I am excited to announce the re-launch of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) blog, which will provide you with additional insight into NASFAA leaders’ activities and be a forum to share your thoughts with colleagues and NASFAA staff.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Laurie Wolf, the executive dean of student services for Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa. I am also proud to serve you as the 2010-11 NASFAA national chair. As your national chair, I will be working overtime to ensure our national association delivers all the information and services you need to effectively do your job. As I cross the nation to visit with many of you at your state and regional conferences, I will take what I learn from you and use it to inform the NASFAA Board of Directors and staff so we can constantly improve the association and address any concerns you may have.

Through the NASFAA blog, I will share my thoughts and experiences during my tenure as your national chair. The blog will also feature guest bloggers who will offer additional perspectives on the latest financial aid developments. It is my hope that this blog will give you insight into the activities of your colleagues, state and regional associations, and your national association. In addition, the blog is a public forum for NASFAA members to share comments and opinions about the latest financial aid news and trends. I hope this will give me, the board of directors and the NASFAA staff additional insight into the financial aid issues that are most important to you.

If recent years are any indication, this will be another exciting year in financial aid. So, fasten your seatbelt and join me for a whirlwind tour of the country to learn what financial aid administrators from Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between are talking about.

My intent with this blog is to have a vehicle to share directly with you some of my thoughts and experiences traveling the country speaking with members of NASFAA while serving as your National Chair. It is important to remember my comments in the blog are MY comments and do not necessarily represent the opinions of NASFAA, the NASFAA Board of Directors, or Brookdale Community College (and I can hear some of my friends and my boss saying “I’m glad he pointed that out” and my attorney breathing a sigh of relief).

I will also tell you in light of the size of our membership, it will be impossible for me to respond to individual comments on the blog. If you enjoy or agree with a particular comment and voice that, thank you. I will monitor member comments on the blog and hope that it serves as a way to engage our membership in NASFAA, NASFAA activities or our financial aid profession. Remember that all posted blog comments can be viewed by everyone who visits the blog. Anonymous or pseudonymous comments are acceptable.

I will also say that it feels good to lift my “voice” into a national discussion with members. I have always felt we have a responsibility to speak passionately on behalf of our students, our institutions and our profession.