Presenter Bio - Alyssa McKenney

Alyssa McKenney currently serves as a Regional Coordinator for the HSI EXCELlence program at Maricopa County Community College District. in Arizona. HSI EXCELlence is grant funded student support initiative which values Cariño, Comunidad y Familia, and prioritizes addressing the unique challenges faced by Hispanic students at Maricopa County Community College District, a 10 college HSI District.

A first-generation college graduate, Alyssa completed her undergraduate studies at Glendale Community College and Northern Arizona University. Alyssa will commence with a Masters of Education in Human Relations from Northern Arizona University in December of 2024. Beginning her career as a student worker in Student Affairs, she discovered her call to action: Serving her community through the power of education by implementing creative solutions to barriers which prevent students from completing their degrees, transferring to a university or entering the workforce. Alyssa’s work embodies elements of servingness in both measurable academic/non-academic outcomes and the creative design of structures that serve students at the Maricopa County Community College District. In the last 12 years, Alyssa has created, implemented and coordinated four successful and sustainable student retention programs intentionally designed to meet the needs of all community college students with a deliberate focus on uplifting underrepresented, high-promise student populations. Recently (2024), two of the programs co-created and/or coordinated by Alyssa were acknowledged by the AZ HSI Consortium as an Evidence-Based Practice.