PPOHA Grant: Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans Program

Dr. Tim Young

Dr. Tim Young currently serves in the School of Education as Director of the PPOHA (Promoting Post-Baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans) grant and as the Ed.D mentor and Assistant Professor. Dr. Young is dedicated to creating opportunities for graduate students to excel in their degree programs and to eliminating barriers to student access and success.

Prior to joining Concordia, Dr. Young served as the Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Operations at Vanguard University. In this role, he provided leadership to both student affairs and campus operations departments. He has experience leading and developing teams to foster student success through the development of programs and services tailored to a Hispanic Serving Institution. He also has extensive experience with university operations.

His research has focused on understanding the needs of culturally diverse students and identifying and removing challenges faced by students pursuing degrees, with a particular focus on the experiences of African American students at Christian colleges. Dr. Young also serves as a strategic planning and organizational development consultant for churches and nonprofit organizations, channeling his passion for improving organizational health and efficiency.

As the HSI Project Director she oversees Concordia University-Irvine's largest federal grant in its history: $3 million from the U.S. Department of Education for its Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program. Her role is to ensure this grant enhances support services for Hispanic students and all Concordia students. 

Dr. Kellie Albrecht

Dr. Kellie Albrecht is the Assistant Dean for the School of Education, Senior Director of the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership program, and a Professor of Education. She is responsible for Ed.D. program operations, program development and improvement, faculty training, curriculum development and assessment, and advising doctoral students with their dissertation research. Dr. Albrecht served as the Chair of the Educational Effectiveness Committee (EEC), a member of the Academic Council and Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Prior to teaching in higher education, Dr. Albrecht was an elementary school educator having taught in grades 1, 4, 5, and 6. Dr. Albrecht's experience teaching in urban schools sparked her passion for educating in diverse settings. Her experience working with culturally diverse and underrepresented children led to an interest in English language development and differentiated instructional practices. Additionally, Dr. Albrecht is the mother of four children, her oldest being identical twin boys. Dr. Albrecht's doctoral dissertation was an interpretive phenomenological analysis focused on identifying twins as a cultural group, which investigated individual needs for educating twins. The dissertation is titled, Beyond Bonded Voices: A Qualitative Study with Adult Monozygotic (Identical) Twins.

Dr. Albrecht's experience in higher education includes MAEd program development and improvement, faculty training and professional development, advising graduate and postgraduate qualitative research projects, teaching undergraduate, graduate, and multiple and single subject credential courses, supervising student teachers in the field, assessing teaching performance assessments (TPAs), and facilitating TPA student workshops.

Julie Stiegemeyer

Currently serves as the Graduate Student Writing Consultant/Success Coach.  Julie has more than 20 Years serving as a  Writing Consultant and English Specialist.  She is a teacher and author, and is passionate about helping students complete their writing projects with confidence.  Her goal is to coach and mentor writers to help them achieve their goals.  Clear writing and communication is at the heart of successful work, for creatives to doctoral candidates, and my strategies can help individuals unlock their potential to complete their projects.

Alyssa Flores

Hi Eagles! My name is Alyssa Flores and I am one of the Graduate Student Success Coaches in the Graduate Resource Center. I graduated from Concordia with my Bachelor's degree in 2022. I am also a first-generation college graduate! When not working, I enjoy reading, crafting, and spending time with my two nephews. I am enthusiastic to start meeting, supporting, and helping you all achieve your goals. Concordia has various resources to help support our students, and I am here to make those easily accessible to you!