Jerome A. "Jerry" Lucido is Professor of Research, Executive Director of the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice, and Special Advisor to the Provost at the University of Southern California. He served from August 2006-July 2010 as USC’s Vice Provost for Enrollment Policy and Management, responsible for undergraduate and graduate admission, financial aid, academic records and registration, graduation rates initiatives, and enrollment policy. While Vice Provost, Dr. Lucido also served as a trustee of the College Board, as chair of the College Board’s Task Force on College Admission in the 21st Century, and as vice chair of the Commission on Access, Admission, and Success in Higher Education. He has played a leading role at the national level in initiatives to improve access for low-income and underrepresented students and to design and execute effective and principled college admission and enrollment management practices.
Dr. Lucido came to USC from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he guided enrollment planning and management, and oversaw the Offices of Undergraduate Admissions, Scholarships and Student Aid, and the University Registrar. Dr. Lucido has been a chair and a national presenter for the College Board's New Admissions Practices Project, a national project that examined how admission decisions are made, how they should be made, and how admission practices should be communicated to the public. He was also a member of the steering committee that addressed and reformulated the Statement of Principles of Good Practice on behalf of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
During his tenure at UNC, the academic quality, diversity, and talent of the student body dramatically increased. Dr. Lucido played the leading role in UNC's decision to eliminate Early Decision in 2002, an action that was hailed by the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the New York Times. He was also instrumental in the introduction of the Carolina Covenant, a ground-breaking student aid program that ensures a debt-free education to students from low-income backgrounds. Each of these actions has been emulated by eminent national universities, public and private. Additionally, Dr. Lucido designed and led a campus-wide enrollment planning and management framework that brought together university leaders in academic affairs, faculty and student governance, facilities planning, and financial management. This effort improved academic planning and coordination and provided a forum for addressing critical components of the UNC academic plan.
Prior to his work at UNC, Dr. Lucido served as assistant vice president for enrollment services and academic support at the University of Arizona. There, he led a student recruitment and retention organization that included the Offices of Early Outreach, Admissions, Scholarships and Student Aid, the Registrar, Minority Recruitment and Retention, the University Learning Center, and Career Services. Among his achievements at the UA was the design and direction of recruitment, selection, and scholarship programs that established a history of progressively stronger freshman classes, characterized by students of academic distinction and cultural diversity. During this time, Dr. Lucido received the Distinguished Service Award from the Western Region of the College Board, the Distinguished Service Award at the University of Arizona, and was honored at the University of Arizona for his contributions to improve the quality of education for students from under-represented groups.
Dr. Lucido's career in higher education began at Kent State University, where he served as associate director of admissions prior to assuming the director of admissions position at the University of Arizona. Dr. Lucido holds a Ph.D. degree in higher education from the University of Arizona, a M.Ed. degree from Kent State University, and a B.S. degree in business administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Emily Chung (M.A., East Asian Studies, Yale University) is the Program Director for the US Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California. Having joined the Center in July 2011, Ms. Chung oversees administrative operations, develops and implements research and curricular projects to further the Center's mission, manages events and public relations, and supervises research and administrative staff.
Previously Ms. Chung was an Associate Program Officer at the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership in New York, where she managed and evaluated a large grant portfolio, initiated educational outreach and international exchange activities, conducted research, managed roundtables, seminars, and workshops, and helped implement a public relations strategy. Her work at the Foundation was preceded by her work as Development Associate at Urban Solutions, in San Francisco, where she secured grants and established foundation relations in support of community development programs in the city. Emily earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a master's at Yale University, and completed Ph.D. coursework at the University of Chicago.
Marcela Cuellar (M.A., Higher Education Leadership, University of San Diego) is a Project Manager for the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California. Ms. Cuellar is responsible for managing the analysis and reporting of the College Access and Success Assessment (CASA). Prior to coming to USC, Ms. Cuellar worked as a research analyst at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she collaboratively developed and managed the analysis of an instrument examining campus climates for diversity within colleges and universities and underrepresented students’ experiences. Ms. Cuellar is presently a doctoral candidate at UCLA. Her research interests include access and equity, Latina/o student success, and Hispanic-serving institutions. At the completion of her doctoral studies, she will serve as the center’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
Renée Contreras serves as the Executive Assistant for the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice. Prior to coming to the University of Southern California, Ms. Contreras worked as a Contract Administrator for an architecture firm in Long Beach, CA. Ms. Contreras received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the California State University of Fullerton. She is also certified in Contract Management from the University of California, Irvine and would like to pursue a master's degree in Public Administration.