Meet the LDI Faculty

In this Section:
LDI Home Page •
Cohorts and Testimonials • Meet the LDI Faculty •
Cohort Expectations •
More Information
Faculty for the PACRAO LDI
The faculty for the 2020-21 LDI are:
- Julia Pomerenk (Dean), University of Oregon, Oregon
- Marc Booker, University of Phoenix, Arizona
- Krystal Cortez Bates, Gonzaga University, Washington
- Kristen Labrecque, University of Washington, Bothell, Washington
- Paul Lampano, University of California, Irvine, California
See also below:
Past Faculty •
CurriculumQuestions? Please contact LDI Dean Julia Pomerenk (jpom@uoregon.edu).
Julia Pomerenk, Dean

Julia serves as the dean for the faculty of the LDI and is delighted to help build this remarkable discovery and development program. Over the past 30 years, PACRAO has provided Julia with many opportunities to learn and contribute, including roles as PACRAO pal, presenter, and president. Making connections and contributions through PACRAO remains the best part of her professional journey. Presentation topics most often focus on leadership, positive change, and gratitude. Julia is also active in OrACRAO and AACRAO. She currently chairs the AACRAO Awards Committee and was previously chair for the AACRAO Nominations and Elections Committee. Julia has enjoyed a long career in student services, starting in admissions and spending the last 30 years working in the records and registration and greater enrollment management area. Prior to her role at University of Oregon, Julia worked as University Registrar at Washington State University and at Pacific Lutheran University.
Julia holds a master of arts in English from The Ohio State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology from Pacific Lutheran University.
Title: University Registrar and Assistant Vice President for Student Services and Enrollment Management
Institution: University of Oregon
PACRAO Leadership Roles
- Dean for the Leadership Development Institute (2018 – present)
- Vice President for Professional Development (2015 – 2016)
- President-Elect, President, and Past President (2010 – 2013)
- Vice President for Professional Development (2006 – 2008)
AACRAO Leadership Roles
- Awards Committee Chair (2018 – present)
- Nominations and Elections Committee Chair (2017-18) and Chair-Elect (2016 – 17)
- Program Structure Task Force Member (2013 - 2014)
- Co-chair of Volunteers for 2011 Annual Meeting in Seattle (2009 – 2011)
- Nominations and Elections Committee Member (2009 – 2010)
- Mentor Committee Chair and Member (2006 -2009)
- Publicity Chair for 2001 Annual Meeting in Seattle (1999 – 2001)
PACRAO Conference Presentations
- Co-presenter for workshop on Leadership and Management (2017)
- Presenter and co-presenter for webinars (2016 and 2018)
- Presenter and co-presenter regularly at Annual Meetings (since 1997)
AACRAO Conference Presentations
- Co-presenter for webinar on mentoring (2016)
- Co-leader for workshop, webinar, and session on curriculum and the registrar’s role (2015 and 2016)
- Regular Presenter and Co-Presenter at Annual Meeting (since 2002)
AACRAO Publications
- Co-author for chapter in Mentorship in Higher Education: Practical Advice and Leadership Theories (AACRAO publication, 2018)
- Co-author for two chapters in Curriculum Management and the Role of the Registrar (AACRAO publication, 2016)
Other Professional Leadership Contributions
- Co-led Program Reviews:
- Registrar’s Office at the University of California, Merced (2020)
- Registrar’s Office at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California (2018)
- Registrar’s Office at the University of Nevada, Reno (2013)
- Provided Presentations:
- OrACRAO Conference Presentations (since 2018)
- WaACRAO Conference Presentations (through 2017)
- Clover Park Technical College Enrollment Management Retreat (2016)
- WaACRAO (Washington Association for Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) Annual Meetings (2013 and 2016)ICRC (Intercollegiate College Relations Commission) of Washington Annual Meeting (2016)
- ARC (Admissions and Registration Council) of Washington Meetings (2009 and 2015)
Marc Booker

