Valerie currently serves as the senior manager of strategic partnerships at ADVANCE.  She earned a B.S. in English Education at Taylor University, a liberal arts school in Indiana.  She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Kentucky.  

With two decades of administrative leadership experience in higher education, Valerie has held roles in the U-M Marsal School of Education, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT), Office of the Provost, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID).  From 2012-2020 she served as managing director of Mcubed, a university-wide initiative that catalyzed the formation of hundreds of interdisciplinary faculty research teams.  From 2021-2024, she worked in Michigan Engineering as managing director of the dean’s special projects and then strategic planning manager in leadership development.

Valerie has won the U-M Staff Team Innovation Award, as well as awards for her university teaching.  She has published on research innovation and engineering education.  In her leisure time, she hikes, reads, listens to podcasts, and spends time with friends and family.  As a coach, she loves supporting people in their professional journeys and helping them exercise their gifts more fully, discover new possibilities in their lives, and find more meaning, dignity, and freedom in their work.