Update on the Department of Education’s “Better FAFSA” Implementation

Tashni-Ann Dubroy is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Howard University. She oversees facilities management, information technology, campus safety, enrollment management, auxiliary services, environmental health and safety, process optimization, and university strategy.

Before joining Howard in 2017, she served as the 17th president of Shaw University, and during her tenure, was awarded Female President of the Year by HBCU Digest. Before her executive appointment at Shaw, she served as special assistant to the president, chair of Shaw’s Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and an associate professor of chemistry. Dubroy began her career at BASF, the world's largest chemical company. She also co-founded Tea and Honey Blends, a hair care company that manufactured and retailed natural hair care products, and co-owned downtown Raleigh’s Element Beauty Bar.

Dubroy earned her PhD in physical organic chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2007 and holds a master’s of business administration degree from Rutgers University.

Russ Hannah is the chief financial officer at Arkansas State University. He’s worked at A-State for 32 years in various financial roles including treasurer, controller, assistant vice chancellor for finance, associate vice chancellor for business and finance, and senior associate vice chancellor for finance/associate chief financial officer before assuming his current position in July of 2021. Prior to coming to A-State, he worked for Arkansas Legislative Audit for 8 years.

Hannah holds undergraduate degrees in management and accounting, an MBA, a specialist in community college administration, and a doctorate in educational leadership, all from Arkansas State. He is a certified public accountant, a charted global management accountant, and a certified government financial manager and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management, the Institute for Higher Education Management at Vanderbilt University, and the College Business Management Institute at the University of Kentucky. He recently completed an executive certificate in public leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School.

He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of NACUBO, is a past president of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers (SACUBO), and a former chair of the NACUBO Accounting Principles Council.

Melanie Storey joined the U.S. Department of Education’s office of federal student aid (FSA) in March 2020 and in May 2022 became the director of FSA’s office of policy implementation and oversight (PIO). PIO advises FSA on higher education policy to ensure that operations are considered in policy development and, once enacted, that policy is implemented to meet intended goals. Storey is currently leading FSA’s policy implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and FUTURE Act. Prior to joining FSA, Storey led a wide range of policy-focused activities related to higher education and student financial aid at the College Board. She also served as the director of national initiatives at the American Council on Education (ACE), which is the national organization that represents college and university presidents and chancellors. In that role, she provided strategic research and analytical support to ACE’s government relations leadership team and served as the primary staff liaison for several blue-ribbon commissions.

Kara D. Freeman is NACUBO's president and chief executive officer, the first African American woman to serve in this role.

Freeman, a strategic leader with extensive national higher education experience, brings more than three decades of experience to NACUBO and is joining from the American Council on Education (ACE), where she has worked since 2006. She most recently served as senior vice president and chief operating officer (COO), with the responsibility for setting the strategic direction of the administrative and operational areas of the organization. She previously was ACE’s vice president of administration and chief information officer.

As an executive leader at ACE, Freeman’s portfolio included providing strategic thought leadership on organization-wide initiatives, representing ACE with constituency groups such as the ACE Women’s Network, and playing a leading role in ACE’s efforts to share advocacy information with presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and an M.B.A. from The George Washington University. She also holds a certified association executive credential from the American Society of Association Executives.