Steering Committee
April Ewing-Miles
President
University of Southern California
April Ewing-Miles is leads a team of Financial Counselors and Loan Collectors in the Student Financial Services Office at USC. She has been with the University since August 2017 and was previously employed in the Student Accounts Receivable department at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan for 14 years until relocating to California. April has a passion for continuous learning and for helping young women realize their potential and looks forward to serving the higher ed community in the coming year.
Brett Cassell
Vice President
University of Colorado Boulder
Brett Cassell is the Bursar at the University of Colorado Boulder. Previously, he was the Bursar at the University of New Orleans and served in various roles at the University of Southern Mississippi in the Alumni Association, Bursar’s Office, and the Office of Contract and Grant Accounting. In total, Brett has worked in Higher Education for over 22 years. He is very excited to work with this committee and collaborate on ways to offer learning opportunities to our peers. In his spare time, Brett likes to hike, ski, and play sports with his six-year old son, Caleb.
Rosemary Irvine
Treasurer
California State University, Northridge
Rosemary Irvine has been in student financials for 16+ years; the majority of those years in the private sector. She is currently serving as Director of Student Financial Services at California State University, Northridge. She is passionate about education and the first-generation experience. She's looking forward to working with everyone on the SFS PacWest committee and looks back fondly on the impact PacWest had in her first years in higher education. During her free time, she likes to spend time with her family including a rambunctious bulldog, invent cookie recipes, and dive into a good book with a cup of coffee.
Megin Soriano
Secretary
Caltech
Megin is the Bursar at Caltech in the city of Pasadena, California. She has worked in higher education for 19 years as the Student Account Manager and took on the role as Bursar in 2020. Her passion is, helping and collaborating with others to build a successful business and work environment. She believes that developing strong relationships is the foundation to everything she does, both professionally and personally. Megin is honored to be part of the PacWest committee. During her free time, she likes to spend it with her family, grandson, including her wild but sweet American Bully, and anything arts and crafts as her therapy.
Monique Gonzalez
Web Coordinator
Point Loma Nazarene University
Monique brings experience and dedication to her Director of Student Financial Services role at Point Loma Nazarene University. With 8 years in the field, Monique is passionate about leading and mentoring her team. She actively contributes to the organization's systems development and is her office's Google Guru. She's committed to fostering student success and accountability.
Monique enjoys making tasty meals in her free time, diving into a thought-provoking book, getting absorbed in movies, and engaging in lively game nights with loved ones.
Joe Weglarz
Member at Large
Marist College
Joe Weglarz began his tenure at Marist College over 30 years ago as Director of Student Accounts. In 1999, he was appointed Director of Financial Aid, and was promoted to Executive Director of Student Financial Services in 2006.
As Executive Director, he implemented a “one stop shop” approach by combining student billing, financial aid, and student employment operations. As Executive Director, he manages these operations for the College.
In 2014, Joe was selected to participate in Negotiated Rulemaking and was engaged in negotiations on the proposed regulatory language for the Department of Education.
He serves on the COHEAO Board of Directors as treasurer. In addition, he served as the Vice President of Finance for the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators (NEASEA), and was appointed President in 2014. He also served on the NACUBO Student Financial Services Counsel. He currently serves on NYSFAAA Executive council as treasurer. He has presented at various national and regional conferences on regulatory issues, and student financial services topics; such as college affordability, financial aid and bursar operations
Shay Holmes
Member at Large
Stanford University
Shay is the Associate Director of Student Financial Services at Stanford University. In her position she is responsible for the operational oversight of university payments and cashiering activities, as well as management of projects such as payment plans, collections and escheatment. She has worked in higher education for seven years and, prior to this, she was a bank AVP on the east coast for 15+ years which provided her with an extensive background in education and training on finance, operations and customer service. As a PacWest committee member, Shay is excited to network and continue building on her passion of learning and teaching sound financial literacy practices across the higher education industry.
Kathleen Brown
Member at Large
University of Oregon
Kathleen Brown is the manager of the Student Billing Department for the University of Oregon. She has been at the U of O for 9 years, coming from a career of over 20 years in personal and commercial banking. She is passionate about providing exemplary customer service to our students, parents and campus partners, and believes strongly in leading by example. One of her favorite parts of her job is putting on Intruducktion sessions for incoming freshman parents. She is excited about being a part of the PacWest committee, and honored that she gets to collaborate and build relationships with such talented people. Her free time is spent doing any activity she can find outdoors, and petting every dog.
Natalie Cardenas
Member at Large
Chapman University
Natalie is the Assistant Director of Student Business Services at Chapman University located in Orange county. She has worked in higher education for over 15 years.
She assists with managing the overall operations of the department. Natalie is grateful and excited to be a member of PacWest and looks forward to learning and serving on the committee.
Susanna Nelson
Member at Large
Mount Saint Mary's University, Los Angeles
Susanna is the Director of Student Accounts and Business Services at Mount Saint Mary’s University in the city of Los Angeles, California. She has been in higher education for 15+ years. She also has a business management and accounting background outside of higher education. She excels in driving change and mentoring the next generation of employees. Work/life balance is very important to her. She enjoys travel, great food and spending time with her family and friends.
Cylinda Duran
Corporate Member
TouchNet
Cylinda E. Duran, Regional Sales Manager, West Coast Region, for TouchNet. She has been with TouchNet for 8 years and is responsible for securing and maintaining long-term, mutually profitable relationships with higher education institutions. Her career began in 1989 at New Mexico Mining in the Accounts Payable department and then another 9 years at New Mexico State University's Bursar Department. This led to combining her love for universities with the payment technology industry where she has been since 1998. Throughout her career, Cylinda focus has always been on customer relationships. Her focus is how to help you help your students and make your life easier all at the same time.
Cheri Gallagher
Corporate Member
Flywire
Cheri Gallagher is a Senior Relationship Manager at Flywire, a leading global payments enablement and software company, on a mission to deliver the world’s most important and complex payments. Cheri has been with Flywire since 2021 and previously worked in Higher Ed for almost 20 years within the Student Accounts Office for two Liberal Arts colleges and a large State University. She received her Master of Science in Educational: Policy, Foundations and Administration from Portland State University in 2011. Cheri is excited to build new relationships and provide her support on the PacWest committee. During her free time Cheri loves spending time outdoors and baking.
Kaylyn Manning
Corporate Partner
GradGuard
Kaylyn is from Southern California and holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Arizona State, where she also played Division 1 softball. She went on to play professional softball in the United States and Japan for 4 years before deciding to put down roots in Phoenix, Arizona and join the higher ed space. For the past 4 years she's worked for GradGuard in a number of roles and currently holds the title of Director of Business Development. GradGuard works to educate students on their possible financial risks and help students protect their investment in their higher education through their tuition and renters insurance programs.
Virgil Lloyd
Corporate Partner
Nelnet Campus Commerce
Virgil has led the Pacific and Midwest regions at Nelnet Campus Commerce since 2018 and has achieved BDE of the Year four years running. Prior to joining Nelnet, Virgil managed the learning technology marketing team for McGraw-Hill Education. Virgil has over 20 years in Higher Ed and experience in marketing, Enterprise and B2B sales, management, learning technologies, health professions, and payment technology. Virgil resides in Chicago with his family, two dogs and a cat and coaches Junior Girls softball.
Marlene Anderson
Conference Coordinator
San Jose State (ret.)
Marlene Anderson, retired San Jose State University Bursar, now serving as PacWest SFS conference coordinator.