Taniya M. LeGrand has over 15 years of experience in higher education administration, with a focus on financial aid and student affairs. She has held roles such as Financial Aid Managing Director and Customer Relations Manager. She has a passion for helping students succeed and uses strong communication skills and administrative experience to advise hundreds of students annually. Her background includes overseeing operations, ensuring regulatory compliance, and supervising staff.

1. Taniya M. LeGrand
Chesapeake, VA 23325 • tmlegrand@hotmail.com • (757)593-7877
LinkedIn Profile
HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION PROFESSIONAL WITH A PASSION FOR GROWTH & IMPROVEMENT
WITHIN STUDENT AFFAIRS
PROFILE
Higher education administration professional with over 15 years of loyalty and experience within the environments of financial
aid, student affairs, quality assurance, and customer satisfaction. Genuine desire to assist students throughout their higher
education experience with aspirations to progress career towards administration within a student affairs capacity. Brings
together an advanced degree, superior communication skills, and a passion for driving students towards educational success to
act as a critical, valuable, and necessary asset for meeting institutional goals and objectives.
WORK EXPERIENCE
BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE,Hampton,VA 2010 - 2016
FINANCIAL AID MANAGING DIRECTOR
• Oversaw daily operations for the Financial Aid Department, managing a team of up to 4 full-time staff and several
work-study students, for the service of over 400 students per year.
• Ensured departmental delivery and maintenance of excellent customer service standards within the scope of financial
aid resulting in positive, friendly, and timely service to students and staff including the timely processing and
submission of 800+ FAFSA applications per year for registered students.
• Collaborated with other members of the Campus Management team in developing activities, such as workshops and
fairs, and communications to alumni and the public designed to improve campus performance and meet management
objectives including increased student enrollment and retention.
• Participated in outreach activities and provided financial aid PowerPoint and WebEx presentations in student
orientation, registration, and graduate seminars in addition to representing Bryant & Stratton College at local and state
financial aid organization meetings.
• Ensured all financial aid programs were properly administered and complied with internal, federal, and state
regulations resulting in a 95% - 100% compliance rate for federal and state audits.
• Reviewed and submitted student refund authorizations in financial aid database, Ellucian’s Banner and partnered with
the Business Office to ensure proper cash management procedures were followed.
• Reviewed and responded to cohort default rates, prepared any necessary appeals, and submitted to third party services
appropriate documentation for loan default management.
• Assisted in the preparations of financial aid information including the Monday Morning Packaging report for our
monthly systems conference calls.
• Interviewed, selected, hired, trained, and supervised department personnel.
• Developed proficiency in Ellucian’s Banner financial aid packaging software, NSLDS database, and Microsoft’s
PowerPoint, Access, Word, and Excel.
OLDDOMINION UNIVERSITY, Norfolk, VA 1994 - 2010
CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGER/ FINANCIAL AID SPECIALIST 2005 - 2010
• Oversaw daily operations for the Customer Service unit and the university Operators and managed a team of 6
employees.
• Provided university students with advice and resources including information on financial aid, scholarships,
counseling, and application deadlines in addition to counseling students and parents regarding debt management to
limit loan borrowing.
• Determined student aid eligibility and offered suggestions for obtaining additional funding when necessary to over 2K
students per year.
• Facilitated the resolution of 4-5 escalated customer service issues per month by resolving cross operational complaints
and service issues through expedited services.
• Built team by owning the interviewing and hiring process including interviewing, selecting, hiring, training, and
supervising department personnel.
• Partnered with other university offices to proactively resolve account errors and limit complaints.
• Proposed alternatives and solutions to individual problems by coordinating rules and regulations inter-departmentally.

2. FINANCIAL AID COUNSELOR 2001 - 2005
• Coordinated outreach activities to incoming freshmen, high school students, and their parents to explain the aid
process.
• Counseled up to 400 students per year regarding the financial aid process.
• Demonstrated ability to empathize with students and parents to address concerns in an effort resolve conflicts and
prevent escalation.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze, research, and resolve customer issues and cross-operational complaints in an
articulate manner by exercising good decision making skills and independent judgement.
• Collaborated with the Registrar’s Office, Finance Office, and Admission Office to assist and provide to students
accurate information.
• Administered direct loan entrance and exit interviews as well as prepared and explained student award offers on a daily
basis.
• Collected, compiled, compared, analyzed, and reported data for weekly, monthly, midyear, and annual reports using
Crystal Reports and SCT Banner.
FINANCIAL AID COUNSELING ASSISTANT 1999 - 2001
• Provided students, parents, faculty, staff, and the community with information on policies and procedures relative to
financial assistance.
• Counseled students regarding financial aid.
GRADUATE INTAKE, PHONE COUNSELOR, SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR 1994 - 1999
• Provided financial aid counseling to graduate students.
• Disseminated policies and procedures to students, faculty, and staff.
EDUCATION
Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA
Master of Arts in Media Broadcast Management and
Administration
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
Bachelor of Science in Communications
TECHNOLOGY
• Microsoft: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook
• Reporting: Crystal Reporting
• Financial Aid Software: Elucian Banner, SAFE
• Database: National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), Common Origination & Disbursement (COD),
EDExpress, VAOnce, FAA Access
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING,CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
• Customer Service Training (Old Dominion University)
• Supervisory Training (Bryant and Stratton University, Old Dominion University)
• VA Certifying Official (US Veteran’s Administration)
• Critical Response in Higher Education (FEMA through Old Dominion University)
• CAA Conference
• LMDC-Track One
ORGANIZATIONS & AFFILIATIONS
• Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (VASFAA)
• Southern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (SASFAA)
• National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)
• National Association of Veteran’s Program Administrators (NAVPA)