A member of the Virginia Tech community will lead a state organization of admissions officers and registrars throughout 2019.

Alphonso Garrett Jr., director of undergraduate diversity recruitment initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, assumed the role of president of the Virginia Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers (VACRAO) on Dec. 14, 2018. Garrett will serve as president until December 2019.

Founded in 1928, VACRAO is a membership-driven nonprofit organization made up of institutions both inside and outside Virginia. The organization is well-known for its 30-plus year history of operating the Virginia Tour, a 10-week series of college fairs and information nights that blanket the state from Southwestern Virginia to the Eastern Shore.

Garrett first joined VACRAO as a weekly coordinator for the Richmond week of the college fair experience and has since served as chairperson for the School and College Relations Committee, then vice president for admissions and enrollment. In that capacity, he was responsible for the coordination of the Virginia Tour.

As president, Garrett will chair the Executive Committee, preside at general meetings, and oversee the communication channels of the group. He will also represent VACRAO at the annual meetings of national organizations, such as The American Association of Collegiate Registrar and Admissions Officers.

Garrett feels his biggest impact to this point was assisting with Virginia Tour representation for high schools in the Northern Neck and Richmond Public Schools.

Ashley Browning, vice president for enrollment management at Hollins University and VACRAO past president, offered a hopeful outlook for Garrett’s leadership.

“I am so excited to see Alphonso Garrett Jr. recognized as president of VACRAO,” she stated. “He's been a long-standing member of the executive committee and is a strong advocate for both public and private universities in the commonwealth, based on his own experiences at VWC and, more recently, Virginia Tech. He has shown great initiative in continuing the development of relationships with partner organizations like the Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the Virginia College Access Network. He will be an excellent representative for VACRAO in the year ahead.”

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