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Keynote Speaker

Tara Stopfel Warden

Tara Stopfel Warden serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for Advising, Academic Services & Strategic Partnerships at the University of Cincinnati (UC). She specializes in strategy and innovative program design for student success, advising, and enrollment management. Her leadership within UC’s urban, Research I setting supports 54,000 students at 14 colleges and three campuses, including two community colleges. She provides executive leadership to advance coordinated strategy universitywide and manages a portfolio including: academic advising, orientation, student success technology & assessment, early college programs/dual enrollment, and Cincinnati Public Schools Strong.

Tara has advocated for and facilitated several million dollars of permanent investments in student success, accompanying remarkable increases in enrollment, student retention, and graduation rates, while reducing outcome gaps for under-resourced students. The programs she has designed have received awards and recognition from NACADA twice for innovation and exemplary practices. In addition, Tara was honored with NACADA’s Michael C. Holen Pacesetter Award in 2019, and in 2020 she received the ACE Ohio Excellence in Higher Education Leadership Award. 

Currently serving as a faculty member and past chair of NACADA’s Administrators’ Institute, Tara also regularly serves as a consultant. She offers experience from large public and small private universities in Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas, with a background spanning academic affairs, student affairs, and enrollment management. Tara earned an M.Ed. in Counseling and Student Services (Higher Education Administration focus) and a B.A. at the University of North Texas.  She is a graduate of the HERS Leadership Institute. She loves to travel, read, kayak and explore the outdoors with her husband, Chris, and 14-year old son, Cooper.

The Human Connection in Moving Student Success Outcomes

We all share a universal human need to be seen, understood, known, and valued for who we are and what we have to offer. While the core themes of Dr. Maya Angelou’s work beautifully reflect this sentiment, the principles are a cornerstone across psychology, philosophy, and organizational development: we cannot effectively support our students' growth unless we first foster genuine connections with the people who guide them. 

Higher education is in a period of rapid transformation, elevating the pressure on advisors and student success teams. The essential fabric of thriving academic communities, now more than ever, is built on authentic relationships, care, and collaboration. 

Drawing inspiration from diverse fields, this engaging 2-hour keynote will move beyond abstract concepts to explore concrete strategies. We will examine how centering the human element in our daily work can bridge gaps between students' aspirations and campus resources, significantly impacting retention, graduation rates, and well-being. 

Participants will leave this session not just inspired, but motivated with actionable insights on: 

  • Fostering deeper, more meaningful connections with a diverse student body, particularly in the face of ongoing challenges to identity and belonging. 
  • Cultivating a culture of care and collaboration among colleagues to ensure we are well supporting the "people who take care of our students." 
  • Elevating the advising role to meet the evolving needs of our institutions, ensuring that every student feels valued and empowered to succeed. 

Join us to explore how a commitment to human connection can be the most powerful driver of student success outcomes in our continuously changing landscape.