A first-generation college student, Dr. Joe Oravecz has more than 25 years of progressively responsible administrative experience in higher education and currently serves as the Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Bridgewater State University. Dr. Oravecz has served on executive leadership teams within student affairs and enrollment management organizations at private and public institutions and has extensive experience leading and managing change in higher education, including strategic planning, assessment, and accreditation. He has also served as a publicly elected trustee for the School Board of Education in Billings, Montana, and has expertise with assessing learning outcomes, fiduciary accountability, collaborating with community agencies, and supporting the success of at-risk students.

Paulette G. Curtis, a social anthropologist by training, has an extensive background in supporting undergraduate students, building new programs and reforming existing ones, and managing the range of affairs that undergird undergraduate student life. Most recently, she served as both an Assistant and Associate Dean in the Office of Academic Affairs in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University, where she supervised the offices of Academic Advising, Recruitment and Career Services, oversaw and revised elements of the Survey gateway course for first year and transfer students, and ran the Honors Program. Prior to Ohio State, Dr. Curtis was the inaugural Faculty Director of the AnBryce Scholars Initiative, which identified and supported first-generation and low-income students who showed great promise for leadership. At Notre Dame, she was an Instructor in the Department of Anthropology, where she taught courses on Commemoration, War, and Science Fiction, interests she pursues to this day. Her first administrative position was at Harvard University where she was a Lecturer in the Anthropology Department and received her B.A. and PhD in Social Anthropology. At present, Dr. Curtis is a Visiting Scholar at Tulane University where she is completing several academic writing projects for publication.

Margaret Mbindyo is an assistant professor and Advisement Coordinator for the Center for Advisement and Student Success for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the College of Business at Millersville University in Pennslyvania. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum Instruction and Comparative and International Education from Penn State University. Her area of research includes academic advising, resilience and academic persistence, and success of low-income/first-generation and immigrant students. She has presented her work at local, national, and international conferences. She is an awardee of NACADA's Emerging Leaders Program Class of 2019-2021 and serves on several committees and working groups. In her local community in Lancaster, PA, she volunteers with Church World Services to help transition recent immigrants to the U.S. system of education.

Angela Bartee has an extensive background in higher education in a variety of divisions, including academic affairs, admissions, international student services, multicultural and international programs, the president’s office, and advancement. Having served at The George Washington University, Stephens College, and Virginia Commonwealth University, Angela is familiar with supporting student success at private and public universities, co-ed universities, and women’s colleges. Her current doctoral research investigates success strategies for retaining and developing a sense of belonging for first-generation college students. Angela’s passion is to equip universities with resources and programs that will aid the success of all students who desire to advance their lives through obtaining a college education.

Bernard Rowan is the Associate Provost for Contract Administration and a professor of political science at Chicago State University. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science and economics at Vanderbilt University with High Honors, a master’s degree in political philosophy at the University of York (UK) where he was a Rotary International Scholar, and a doctorate in political science at the University of Chicago where he was a Centennial Fellow. Rowan is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a past fellow of the Korea Foundation, and has served as visiting professor at Hanyang University in South Korea and visiting research professor at the Asiatic Research Center at Korea University. He is an opinion columnist for The Korea Times. Rowan has authored books and articles on Korean politics, society, and culture and on various topics regarding higher education administration. He is an accreditation peer reviewer with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and a mentor with the HLC Assessment Academy.

Brett Atwood is the founder and owner of recruiting firm Strategic Consulting Group, LLC, based in Houston, Texas. He has spent more than 20 years in the startup community as part of early-stage startups or turnarounds in a variety of sales capacities. Over the past several years, Brett has helped dozens of early-stage startups and mid-stage technology companies with talent acquisition, go-to-market strategies, sales strategies, and executive introductions. Brett currently sits on four advisory boards, including EVAN360.

When the co-founders of EVAN360 asked me to join the team in 2018, I hitched a ride on a shipping truck and never looked back. At first, I was tasked with helping people fix their computers, but my team decided I wasn’t cut out for that because current technology isn't conducive to my fingerless hands. I was better suited for a leadership role, so I was promoted to CFO. Chief Fun Officer, that is.

My strengths include dancing, high-fiving, meeting new people, and posing for pictures. Trade shows, conferences, and events are my favorite places to put my skills to work. I love making people smile—especially those who try not to. I’m still working on some things, like not running into trashcans and people. But my team says I’m making strides in the right direction. 

I love making EVAN360 stand out and challenging my team not to take things so seriously.

Shortly after being hired I became the designated office prankster. My coworkers usually ask me to hide and jump out at unsuspecting team members. I’m always game, although at first, I wasn’t sure why they always made me do it. I guess I just have good timing.

When I’m not working, I enjoy brushing up on my dance moves, shooting hoops, and staying cool in the Texas heat.

Michael Fischer has a passion for helping businesses embrace technology that improves our lives. Before coming to EVAN360, Michael was in sales and marketing consulting, growing a team of consultants, and breaking down complex digital concepts to SMB’s at Revlocal. It is here where he embraced a vision of a world where technology and innovation bring us closer together. He continues to follow that vision in working with the EVAN360 team, pioneering the transformation of business operations with an on-demand enterprise support model.

