Kristen McRoberts holds the position as Associate Director for Systems at the Office of Student Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a public land-grant institution serving over 50,000 students. In this role, Kristen is charged with leading a team of business analyst and developers in creating, maintaining and identifying opportunities to effectively administer over $617M in student aid annually. Additionally, the data team, who is responsible for reporting and data visualizations, is under her purview.
As a former Pell eligible student, Kristen is passionate about removing barriers to access and creating a seamless enrollment experience for students and their families. Since joining the team in 2014, she and the team have been honored with three Administrative Improvement Award for (1) developing a new verification policy and transitioning to a digital submission of verification documents, which is a process that previously created unnecessary obstacles to applying for financial aid and deterring some students (often the lowest-income students) from completing the financial aid process, (2) streamlining the student and parent experience and removing administrative barriers and burden for UW-Madison staff by integrating housing charges into the student account and eBill process (3) leading the Financial Aid team during the Campus Solutions upgrade/optimization to 9.2, reducing customizations by over 50%, implementing FLUID and Workcenters, and serving on the Project Steering Committee.
Kristen is currently serving her second 3-year elected term on the Financial Aid Advisory Group with the Higer Education User Group (HEUG).
Prior to joining the team, Kristen began her career in higher education when she worked for the largest community colleges system in Illinois as the District Director of Financial Aid. In this role, she was responsible for the leadership and management of financial aid and student accounts for seven independently accredited colleges that are part of a complex, urban community college district that serves 120,000 students with disbursements totaling more than $150 million annually.
She graduated cum laude from Loyola University of Chicago where she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Marketing.