Yale Daily News

The Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid has launched its search for a new director of undergraduate financial aid.  

Outgoing director of undergraduate financial aid Scott Wallace-Juedes left Yale on Feb. 17 after five years in the position. Since his departure, former senior associate director of financial aid Alex Muro has been serving as interim director. The Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid intends to conduct interviews this spring and hire a new permanent director this summer.

“I believe the office of undergraduate financial aid is in a great position to continue providing outstanding service to Yale students and their families,” Muro told the News. “Some of the most rewarding parts of our team’s work stem from the diversity of backgrounds and experiences our students bring with them to campus. Every family’s financial situation is unique, and this makes the process of developing and communicating solutions that make a Yale College education affordable for everyone a complex but vital endeavor.”

According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions & Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan, the office is currently working with a search firm called Napier Executive Search — which specializes in job searches geared toward higher education enrollment management — to find “talented and experienced candidates” presently working in university financial aid nationwide. 

Finalists will be identified this spring, and a committee composed of both staff and undergraduate students will conduct interviews. Quinlan told the News that the goal is to name a new director over the summer. A key priority when choosing the new director, he said, is an in-depth understanding of need-based financial aid.

“It is essential that the new director provide strategic leadership and ethical management to the team at the office of undergraduate financial aid,” Quinlan wrote to the News. “In addition to being an expert on the intricacies of need-based financial aid, the new director will need to be an outstanding communicator and listener who can engage students, families, and university leaders with empathy, respect, and a commitment to Yale’s core values.”  

Muro told the News that he has almost 20 years of experience working in university financial aid, 15 of which have been at Yale. Before his most recent role as senior associate director of undergraduate financial aid, Muro worked at the School of the Environment, the School of Management and the former Student Financial Services Center.

Quinlan pointed to outgoing director Wallace-Juedes’ work “advancing affordability and transparency” during his nearly six years in the role, which includes policy changes that reduced costs of attendance and made aid offers more legible to admitted students and families.

“Under Scott’s leadership we worked together to completely redesign and rewrite the financial aid offer letter and the materials that introduce financial aid to admitted students,” Dunn wrote to the News. “Financial aid officers have accompanied admissions officers on outreach travel and to events with admitted students.”

Mark Dunn, senior associate director for outreach and recruitment, described the importance of collaboration between the offices of undergraduate admissions and undergraduate financial aid, noting that Wallace-Juedes had brought the two teams “closer together than they had ever been.”

During Wallace-Juedes’ time at Yale, Dunn added that the offices made it easier for admitted students and families to ask and receive answers to questions about financial aid during Bulldog Days. Bulldog Days invites admitted students to spend a few days on Yale’s campus.

“I am excited for the next director of undergraduate financial aid to continue the work that Scott began,” Dunn wrote to the News. “I know that the team at undergraduate financial aid will continue to be outstanding partners this spring under Alex’s leadership.”

Wallace-Juedes has since taken up a new position as assistant vice president for financial aid at New York University.