Dr. Sonel Y. Shropshire - President  Throughout his 15 year academic career, Dr. Sonel Y. Shropshire is recognized as an expert on methods of creating effective diversity strategies for academic institutions. As President of The Academic Network, Inc., he has developed minority recruitment strategies for faculty, staff and students for over 367 institutions. Shropshire is also a regular contributor to Texas Tech University's Institute of Inclusive Excellence.  In December 2006, he created the Minority Faculty Applicant Database (MFAD), an extensive minority faculty applicant locator service.  Over 890 academic institutions currently advertise faculty and administrative positions in MFAD to a database of over 6,900 interested minority candidates. After his tenure at Washington College as a recruiter, Shropshire received his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida College of Law in 1997. He became the entire university’s Director of Graduate Minority Recruitment. While there, he increased the number of minority applicants to the graduate school by  25%. As a member of numerous academic committees, he was instrumental in increasing the number of African-American, Latino, and Native American professors within the university’s 135 departments. He became the minority affairs liaison to the Vice Provost and the University President.  Dr. Shropshire is one of the only administrators in the country who has served as Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions in all four-tiers of law schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Over his extensive professional record, he has reviewed over 61,000 graduate and law school applications for University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Loyola Marymount University (CA), Texas Wesleyan University, and Stetson University. While Interim Director of Admissions for Stetson University, he created the "Diversity Task Force" to examine methods of increasing student, staff, and faculty diversity. At Texas Wesleyan, he improved the law school's academic credentials and diversity profile in each incoming class. At Loyola Marymount, his effective recruitment measures produced one of the highest enrollments of minority students. While there, he also served on the Dean's Cabinet. During his tenure at UCLA, Dr. Shropshire developed the diversity recruitment strategy which dramatically increased the number of enrolled African-American students from fall 2005 to fall 2006.  Shropshire has been a member of a number of professional organizations, including the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals, American Bar Association’s Presidential Council on Diversity, American Association of Affirmative Action, American Association of Community Colleges, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, California Science Center Advisory Board, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund Selection Commission, American Association of Law Schools, National Association of African Americans in Human Resources, and Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.