About the Organization
Americans for the Arts (“AFTA”) builds recognition and support for the extraordinary and dynamic value of the arts by leading, serving, and advancing networks of organizations and individuals who cultivate the arts across the nation. By connecting ideas and leaders from regionally diverse communities, Americans for the Arts ensures that every American has access to the transformative power of the arts.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Government Affairs Strategy

Within the past two years, multiple professional groups on UMBC's campus have come together to implement an application process for our very own Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program. Thanks to these efforts, prospective students can seamlessly apply to the program as they take a crucial step towards their future careers.

UMBC's Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program (DMSP) is a 13.5-month, full-time professional certificate program offering three tracks to prepare for an entry-level sonography role. The DMSP has a history that spans decades, including a lengthy headquartering at UMBC's Training Centers in Columbia, Maryland, until just a few short years ago. During this recent timeframe, the program needed to relocate to maintain its operations and moved to UMBC's campus as an official program within the Division of Professional Studies. 

While this is an exciting development, the program's move home to UMBC brought its own share of challenges, both technical and logistical. The Office of Academic Services was tasked with integrating UMBC's systems to function with the existing infrastructure of the DMSP, which included ensuring that 2024's cohort had access to classes and resources when they arrived. During this phase, and throughout the logistical side of implementation, Diana Spake from Student Business Services, Nate Czarnota from the Registrar's Office, and Andrea Cipolla from Financial Aid, along with their entire teams, were crucial in their support. 

Once the 2024 cohort had been onboarded and records were efficiently organized, building a new Continuing Education (CNED) application for 2025's cohort and beyond became the main focus of the initiative. With work beginning in the spring of 2024, extensive technical work was done within PeopleSoft and Perceptive Content to ensure that the data of every applicant could be accessed and evaluated by the DMSP director. This effort saw collaboration between numerous teams and spanned multiple divisions across campus, primarily the Division of Professional Studies and the Division of Information Technology. Frequent communication and partnership with the company CollegeNet also occurred throughout the process.

CollegeNet is where the applicant's data was submitted and delivered from. All of this data, which included transcripts and other sensitive material, needed to be sent to and stored by UMBC, which in turn required logistical communication with CollegeNet. After being received, the data needed to be transported into PeopleSoft, which functions as UMBC's data warehouse and system of record. Due to the way these different files and systems operate, getting everything into PeopleSoft would not be seamless. This is where Dondre Hatef's work came in, successfully bridging the gap. 

ImageNow, also known as Perceptive Content, is the other software involved in this process. While PeopleSoft serves as a comprehensive repository of applicant data, ImageNow is a document imaging system for PDFs and other unstructured types of documents. To handle these documents, the team created new technical workflows to capture files and link them to relevant data from PeopleSoft. DoIT managed the technical development, while DPS and CollegeNet worked together to ensure each PDF was correctly formatted. Kashka Donaldson played a pivotal role on this side, onboarding the DPS team into this new system. Meanwhile, Steve Ostrove tackled the challenge of digital storage, ensuring that vital PDF documents arriving from CollegeNet were stored securely and were easily accessible. Ultimately, all necessary technical work was completed, and documents were made searchable by specific criteria, such as name. 

The application successfully went live in December 2024, with all technical work complete aside from annual maintenance. For many of the teams involved, this was a routine project, while for others, such as the Sonography team, it was crucial to the program's functioning. All of the services relied on by the campus community do not run on their own, and initiatives of this nature happen more often than many think, often going unthanked and under-appreciated. This is work that touches everyone, and the Sonography applicants are just one group that relies on professional efforts like the one just described every year. 

Many thanks to the following team members: 

•   Lindsey Sarangoulis and Jeremy Matthews for the project requirements and details.

•   Dondre Hatef for the PeopleSoft implementation part of the project.

•   Steve Ostrove for helping with the storage of the PDF files arriving from CollegeNet. 

•   Kashka Donaldson for coordinating and onboarding DPS into Perceptive Content.

•   Diana Spake, Nate Czarnota, Andrea Cipolla, and their teams. 

Join us April 17 at 1:30 PM for a virtual panel of professionals from leading local financial firms to learn how the hiring process really works. Hear directly from the people who review resumes, conduct interviews, and make hiring decisions about what they look for in candidates and how students can stand out. Bring your questions and gain practical insights to help launch your career in finance.

https://web.cvent.com/event/57f50245-6af6-4c70-8494-3bd32d119d1d/summary 

Robotics, Neurotechnology, Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence aren't just evolving around us — they're reshaping our lives, our identities, and even our ethics. That can be a little terrifying. And thrilling!

Here's the challenge: Will we let these technologies shape us blindly, or will we choose to shape them with purpose?

Join Dr. Corinna Lathan on a high-energy, eye-opening journey through the inventions and innovations redefining what it means to be human. You'll explore future tech trends through the lens of empathy, equity, and imagination — and discover how we can harness these powerful tools to build not just a smarter future, but a better one!

Expect astronauts, robots, and maybe even zebras. Definitely expect to leave inspired!

What?  VR, AI, and Robots! A thought-provoking talk by Dr. Cori Lathan

Where?  University Center 310

When?  Wednesday, March 25th from 12-1 pm