Marc is the Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Implementation at University of Phoenix, and has worked in higher education for over 17 years in a variety of admissions, training, and student support roles.
Marc is actively engaged in the higher education community and has served PACRAO in many capacities including holding the honor of being the 2016 President for the Association. Since 2009, Marc has been a regular speaker, contributor, and author for national and regional associations like AACRAO, PACRAO, ACBSP, and CAEL sharing insight on various topics including leadership, process improvement, PLA, international admissions, and articulation.
Marc holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Management degrees from the University of Phoenix, and is a candidate for a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration.
Title and Institution
Title: Associate Provost, Strategic Initiatives and Implementation
Institution: University of Phoenix
PACRAO Board Positions
- 2014: VP Professional Development
- 2015: President-Elect
- 2016: President
- 2017: Past-President/Acting Treasurer
Conference session presenter
- American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Annual Conferences
- 2018: Managing High-Volume Transfer Credit Operations
- 2017: Process Improvement, Pop Culture, and CRAO Topics
- 2016: Perspectives on PLA and Nontraditional Credit; Annual Meeting Planning for a Large Regional Association
- 2015: Simplified Leadership: New Manager’s Toolkit
- 2011: Simplified Leadership: The Foundation
- 2010: Engaging and Retaining Your Keepers
- Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (PACRAO) Annual Conferences
- 2017: Simplified Leadership: New Manager’s Toolkit
- 2016: Managing High-Volume Transfer Credit Operations
- 2015: Perspectives on PLA and Nontraditional Credit; Process Improvement, Pop Culture, and PACRAO
- 2014: Strategies for Process Improvement and Building Your Brand
- 2013: Simplified Leadership: New Manager’s Toolkit
- 2011: Simplified Leadership: The Foundation
- 2009: Engaging and Retaining Your Keepers
- Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Annual Conference
- 2015: Perspectives on Leveraging PLA for Institutional Improvement
- Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP) Annual Conference
- 2012: Guidelines for Articulation and Transfer Credit
Publications
- Co-Author of In-house Credential Evaluation Services: Lessons Learned at the University of Phoenix case study published in The AACRAO International Guide
- Contributor to the 2014 Transferability of Postsecondary Credit Following Student Transfer or Co-enrollment study published by the National Center for Education Statistics
- Co-Author of the initial 2012 Guidelines for Articulation and Transfer of Credit for the Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs (ACBSP)
Krystal Cortez Bates

PACRAO Leadership Positions:
- 2019: Local Arrangements Committee (Scottsdale)
- 2020: Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chair (Seattle/Virtual)
Krystal Cortez Bates is the Associate Director of Student Services at Gonzaga University. She has spent the last 13 years working in higher education. Her personal experience in higher education led her to pursue a career working to help change the lives of students.
A relatively new member of PACRAO, Krystal became more involved as part of the first year cohort of the LDI (Leadership Development Institute). She describes the LDI as one of the most transformative and enriching experiences of her professional career. Krystal is currently serving as the PACRAO 2020 Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chair and feels a strong connection to PACRAO and its members.
Krystal holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of Florida and a Master of Business Administration degree from Gonzaga University.
Kristen Labrecque

Kristen is the academic advisor for Elementary Education in the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. Prior to this role, Kristen worked in transfer admissions at UWB, and served as the Assistant Director for Admissions Campus Visits & Events at Seattle Pacific University as well as the Associate Director of Student Academic Services, also at SPU. Through these roles in admissions, advising, and enrollment, Kristen has enjoyed PACRAO membership since 2004.
Kristen holds Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) and Master of Education (Curriculum & Instruction) degrees from Seattle Pacific University.
Title: Academic Advisor
Institution: University of Washington Bothell
PACRAO Leadership Positions
- 2009: Writers’ Team Chair
- 2011: Local Arrangements Committee (Seattle)
- 2018-2020: Board Secretary
- Conference Session Presenter
- 2004: Online Degree Audits (co-presented with Torrey Landgraf)
- 2006: Online Advising
- 2007: Getting Involved with PACRAO (where the first PACRAO Bingo Game was introduced, co-presented with Andrew Anderson)
- 2008: Getting Involved with PACRAO (co-presented with Andrew Anderson)
- 2008: Giving at the Office (panelist, session led by Janet Danley)
- 2008: Your Office – The Next Generation (co-presented with Kenda Gatlin & Stephanie Malin)
- 2009: Getting Involved with PACRAO (co-presented with Andrew Anderson)
- 2015: Change Management (co-presented with Kenda Gatlin)
- 2017: Homegrown Curricula for Professional Development
- 2017: Shining Light for Supervisors (Pre-Conference Workshop with Julia Pomerenk & Marianne Stickel)
- 2018: Advising as Recruitment
- 2019: Storytelling as a Means of Connection
- 2019: ED Talk – A letter to future leaders
Publications
- 2006: Online Advising
- 2006: Supervising Student Employees
- 2007: Cultural Cues and Management Styles
- 2008: Peer Advising
Paul Lampano

