Ashlie Prioleau
Assistant Vice President for Student Success & Retention
PRO | Provost's Office
Degrees
BS Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University M.Ed, University of Pittsburgh Ed.D., University of Pittsburgh
Bio
Dr. Ashlie Prioleau (any/all pronouns) serves as the Assistant Vice President of Student Success and Retention at American University. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dr. Prioleau is an award-winning and visionary academic innovator in at the undergraduate, graduate, and community college levels of higher education.
Prior to joining American University, Dr. Prioleau completed an inaugural fellowship with the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) while working as the Special Assistant to the Senior Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment and Student Success at the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) focused on enhancing the technology ecosystem by bringing artificial intelligence to campus. Dr. Prioleau also founded Brown Bridges in 2022, a technical assistance agency that provides innovative services and strategic guidance focused on enhancing student success analytics, operations, and technology to radically improve the outcomes for marginalized students.
Spending most of her career in Washington DC, Dr. Prioleau worked as a Vice President of Urban Initiatives at the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and Executive Director of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU). In this role, she oversaw a university President/Chancellor-led network of 42 public, urban universities focused on equitable student success, basic needs, workforce, and university transformation. Dr. Prioleau also served as the founding Executive Director of ADVANCE, an innovative and award-winning partnership between George Mason University (Mason) and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) to ensure transfer students do not lose credits, money, and time while receiving wraparound support to complete both degrees and find gainful employment. Prior to ADVANCE, Ashlie served as Director for Student Success Consulting at the Education Advisory Board (EAB). In that role, she counseled senior university leaders on implementing equitable student success practices and leveraging data to address systemic barriers.
She also previously served in admissions and strategic enrollment management roles at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business, and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). She holds master’s and doctorate degrees in Higher Education Management from the University of Pittsburgh with a dissertation focused on using artificial intelligence for transfer student success as well as a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.
