Vice President of Enrollment Management Kedra Ishop will leave her position on August 15, a university spokesperson confirmed Friday. USC appointed Ishop four years ago to head admissions, financial aid, registration events and student success.
She will join the College Board as their new senior vice president of higher education, membership and access on August 26, the non-profit, which offers standardized testing and K-12 curricula, confirmed by email.
Ishop is the third senior member of USC staff to leave their position this summer.
In May, Dornsife Dean Amber Miller left to become president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Senior Vice President of Human Resources Felicia A. Washington is leaving her position at USC to do the same job at the University of Pennsylvania.
President Folt shared the news of Ishop’s departure in an email to senior leadership on Thursday.
In the email, she wrote that Ishop has helped offer $274 million in financial aid since taking her position. Much of that qualifies under the Affordability Initiative, a “presidential moonshot” awarding free tuition to first-year undergraduates whose families earn $80,000 or less — roughly one in five new students.
Folt joined USC in the wake of the Varsity Blues scandal, tasked with restoring confidence in the university’s admission process. To do so, she brought Ishop on, a spokesperson said. Together, they restructured the department, particularly focusing on affordability for first-year applicants.
Under Ishop’s tenure, USC also received a record-high 82,008 applications this past admissions cycle, the same year the University debuted an Early Action option.
Besides affordability, Ishop focused admissions and application efforts on underrepresented student demographics. She launched “Trojan International,” an immigration case management system; the president’s High-Tech Scholars program, which offers a track for transfer students in technology careers; and joined the Small Town and Rural Students College Network (STARS).
Prior to USC, Ishop was the first vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Michigan for six years, and was the vice provost and director of admissions at the University of Texas for 17 years.