Paul is the Deputy Registrar at the University of California, Irvine and oversees the overall operations of the University Registrar’s Office. Additionally, Paul has been working in higher education for over 20 years as an academic counselor and in a registrar’s office.
As an advocate for professional development and a PACRAOian, Paul sees the high value, guidance and support that PACRAO and the LDI can offer to future leaders. Having a support group and connections outside of your own institution provides LDI participants a network of professionals to discuss the changing landscape of higher education.
Paul completed his Bachelor of Arts in degree at the University of California, Irvine and is pursuing a Master of Arts at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
PACRAO Positions:
- 2019 - Nominations and Elections Committee
- 2013-2015 - Treasurer
- 2011 – Nominations and Elections Committee
- 2009 – Local Arrangements Committee, Newport Beach, CA
Past Faculty
Nora McLaughlin

Nora is the Registrar at Reed College where she oversees the registrar’s office, supports the Dean of the Faculty, and advises the College’s adjudication boards dealing with student conduct. Nora has worked in higher education for over 40 years in a variety of registrar, admission, curriculum, and student success areas.
Nora credits her engagement in professional associations as an essential factor in the breadth of her experience and understanding of higher education. She has served on AACRAO’s Board of Directors andPACRAO’s Board of Directors in different roles, including president.
Nora has made numerous presentations at professional meetings on topics including ethics in higher education, registration innovations, Title IX and sexual misconduct, the evolving role of the registrar, records management, and leadership in higher education. She has assisted in conference planning for AACRAO, PACRAO, and OrACRAO and served as a facilitator in AACRAO’s collaboration to create the Peabody Professional Institute for Senior Academic and Enrollment Services Professionals.
Nora completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Johnston College, University of Redlands, pursued graduate work in linguistics at California State University, Long Beach, and earned the Master of Arts degree at Reed College.
Title and Institution
Title: Registrar
Institution: Reed College
PACRAO Board Positions
- 1988-90: Treasurer
- 1998-99: President-Elect
- 1999-2000: President
- 2000-01: Past-President
AACRAO Leadership Positions
- 1997-98: Nominations and Elections Committee
- 2003-05: Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chair-Elect, Vice Chair
- 2006-09: Vice-President for Leadership and Management Development
- 2009-11: Task Force on Association Governance
- 2010-11: President-Elect
- 2011-12: President
- 2012-13: Past-President
Conference session presenter (sampling of topics)
- American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Annual
Conferences
- Campus Culture: Assess, Engage, and Affect
- The Challenge of Change and the Opportunity to Lead
- Parent Services for Small Colleges
- FERPA in Times of Information Exposure
- Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (PACRAO) Annual
- Conferences
- Ethics and the Profession
- Advice for the New Registrar
- Evolving Role of the Registrar
- Innovative Staff Concepts
- Oregon Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (OrACRAO) Annual
- Conferences
- Title IX, Clery, VAWA, and FERPA
- Ethical Leadership and Service
- Co-opting the Helicopter Parents
- EDUCAUSE Annual Meeting
- Collaborating Within and Beyond the Institution
Publications
- Contributing author: Retention of Student Records (AACRAO 2014)
- Contributing author: Academic Records and Transcript Guide (AACRAO 2015)
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Stephen Arod Shirreffs

