Dr. Casazzais the Vice President for Academic Affairs at The Adler School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Casazza's primary area of interest focuses on access to education for traditionally underserved populations. She has been in the field of higher education for over 20 years both as a faculty member and administrator.  Most of her professional career has been in Chicago, but she also lived in Poland where she consulted on faculty development and South Africa where she was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Port Elizabeth.

She is a regular speaker and contributor to professional journals and was one of the first to call for a theoretical foundation for the field of developmental education in her Journal of Developmental Education article, ""Strengthening Practice with Theory."" Furthermore, Dr. Casazza has co-authored two books with Dr. Sharon Silverman: Learning Assistance and Developmental Education: A Guide for Effective Practice (1996) and Learning and Development (2000). Her most recent publication entitled, Access, Opportunity and Success: Keeping the Promise of Higher Education was published in 2006. She received the Hunter R. Boylan Outstanding Research/Publication Award in 2004, and is a Founding Fellow of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations.

She has served as President of the National College Learning Center Association, President of the National Association for Developmental Education, Co-Editor of the Learning Assistance Review, and Co-Editor for the National Association for Developmental Education Newsletter. She is currently on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Developmental Education as well as the Advisory Boards for the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning and Crossing Borders.

Her current activities include serving as the President of the Illinois Network of Women in Higher Education, an affiliate of the American Council of Education, and engaging in community-based research through an oral history project in the Latino communities of Pilsen and Little Village.

Sharon Silverman, Ed.D. is an independent scholar and consultant with degrees in learning disabilities and educational psychology. She works in the areas of faculty/staff development, student retention, teaching and learning excellence, student development, program evaluation, distance learning, and collaboration between academic and student affairs. She is the founder and former director of the Learning Assistance Center at Loyola University Chicago where she developed LEAP, an award winning student access and retention program. She continues to consult in student success and retention in the City Colleges of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and with the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa (1999) and received a Fulbright Alumni Initiatives Award (2001) for a project, "Sharing Cultures" that involves students and teachers internationally in a virtual learning community. Rotary Foundation International awarded her a Rotary University Scholar Grant for work in South Africa in 2002. Silverman has co-authored Learning Assistance and Developmental Education (Jossey-Bass, 1996) and Learning and Development Making Connections to Enhance Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 2000), and Partners for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (iUniverse, 2005). Her international speaking and consulting engagements include Canada, Scotland, England, South Africa, Cyprus, Malaysia, and Australia.