Kerin Hilker Balkissoon is an accomplished higher education leader with extensive experience collaborating across PK-12 education, community colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and workforce partners to advance college access, student success, and career attainment. Recognized for an innovative and student-centered approach to postsecondary program design, she draws on expertise in career pathways, high-impact educational practices, lifecycle intervention frameworks, and developmental and appreciative advising to create holistic service models that support strong student outcomes. Her work has focused on designing data-informed interventions that strengthen postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and credential completion, with particular expertise in developing targeted models of support for first-generation college students, student-parents, international students, and community college transfer students.

Kerin’s program models have received national recognition, including the 2016 ?Example of Excelencia! award from Excelencia in Education and Bellwether Award Finalist honors in 2016 and 2018. Her work has also been replicated at more than 25 institutions across the United States. An active contributor to thought leadership in higher education, she has shared her expertise through national conference presentations, keynote panels, and testimony before the Federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Her contributions to education have been recognized through multiple honors, including the Virginia Excellence in Education Award, the NISTS Transfer Champion-Catalyst award, the Dean’s Award for Diversity and Inclusion, and George Mason University’s 2024 Patriot Pathbreaker award.

At George Mason University’s College of Science, Kerin designs and leads initiatives that foster STEM professional identity, student engagement, and career readiness, including EPPIC-STEM, the VALHEN STEM Academy, the RISE Scholars program, and the Global STEM Pathways Initiative. She also co-leads multiple NSF-funded grants, including Mason’s NSF INCLUDES and NSF Noyce projects, while contributing to university-wide task forces and cross-institutional efforts focused on access and student success. In addition to her institutional leadership, Kerin teaches in the College of Science’s Scientific Leadership and Practice program. Beyond the university, she remains deeply committed to educational opportunity through board service and volunteer work with nonprofit organizations, including the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network and Friends in Need Virginia.