affairs Officers and Student Reps.

Ben Hill Passmore is Associate Vice President for the Office of Policy Research and Analysis, joining the University of Wisconsin System Administration in April of 2018. In this role, he is charged with supporting both UW System leadership and UW campuses with data and predictive modeling to improve decision making, progress and performance. Prior to joining the UW System, Ben spent 15 years with the University System of Maryland finishing his time there as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance. He has worked in institutional and policy research since 1992 with a specific focus on analytics and expanding data use, educational access, improving college attainment, trend forecasting, and organizational change in higher education. Ben holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He has held faculty positions at universities and community colleges where he has taught a range of students including underrepresented minorities, non-traditionally aged students, active duty military, and traditional students. He has taught online, face-to-face, and hybrid courses. He has conducted research in educational and workplace settings on organizational transformation, risk and social capital, and policy creation in Eastern Europe, the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, and the United States.

Alice Pulvermacher is a Project Director and Principal Investigator in the University of Wisconsin System Office of Academic and Student Affairs. She leads the Math Initiative systemwide change project involving 13 four-year institutions and 13 two-year campuses, as well as coordination with Wisconsin’s technical college and K-12 systems. She previously served as grant Project Director to document and disseminate the academic, operational, budgetary, communications and policy infrastructures essential for competency-based education.

Prior to joining UW System Administration, she was a Research Project Director in the UW-Madison College of Engineering from 2004 to 2014. She was responsible for implementation of individual and organizational change initiatives, including an $8 million multi-state project with 200 private and public organizations. That was among several federal and private grants she managed during the past 15 years.

She earned a B.S. in project management from Michigan State University and an M.S. in adult education from UW-Madison.

Dr. Carleen Vande Zande began serving as Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs for the University of Wisconsin System in April 2018. As leader of the UW System’s Office of Academic Programs & Faculty Advancement, her areas of responsibility include all academic programs actions, accreditation, policy development and analysis, faculty professional development, international education, articulation agreements, collaborative language programs, high impact practices, educational innovation, and applied research. She also provides leadership in program planning and the development of academic proposals on behalf of the system’s 13 universities. Significant initiatives led by Carleen include implementation of the equity-minded high impact practices program and a full review of Regent and System academic policies. She also was instrumental in the approval by the Higher Learning Commission of the recent restructuring of the UW Colleges.

Carleen has been an active member of the peer review core of the Higher Learning Commission since 2005 and serves on the Institutional Actions Council of the HLC. She also serves on the National Association of System Heads Steering Committee and has worked on initiatives related to transfer and high impact practices at the national level.

Carleen has held numerous administrative and tenured faculty positions at institutions across Wisconsin. She previously served as the UW System Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Programs and Educational Innovation in 2017-18. She has also served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Curricular Affairs and Student Academic Achievement at UW-Oshkosh, where she is a tenured professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. In addition, she served as Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the School of Education and subsequently as Dean of Graduate Studies at Marian University, Fond du Lac, Wis. While in her leadership role in education, she was elected to the boards of the Association of American of Colleges of Teacher Education as well as the Association of Independent of Liberal Arts Colleges of Teacher Education and participated in the design of new approaches to accredit teacher education programs. She is a past president of the Wisconsin Association of Colleges of Teacher Education and has collaborated on several Department of Public Instruction program approval initiatives. Carleen was also appointed the Director of Assessment and has done several national presentations on assessment.

Carleen received her B.A. in Spanish at Daemen College, Amherst, N.Y., and completed studies at the University of Valencia, Spain; the Conservatory of Music Valencia, Spain; the National Catholic University of France in Angers, France; and at the Cuauhnahuac Language Institute in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She earned an M.S. in Spanish and Education and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at UW-Madison.