Kelly Ball, Ph.D. has served as the inaugural Director of Student Learning, Planning, and Assessment since 2020. Reporting to the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Kelly leads divisional and institutional priorities, aligns departmental efforts with the divisional vision, and coordinates and evaluates the Division of Student Affairs’ contributions to student learning, student retention, divisional strategic planning, and assessment. She coordinated the Division’s first strategic plan and annual report, and has developed templates for department-level assessment plans and reflections.

With over 20 years of higher education administrative experience and seven years of teaching experience, Kelly is passionate that higher education can bring about transformative change both in students and those who work with students. Kelly has served in a variety of roles, including measuring the effectiveness of student success initiatives as well as developing and submitting grant proposals for government and private funding. She has helped organizations secure tens of millions of dollars in grant funding and has presented workshops on writing persuasive proposals for the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) and at local events facilitated by congressional leaders. Kelly has also co-authored two books (with Jeremy Miner): Models of Proposal Planning & Writing (2nd ed) and Proposal Planning & Writing (6th ed.); and has presented at national conferences on topics such as building a culture of evidence, equity-focused research agendas, and the evolving role of evaluators in federally funded grant projects.

She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in English from Marquette University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication from the University of Minnesota.