All People

    Joel P. Spiess, MS

    • Chief Enrollment Operations Officer & Executive Director of Student Financial Services, Division of Strategic Enrollment Management & Student Success

    Bio

    Joel P. Spiess, MS, serves as Chief Enrollment Operations Officer and Executive Director of Student Financial Services at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM). In this role, he provides strategic, visionary leadership and oversees the leaders of five key departments:

    • Office of Financial Aid Administration (OFAA)
    • Office of Student Scholarships (OSS)
    • Registrar’s Office (RO)
    • Student Financial Service Center (SFSC)
    • Systems & Data Analysis (SDA)

    Spiess drives campus-wide efforts to align and optimize UWM’s core enrollment operations—including student financial aid, enrollment systems, and advising services—to advance student access, registration, retention, and success. He oversees federal, state, institutional, philanthropic, and private aid funds with an entrepreneurial approach, stewarding approximately $200 million annually in student financial aid.

    From 2021 to 2025, Spiess served as Director of Student Scholarships at UWM, where he spearheaded transformative growth, including increasing scholarship dollars disbursed by 50%, expanding the number of students receiving scholarships by 33%, and supporting consecutive first-year enrollment gains of 3.0% (2023), 9.8% (2024), and 13.5% (2025). His innovative strategies and outcomes have been featured in invited presentations by the National Scholarship Providers Association and education consulting firm EAB, among others.

    As Chief Enrollment Operations Officer, Spiess also serves as principal advisor and divisional strategist to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success (SEMSS). The SEMSS division encompasses 11 departments and roughly 160 full-time employees. His responsibilities include shaping divisional strategy, preparing leadership communications, advancing strategic initiatives, coordinating assessment, and contributing to UWM’s strategic enrollment management planning process.

    Spiess brings a broad background in higher education, with experience spanning admissions, student affairs, curricular affairs, academic advising, and residence life.

    Education

    • MS, Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • BM, Music Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    Selected Presentations

    • Makal McCaffery, C. & Spiess, J. P. (2025, August). Aligning student scholarship and advancement services to increase impact. Invited presentation for the Universities of Wisconsin Advancement Conference, Stevens Point, WI.
    • Spiess, J. P. (2025, June). From data to results: How UW-Milwaukee transformed campus scholarship administration. Invited webinar presentation for the National Scholarship Providers Association.
    • Spiess, J. P. (2024, November). Successful supervision: Team goals, one-on-one meetings, and coaching. Invited presentation for the Wisconsin Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers Annual Conference, Pewaukee, WI.
    • Spiess, J. P. (2024, October). Using data to drive campus scholarship administrator activity and demonstrate your impact. Presented at the National Scholarship Providers Association Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT.
    • Bradford, M., Caven, S., Reindl, C., & Spiess, J. P. (2024, May). Urgent need and emergency scholarships: Student-centric awarding. Invited presentation at the National Scholarship Providers Association Virtual Summit.
    • Spiess, J. P., Carroll, J., & Cowen, K. A. (2023, September). Decentralized vs. centralized: The spectrum of campus scholarship administration. Presented at the National Scholarship Providers Association Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
    • Spiess, J. P. (2022, August). Retention grants key to closing gaps at UWM. Invited presentation, EAB Office Hours Podcast.
    • Spiess, J. P., Petrelli, H., & Ward, K. (2021, July). Pandemic pandemonium: Student recruitment, admission, and orientation during a time of turmoil. Presented virtually at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting.
    • Spiess, J. P., & Walcheske, E. B. (2018, June). Getting it right: Creating efficient assessment systems. Presented at the ExamSoft Assessment Conference (EAC), Fort Lauderdale, FL.

    Selected Publications

    Resources