The only thing Michael enjoys talking about more than business and technology are his kids. Being modest he says, “They are the cutest kids in Katy”. If you haven’t heard that yet, we saved you the trouble by allowing you to read it here! It is his vision and family that sustain his drive for a better tomorrow in our work and our communities.

Garrett Purcell joined EVAN360 after being recruited in 2019. He graduated from Baylor University with a double major in MIS and Management and is immersed in operations, reporting, and analytics.

Garrett has a passion for higher education and a personal connection due to his experiences at Baylor and the fact that it's a family affair. He grew up surrounded by educators who helped shape his perspective on the importance of education. He believes in EVAN360's ability to provide answers to questions quickly and at all hours, whether it be for advisement or coursework help. He wishes he had it in college himself.

Fun fact: Yes, I’m restoring a 40+ year old Airstream. Yes, I’m going to live in it.

Peter Purcell has more than 30 years of business and consulting experience focused on helping companies implement fit-for-purpose technology and processes to eliminate unnecessary internal friction, reduce costs, and increase revenue. Peter’s passion for eliminating unnecessary friction within organizations led him to consulting where he worked as a Big Four consulting partner serving the energy industry. As part of giving back, he joined the Board of Boys & Girls Country of Houston, working with students as they graduated from high school and moved on to higher education. He quickly realized students, especially first-generation, do not have a good understanding of how to navigate higher education administrative functions. Thus, he wanted to use his passion for removing friction in businesses to help students navigate the college system.

Peter grew up surrounded by educators and has a keen understanding of the importance of an education. His grandfather and aunt were professors who helped establish strong first-in-family programs to help students successfully navigate college. They were frustrated by friction within the system, which often led to students not completing their degree. If there was a way to connect students to the right function at the right time, much of the friction would be eliminated. The perfect solution? EVAN360!  

Peter serves as EVAN360 co-founder, board director, and advises on all technical and operating matters.

Allie Aimone joined EVAN360 in 2019 after working on several freelance marketing projects with the team. She now wears a variety of marketing hats and takes what our leadership envisions and developers accomplish to share the EVAN360 story with as many people as possible. Allie's work includes developing content, designing print and digital material, and connecting EVAN360 to media opportunities. Allie has a degree in Communication from Texas A&M University and enjoys helping companies grow through written and visual communication.

During her time in college, she was surrounded by a robust array of student services. At the same time, she witnessed inefficiencies within the college system, especially when it came to academic advising and transfer student services. She is passionate about EVAN360's goal to eliminate barriers students face when seeking support. She truly believes that EVAN360 will be a game-changer for students pursuing higher education.

Jeff Aimone has a passion for finding better ways to solve difficult business problems with technology and when co-founders, Bill Aimone and Peter Purcell, approached him about building a platform for an on-demand service platform, all he could say was “this will turn all type of support on its’ side and we can do this.” For over 25 years, Jeff has been supporting organizations in a variety of different roles performing a myriad of different functions.

He self-identifies as a visionary and sees the transformation that is occurring within higher education as he personally struggled with the friction of transferring through 3 universities before graduating college. As co-founder, Jeff serves as the architect and an advisor for all things technical.

Fifteen years ago, Bill Aimone joined the partnership of Deloitte Consulting. One of the perks of being a Partner at the world’s largest professional services firm was having a single hotline access to any type of support. Time was money for the partners and ensuring immediate access to assistance was paramount. Fast forward to 2010, Bill left Deloitte and co-founded a small consulting firm, Trenegy. Finding IT and HR help for the cadre of consultants at Trenegy was complicated, even for a smaller firm. Bill’s large clients at Trenegy and Deloitte also struggled to provide employees and customers with the right support at the right time. There was no single place to go for support and a tremendous amount of time was wasted waiting for answers to requests held up in ticketing solutions. In response, Bill co-founded EVAN360 to provide organizations with a solution to support people when they need it the most. 

Bill also serves on the Board of Directors with Boys & Girls County where 100+ students are provided with a home from elementary school through college. Many college-bound students at Boys & Girls Country are first-in-family. Hearing these students' college experiences, Bill recognized that first-in-family students need extra support navigating the maze of services available at colleges. This is where EVAN360 for Higher Education steps into the picture. It's a solution for students that provides immediate support throughout their college experience to improve the chances of success. 

Bill serves as EVAN360 co-founder, board director, and advises on all financial, risk, and legal matters.

Cathy Hilton is a member of the EVAN360 board of directors. She helps ensure EVAN360 is operating efficiently, ethically, and in the best interest of stakeholders. She ensures internal company practices are optimized to enable outstanding service. She is a true efficiency expert with a background in helping organizations grow through financial operations.

Todd Boutte joined EVAN360 after 15 years of academic and professional experience in academic admissions operations and logistics, primarily in institutions of higher education across Texas. These experiences always drove him to look for the better and more efficient way of meeting the ever-changing needs of today’s student.

As the go-to "tech guy" his whole life, Todd enjoys combining his lifetime passion for technology with his career interests in education and project management. Todd was immediately drawn to EVAN360's commitment to maintain a secure and transparent platform, as well as the priority to educate and inform their customers. He now supports EVAN360’s core values by overseeing the development of the EVAN360 platform and web presence and onboarding each new higher education client.