COD names new associate VP of Enrollment Management

Earl Dowling brings more than 35 years of higher education experience to his new role as associate vice president of Enrollment Management at College of DuPage.

“Most of my career has been spent at very large public, four-year schools, so I'm a late convert to community colleges,” said the Lake in the Hills resident. “But I have shared with any number of colleagues and friends that I wish I had started at a community college. It's where you actually help people who rely on us as their lifelines. We give people opportunities, and it's gratifying – not just professionally but personally.”

At College of DuPage, Dowling oversees the offices of Admissions, Registration, Records and Financial Aid and directs efforts that will impact enrollment.

“When enrolling in college, it's about getting in, getting your classes, getting good advice and paying your tuition,” he said. “We should treat this as a seamless process, and that's what we've been discussing since I arrived: How can we plan our future enrollment so that it's a straight line, from application process to getting your tuition paid?

“What's made this an exciting discussion is the sense of enthusiasm at College of DuPage. Plus we can craft a strategy around our brand new welcome center which opens this fall. We'll be providing more than just information there – it's going to be our living room. We'll be welcoming folks into COD's ‘home,' and we're having lots of conversations now about how we present ourselves as the host when we welcome visitors to the COD family.”

Dowling was the first in his family to attend college. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he earned his bachelor's degree in Education from Miami University of Ohio and his master's degree in Guidance and Student Personnel Administration from Eastern Kentucky University.

Much of his career has been spent working in financial aid at a variety of educational institutions – assistant director of Student Financial Aid at Ohio State University, director of Student Financial Aid at both the University of Cincinnati and Iowa State University, associate dean of enrollment/director of Financial Aid at Stanford University, and most recently director of the Office of Student Financial Assistance at Harper College.

It wasn't a career that Dowling consciously chose when he and his wife, Teresa, moved to Columbus, Ohio, after he finished graduate school.

“Teresa had a professional career as a special education teacher, working with children who have cerebral palsy,” he said. “Through a convoluted set of circumstances, I found myself needing work, and I ran into a friend and former classmate who mentioned there was an opening in the Financial Aid office at Ohio State. He introduced me to the director of Financial Aid, who would become my mentor and my friend. And that introduction led me to a career in which I've been helping students and families reach their educational dream.”