Jean Shelton

Biography

Jean’s entire professional career has been devoted to graduate health science admissions where she is passionate about encouraging and supporting learners to achieve their goals. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Buena Vista University where she majored in Corporate Communication and minored in Business. She then went on to complete her Master of Science degree in Higher Education with an Enrollment Management emphasis at Drexel University. Her introduction to higher education admissions began when she served as an Office of Admissions intern at her alma mater, Buena Vista University. A native Iowan, her first professional job after college was as an admission assistant, then admission coordinator at Des Moines University, a graduate health professions university with programs in osteopathic and podiatric medicine, physical therapy, physician assistant, public health, and health administration. Jean went on to serve as the Assistant Director for Recruitment at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, Illinois. Most notably, she served as the Founding Director of Admissions at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker, M.D. School of Medicine in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In that role, she was instrumental in implementing their holistic review admissions process (balancing academic preparation with a wide variety of experiences and attributed aligned with the institutional mission) to select the inaugural and subsequent classes, worked collaboratively with the Admissions Committee Chair to facilitate meetings, served as the admissions contact to the AMCAS and the AAMC, tracked and reported admissions data internally and externally, contributed significantly to the DCI, as well as informed the design of interview days. These are just a few of her accomplishments. In 2016, she was promoted to Assistant Dean for Admissions and Student Life where she assumed additional responsibility for overseeing student organizations, responding to student concerns, and leading teams to plan and execute major student events such as the White Coat Ceremony, Match Day, etc.