The Career and Retirement of Joan Zanders, Director of Financial Aid

August 12, 2021 / Faculty/Staff Highlights

As recently announced, Joan Zanders, NOVA’s renowned director of financial aid will retire August 31, 2021 after 13 years of highly commendable service at the College and an impressive 34-year career at various institutions at the level of director or higher. 

Joan’s education and career in the financial aid community began in Nebraska. She is a graduate of Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska, and Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, where she obtained her Master’s in Education.  While working as a Financial Aid Director in Nebraska, she also served as president of the Nebraska Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NeASFAA) and as the president of the Rocky Mountain Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (RMASFAA). 

Upon moving to Virginia to become director of financial aid at NOVA in 2008, she continued her active involvement in the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), serving as a board member, presenter, committee/taskforce member and negotiator.  She also assumed leadership roles in the Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (VASFAA) where she served as VASFAA president from 2018-2019 and met many friends along the way. 

As a respected financial aid administrator, Joan was often called upon at the national, regional and state levels for her expertise. As one VCCS colleague recently joked, the feds would call her when they needed help understanding their own Dear Colleague letters and regulations. Although Joan is adept at interpreting complex financial aid regulations, her true interests centered more on influencing the future of financial aid. Over the years, she has met with federal and state lawmakers to help shape financial aid policies, and she has heavily invested her energy in developing NOVA’s financial aid team.

Joan’s goal was always for NOVA’s Financial Aid Office to be the best in the country. While such statistics are not kept, Joan treats NOVA’s financial aid team as if they are #1 in the country. Under Joan’s leadership and direction, the financial aid department not only saw a significant improvement in financial aid operations, but also a complete turn-around in the customer service provided to students. The number of FAFSA filers and aid recipients at NOVA more than doubled and the amount of aid awarded each year increased from $33.7 million in 2007-2008 to approximately $120 million in more recent years. Joan implemented a lengthy process improvement plan that in her own words, “Turned the Financial Aid Office Upside-Down.” 

Key enhancements that Joan implemented at NOVA included:

  • Setting up the Blackboard 24-Hour Student Support Center to reduce long lines, improve customer service and provide a means for secure, electronic document submission
  • Creating a centralized reporting structure that facilitated training and accountability
  • Establishing and filling critical leadership positions in the Financial Aid Office
  • Providing regular full-day Financial Aid-101 training sessions for staff in other departments
  • Significantly increasing high school and community outreach
  • Partnering with Inceptia to provide verification services, default prevention outreach and financial literacy programs; the latter two of which helped NOVA’s loan cohort default rate become among the lowest in the Virginia Community College System
  • Implementing a financial aid fraud prevention program
    • Contracting with FATV/Ocelot to provide students with access to an artificial intelligence chatbot, financial aid videos (including customized videos used for New Student Orientation) and an improved Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) appeal process
  • Launched a Financial Aid Virtual Lobby

Group Video: If you would like to record a short video message (about 10-20 seconds in length) for Joan congratulating her on her retirement, please do so within the next five days.    

Joan, as you move on to your next adventure, the entire financial aid team at NOVA wishes you the very best!  We are grateful for the profound impact you have had on our office, the College, and the entire financial aid community.  It has been an honor and a true pleasure working with you!  We leave you with one last bit of advice for your retirement, the same advice that you often gave us… “No headlines!”

Joan Zanders

 

Submitted by:
Clint Young, Financial Aid, JCYoung@nvcc.edu