AFIT Executive Committee
Dr. Leah Bornstein
President
Dr. Leah L. Bornstein was named the sixth president and CEO of Aims Community College on Aug. 1, 2015, by the Aims Board of Trustees. Aims Community College is a public, fully accredited, two-year college with multiple sites in northern Colorado.
Dr. Jackie Elliott
President Elect
Dr. Jackie Elliott is the president of Central Arizona College, a position she has held since July 2016. As a first generation college student herself, Dr. Elliott has a strong passion for designing and implementing programs designed to ensure student success.
Dr. Christine Sobek
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Christine J. Sobek became the fourth president of Waubonsee Community College on July 1, 2001. Dr. Sobek has 40 years of community college administrative experience.
Dr. John Avendano
Member at Large
Dr. John Avendano is the president of Florida State College at Jacksonville, a position he has held since 2019. Prior to joining FSCJ, Dr. Avendano served as president and CEO of Kankakee Community College in Illinois. He has more than 30 years in community college experience.
Dr. Daniel Corr
Member at Large
Dr. Daniel Corr is the president of Arizona Western College, a position he has held since 2016. Prior to joining AWC, Dr. Corr held a variety of instructional and administrative positions at four different community colleges in Arizona & Illinois. All told, he has over 30 years of experience at the community college level.
Liz Murphy
Member at Large
AFIT President Emeritus
Liz Murphy is the chairman and CEO of CampusWorks, a strategic consulting firm that transforms higher education institutions by providing an independent perspective and delivering creative solutions to improve operations, reduce costs, and position students for success.
Dr. Roger Stanford
Member at Large
Dr. Roger Stanford is the president of Western Technical College, a position he started in July 2017 after serving as the vice president of academic affairs at Western for two years. Prior to Western, he had increasing roles of responsibility at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC), most recently as the vice president of instruction.
AFIT Staff
John Politi
Executive Director
John J. Politi is the President of The Avalon Group (TAG), a consulting firm specializing in all aspects of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Mr. Politi is a member of the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, our nation’s highest award for performance excellence, and has served for more than six years as a Senior Examiner. He is a nationally recognized expert on leadership systems, strategic planning, customer service and relationship building, measurement systems, human resource management, and process management. He was awarded the Governor’s Quality Leadership Award by Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan in 1997.
Julie Rekart, CPA
Finance Coordinator
Julie Rekart is a certified public accountant with degrees in management, from Colorado State University, and accounting, from Metropolitan State College. She has experience in a variety of industries, from telecommunications to manufacturing to building products.
Dr. Tracy Dryden
Learning Partner & Event Coordinator
Dr. Tracy Dryden is the executive director of planning and organizational excellence at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In previous roles, Tracy was a teacher and also led the instructional design efforts at Western. Her experience in learning design and facilitation—and her 15-year tenure as Western's AFIT's Rep—are an asset to our organization, ensuring the development of Summer Institute programs that lead to growth, innovation, and transformation in our member colleges and organizations.
Nikki Gingrich
Membership Coordinator
Nikki Gingrich has been helping non-profit organizations with fundraising and marketing efforts for over a decade. She spent five years in higher ed as the Director of Alumni Relations at her alma mater, DeSales University, where she earned both a bachelor's degree in communication and an MBA in marketing.
Paul Klute
Website Coordinator
Paul Klute is the Director of the Office of Institutional Research at the University of Georgia. He earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration from Northwest Missouri State University.
Erika Liodice
Marketing Coordinator
Erika Liodice is the Marketing Communication Manager at CampusWorks. Before this, she spent a decade working in sales, marketing, and advertising for some of the world’s most recognized brands. Erika is a graduate of Lehigh University, where she earned her B.S. in Business and Economics with a concentration in Spanish.