Stephanie L. Fabritius
President
Stephanie L. Fabritius joined the ACS staff on July 1, 2019. Most recently, she was with ACS member Centre College, where she served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college for 12 years. Prior to that, she was a professor of biology, associate provost and the inaugural director of the Paideia Program at Southwestern University. In 2002-2003, Stephanie was an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Bowdoin College. She holds a B.S. in biology from Pepperdine University, and a Ph.D. in biological sciences (ecology, evolution, and behavior) from Purdue University.
Rachel Curtin
Grant Programs Coordinator
Executive Assistant to Stephanie Fabritius
Rachael Curtin joined the ACS staff in October of 2021. Most recently, she was an ESL teacher while also working as the principal’s assistant in one of Florida’s school districts. Prior to that, she worked at Strayer University as the academic assistant to the campus dean for 8 years, while also playing a role in admissions. She holds an MBA and BBA from Strayer University.
Rachael works extensively with the ACS grant programs coordinating the logistics and administrative functions of those programs.
Vanessa Hook
Tuition Exchange Coordinator
Executive Assistant to Doug Wofford
Vanessa Hook’s experience in academia spans over 19 years with increasing responsibilities in Communications, Public Relations and Public Service. A self-proclaimed ‘Jane of All Trades’, she has sought to continually finetune her expertise in constituent coordination and development, social media networking, web-development and audience engagement. A graduate of St. Francis College in New York, she is a published author and member of the national Duns Scotus Honor Society.
Vanessa joined ACS is October of 2020 and now enjoys working with its member schools to help make new programs available to their faculty and administration, while also helping students achieve their collegiate goals by facilitating access to its affordable tuition program, ACS Tuition Exchange.
Mary Grace Neville
Program Officer, ACS Faculty & Staff Programs
Mary Grace Neville comes to ACS with 20 years of liberal arts experiences teaching, researching, building programs, and serving in administrative leadership roles across continents. Her own college experience at Northwestern University set a foundation for the discovery mindset and social justice orientation that led her into public advocacy work. Earning an MBA at the Wharton School taught her the frameworks of business, leading her to join the corporate sector to apply strategic thinking and analytical problem solving of business into developing organizations. An inquisitory mind led Mary Grace to return to school once more, this time for a PhD in Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve, where she helped to launch a global inquiry into business leaders and concepts that were serving as agents of world benefit. That global-local thinking inspired her into sustainability mindsets and innovations through business that bring liberal arts ideals to life into today and tomorrows’ worlds.
Now 20 years later, Mary Grace is an emeritus faculty at ACS’s Southwestern University, has served as a Fulbright Fellow at a liberal arts college in Ghana, and has served as a dean and faculty at a liberal arts college in Morocco. She brings kaleidoscope thinking to our program initiatives towards faculty and staff development believing that what we do today matters tomorrow.
Melissa Perkins
Bookkeeper
Melissa Perkins joined the ACS staff in January 2022. For the last ten years, Melissa has partnered with a variety of small businesses assisting their owners with tasks they don’t have the bandwidth to complete. These projects always include general accounting, but have grown to include database management, event planning, website updates, and marketing communications. Melissa also spent several years working at the University of Cincinnati, then University of Louisville and feels that joining ACS is like coming home.
As a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a history degree, Melissa often gets the question, “How does a historian spend almost 30 years doing accounting.” The answer is that history is ultimately the study of how people and events from the past shape the present and future, and so does accounting.
Beth Adcock Shiroishi
Program Director, ACS Academic Fellows Program
Beth Adcock Shiroishi joined the ACS staff in August of 2022 to program manage the ACS Academic Fellows Program, a new consortium academic leadership program. Beth’s previous professional and civic work has spanned 20+ years in the strategy and execution of multiple programs in the areas of customer experience, public policy, pricing strategy, contract negotiations, regulatory affairs, and philanthropy and corporate social responsibility. She serves on the Board of Trustees at her alma mater, Agnes Scott College, and is an active member of the Executive, Student Success, and Governance committees.
Doug Wofford
Chief Financial Officer
Doug insistently proclaims that his life-long commitment to the value of a broad liberal arts education is reflected in his academic and career choices. Starting with a BS in Chemistry/Biology and then winding through a BA in History, a masters in Marketing Management and a doctorate in Higher Education Finance he, of course, chose a career in education technology.
Doug’s work career maintained a theme that some call unfocused (but he describes as eclectic) with stints as a Director of Admissions, a consultant, lead researcher for a National Science Foundation project, founder of two enrollment management software companies, Senior Vice President of the College Board’s higher education products and services and Senior Vice President for Technology at what is now Ruffalo Noel Levitz. He finds it perfectly consistent to now be working with Dr. Fabritius at ACS with a focus on operations, finance, technology, data analytics and service delivery.