Stephen has been at Stanford for 19 years, and his responsibilities include course catalog, web sites, communication broadly, and policy and technology initiatives.
Stephen has attended PACRAO annually since 2011. He has spoken at PACRAO and AACRAO on topics including online accessibility, data and course catalogs, diffusion of innovation, MOOCs, the Groningen Declaration, class meeting patterns, credentialing, and communications strategy. Stephen was a 2017 inaugural Ed Talk speaker. He gave a preconference workshop on Implementing Electronic Records at AACRAO and PACRAO in 2016-17.
Stephen holds a Ph.D. in South and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley (1998), focused on modern Indonesian literature and ancient Malay chronicles. He is an avid road cyclist, participating annually in the AIDS/LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Title and Institution
Title: Associate Director, Communications, Student and Academic Services and the Registrar's Office
Institution: Stanford University
PACRAO
- 2015: Nominations Committee
- 2017: Program Committee, Spokane Annual Conference
- 2019- : Vice President for Publications and Information Technology
Conference session presenter
- American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Annual Conferences
- 2018: Authors and Audiences, or How Aristotle Can Make You a Better Communicator
- 2018: Implications of Automation (with Aaron Apel, Wisconsin)
- 2018: Communicating with Your Partners in Student Services (with Kylie Borges, Stanford)
- 2017: Preconference Workshop: Implementing Electronic Student Records from eTranscript to ePortfolio
- 2016: Credentialing, the Registrar, and the Future of Higher Education
- 2016: The Long Road: How Stanford Changed its Standard Class Meeting Patterns
- Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (PACRAO) Annual Conferences
- 2017: Ed Talk: Beginnings …
- 2017: Authors and Audiences, or How Aristotle Can Make You a Better Communicator
- 2016: Making the Course Catalog a Core Value Again
- 2016: Credentialing, the Registrar, and the Future of Higher Education
- 2016: Preconference Workshop: Implementing Electronic Student Records from eTranscript to ePortfolio
- 2015: The Groningen Declaration
- 2015: The Long Road: How Stanford Changed its Standard Class Meeting Patterns
- 2014: Telling Your Story
- 2014: MOOCS: A Reverse Inventory
- 2013: Diffusion of Innovations, A Practical Workshop
- 2012: Data Flow & the Modern Course Catalog
- 2011: Leveraging Accessibility to Change Minds & Open Pathways
- AACRAO Tech and Transfer
- 2017: Credential Transparency (with John Papinchak, Carnegie Mellon, and Joyce Li, Stanford)
- 2017: How A.I., Virtual Agents, and Chatbots are Changing the Stakeholder Experience (with Mark McConahay, Indiana, and Mark McNasby, Ivy)
- 2017: Pronunciations & Pronouns: Technology for a More Inclusive Campus (with Praveen Shanbhag, NameCoach)
Publications
- Guidebook Review – Spokane in PACRAO Newsletter and PACRAO Review (upcoming), 2018
- The Groningen Declaration Today – PACRAO Review, October 2016
- MOOCs, Where are We, What’s Next, and What Do Registrars Have to Do With It? – PACRAO Review, May 2015
Soraira Urquiza

Soraira Urquiza is currently the Registrar for the American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the chair of the Latinx Caucus for AACRAO as well as the VP for Professional Development for PACRAO. She recently completed her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California and also holds a Master’s degree in Chicana/o Studies from CSU Northridge (CSUN). Dr. Urquiza’s research focused on how Latinas in higher education administration utilize their Big Hoop Energy and professional clapbacks to combat microaggressions while working at historically white institutions. In addition to being an administrator, she also teaches College 1 at Pasadena City College and has taught several courses in Chicanx Studies at various community colleges in Los Angeles as well as CSUN.
PACRAO Positions & Awards
- 2011-2014: Diversity Development Advocate
- 2012: Exemplary New Member Award
- 2015: Local Arrangements Chair, Anaheim
- 2019-2020: Leadership Development Institute Faculty
- 2020: VP Professional Development
- 2021: President-Elect
Conference Presentations
Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrar’s and Admissions Officers (PACRAO)
- 2017: “Ed Talk - From our Membership to our Membership” Presenter
- 2017: “LGBTQ Roundtable.” Facilitator.
- 2016:“Safe Zone and the Registrar's Office: How one little sticker can make a lasting impact on a student” Presenter
- 2014: “ALLY Program Development in the Registrar’s Office: One Year Later.”
- 2014: “Diversity Roundtable.” Facilitator.
- 2014: “Multicultural Professionals: Roundtable” Facilitator.
- 2013: “Not All Students Are Created Equal.” Facilitator.
- 2013: “ALLY Program Development in the Registrar’s Office”
- 2012: “Health, Home, and Work: Creating a Balance.” Presenter
American Association of Collegiate Registrar’s and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
- 2019: “Women of Color Professionals” Presenter
- 2019: “Latinx Caucus” Facilitator
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Curriculum for the PACRAO LDI
Much of our study together as a cohort of faculty and students will revolve around discussing and applying books and other materials that we read together. I’m excited to give you a sample of potential books, below.
- Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albetine, Michelle Asha Cooper, Nicole McDonald, and Thomas Major, Jr
- Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehesi Coates
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
- Managing for Outcomes, Wayne Sigler
- Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
- Whistling Vivaldi, Claude M. Steele
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, Beverly Tatum
Questions?
Please contact LDI Dean Julia Pomerenk (
jpom@uoregon.edu).