Reena Lichtenfeld, Ed.D, senior vice president, brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration. Her areas of expertise include graduate, undergraduate, and online admissions; strategic recruitment and enrollment management/planning; and policy, accreditation, governance, and compliance. Dr. Lichtenfeld is a results-driven passionate higher education professional who brings a broad spectrum of proven tools and strategies to the table.
Previous experience
In her former role as assistant dean for enrollment management for Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development (TN), Dr. Lichtenfeld was responsible for developing and initiating a comprehensive strategic enrollment plan for the college. In this capacity, she brought forth a data-informed and collaborative discipline for enrollment management planning resulting in an increase in qualified leads, a better conversion rate from started to completed applicants, and an increase in the number of candidates accepting offers of admission for professional graduate students across 18 different programs.
As executive director of admissions services for laureate education, she led initiatives in a large multi-national, highly matrixed organization. Some of the notable work there entailed: management of a large, multi-national operations admissions team to include the following teams: admissions, document management, global transcript evaluation, continuous improvement, transfer of credit and MOU development; the development of a Center for Degree Completion; the launch of a new institution, the first to be recognized in 23 years by the Ministry of Education in Australia; spearheading the development of admissions offices at two U.S.-based institutions; and leading multiple change management initiatives across five global regions.
Her leadership style is collaborative, innovative, solution- and improvement-oriented, and her work with clients is notably rooted in appreciative inquiry. Other experiences include leadership positions at top-ranking schools of graduate business and engineering and a small liberal arts college.
Publications, presentations, and education
Dr. Lichtenfeld contributed a chapter on admissions in Sage Publication’s Encyclopedia for Online Education, 2016. Her doctoral study focused on using prior learning assessments to help retention and recruitment initiatives for adult learners. She has presented at the Slate Innovation Summit, the RNL National Conference, and NAGAP.
She earned her doctorate in education for Higher Education Administration from Walden University (MN) and holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Carolina.
In 2021, Dr. Lichtenfeld became a Certified DISC Practitioner®. She will also earn a graduate certificate in digital marketing and will be a certified Accountability with Care® expert.