Senior Director of Partnership, Partnerships
I am captivated by the mission of EOS, which closely aligns with my personal and professional goals. In my years of working with college students, I came to the realization that to make a difference in the lives of our youth, particularly our low-income and students of color, the connection to purpose has to occur well before adulthood.
Savannah joins EOS, after serving as a college administrator; providing leadership for a competitive, federally-funded TRIO program at Kishwaukee College and more recently Sauk Valley Community College. During her tenure, she formed a strong passion and sense of purpose for bringing awareness and attention to educational gaps prevalent among underrepresented populations.
Early in her career, she was introduced to educational disparities among underserved populations and felt a connection to the students’ stories and personal experiences. She began advocating for campus reform by leading efforts that engaged the entire campus community, including faculty, in recognizing the unique challenges faced by underrepresented groups. Through her efforts, best practice approaches were implemented, with an emphasis on being strategic, proactive, and intentional. This experience led to an enhanced understanding of how institutional structures, processes, and culture affect student achievement.
In 2017, she earned her doctorate (Benedictine University) in Higher Education Administration with an emphasis on Organizational Change, where she conducted a quantitative research analysis on grit as a predictor of academic performance among first-generation college students. Savannah has a Master’s (University of the Rockies) and Bachelor’s (Ashford University) degrees in Psychology.