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Boston College has named 1982 graduate Nanci Tessier, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Richmond, as the University’s first vice provost for enrollment management.
In this newly created position, Tessier will be the University’s strategy and policy leader in all areas of undergraduate enrollment, working with senior leadership, the provost, deans and faculty to build upon BC’s impressive admission trajectory of the past several decades. She will oversee the offices of Enrollment Management, Undergraduate Admission and Student Services, which includes Financial Aid.
A nationally respected expert in the field of enrollment management, Tessier brings a proven track record and extensive experience to the position, including six years in her current role at the University of Richmond and seven years at Saint Anselm College, where she also directed its marketing efforts.
While at the University of Richmond, Tessier oversaw all aspects of enrollment management, including student recruitment, admission, financial aid and enrollment budgeting and planning. During her tenure, she led efforts that resulted in a 28 percent increase in undergraduate applications, as well as significant increases in SAT scores, AHANA enrollment and socioeconomic and geographic diversity. She also oversaw a financial aid budget of $100 million annually, and founded and chaired Richmond’s econometric modeling group, composed of faculty and staff, that examined the effect of financial aid and admission characteristics on students’ enrollment decisions.
Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley praised Tessier as an experienced professional who has distinguished herself in the field of higher education enrollment management and admissions for the past 30 years.
“Enrollment management as a field first emerged here at Boston College four decades ago,” said Quigley. “As we build on this tradition, and position the University to attract the very best students in the future, I am confident that Nanci Tessier will help lead us to another level of excellence. Nanci is a proud alumna of Boston College who is a national leader in conversations about admissions and college access. I look forward to having her join our team at Waul House beginning July 1.”
Added Kelli Armstrong, vice president for planning and assessment, who served on the search committee, “Nanci is a highly respected leader and has a proven ability to successfully coordinate the increasingly complex areas of enrollment management. As an alumna, she deeply appreciates our unique mission and how much the work of our admissions, enrollment management and student service teams have contributed to BC’s stature in higher education. I believe she will build on this success and help us to prepare for future challenges. We are very much looking forward to working with her.”
One of 11 children from a “Boston College family” that includes as graduates her father and two sisters, Tessier says she first became interested in admissions and enrollment management as a work study student in the Office of Undergraduate Admission at BC while also serving as a volunteer Admission tour guide. She graduated from Boston College with a degree in English and political science, before pursuing a master’s in education degree in college student personnel administration from Colorado State University.
She began her professional career as an admissions counselor at Rochester Institute of Technology, before working as an associate director of admission at New York University and Barnard College of Columbia University. She later served as director of admission at Smith College and Roger Williams School of Law, before assuming vice president of enrollment management positions at Saint Anselm and the University of Richmond.
Tessier said she is honored to return to Boston College to oversee the enrollment management effort at her alma mater and to work alongside some of the top professionals in the field.
“Boston College is so much more than my alma mater,” said Tessier. “It’s the place that nurtured in me a profound and lifelong respect for learning and intellectual inquiry under accomplished faculty. It’s the place that taught me and continues to remind me that faith and reason are imperative to a balanced and happy life. It’s also the place that prepared me for my very first job in higher education as an admission counsellor. It is a special privilege for me to have an opportunity to return to Boston College as vice provost for enrollment management.”
Tessier’s professional associations include the College Board Colloquium Planning Committee, and membership in the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
“My many years of work in higher education have taught me that enrollment management is at the very heart of an institution because it supports in the most fundamental ways every aspect of an institution’s mission,” said Tessier. “I am therefore honored and humbled by the confidence that has been placed in me by the leadership of Boston College. I am fully committed to working alongside the president, provost, trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and Jesuit community in order to build upon the work of all who have strengthened and secured the legacy of this great university.”