John Moses-Brownson
Associate Director of Career Advising Pre-Professional Health
Department: Student Professional Development Center/Career Services
Email: jmosesbrownson@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-6538
Professional Expertise
Brief Biography
John came to Elon after spending 10 years at Penn State. While at Penn State, he worked in Residence Life, College of Engineering's Academic Advising Center, the Forensic Science Program, and for 5 years was a Prehealth Adviser for the university.
John is a member of the National Association for Advising in the Health Professions (NAAHP) and currently serves on the NAAHP Committee on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. He also served as the Chair for NEAAHP's CDEI (NAAHP's Northeast region).
John is married with two step children. He also has two wonderful dogs (Winnie and Ruger) as well as a cat (Dash).
Links
Education
MEd in Higher Education Administration | 2014 | Merrimack College, North Andover, MA | Capstone: Living in Two Worlds: Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing in Higher Education
BSBA in Business Administration: Marketing | May 2011 | Robert Morris University, Moon Township, PA
Employment History
Prehealth Advisor, University-Wide Dec 2019 – August 2024
Academic Advisor, Science Advising Center Dec 2019 – August 2024
Undergraduate Program Advisor, BS/MBA Program Dec 2019 – May 2022
Penn State University – University Park Campus
PreHealth Advising:
• Advises all students and alumni across the university interested in a health profession including all 19
Commonwealth Campuses and World Campus via one-on-one appointments, large group
advising sessions, online group advising (Zoom), phone and Zoom meetings.
• Launched new office branding to reflect the depth and breadth of services provided at PSU
• Processes institutional data from application systems in collaboration with other advisers
• Monitors trends in health professions admissions; focus on data collection and data-driven changes
• Evaluates effectiveness in prehealth group advising sessions, updates with data-driven feedback
• Committee Letter writer for 2021 matriculation cycle for medical, dental, podiatry and optometry
• Coordinates/recruits co-interviewers, develops training and events, communicates changes in
processes, and fosters relationships with interviewers inside and outside the university community
• Spearheads faculty training; e.g. “The Anatomy & Physiology of Letters of Recommendation”
• Advocates for students and alumni applicants to health professional admissions officers
• Serves on/chairs search committees & is responsible for on-boarding plans for new hires
• Engages with NAAHP, NEAAHP, Local Area Network meetings, and shares relevant information
• Hosts the Prehealth Podcast at Penn State; produces episodes and manages podcast schedule
• Manages the relationship between Penn State and Penn State College of Medicine’s Primary Care
Scholars Program including application management, review, and submission
Academic Advising & Honors Advising | Integrative Science and Premedicine Majors:
• Advises students on majors, degree program requirements, minors, policies, and resources
• Coaches Honors students through the thesis timeline and research adviser search process
• Served on Schreyer Honors College’s Faculty Selection Committee and reviewing applications
• Developed an honors handbook for students to navigate their requirements and thesis
• Reads, reviews, and provides honors thesis submissions, as needed
• Developed rubrics and feedback processes for the review and approval of thesis submissions
• Meets with prospective students and parents through both college and university wide initiatives
• Led college-wide efforts for sponsored students in collaboration with Penn State Global
Managing | Advising the BS/MBA program:
• Managed the Balog endowment with the director and staff assistant; worked with Development
Office and the Smeal College of Business to increase scholarships and develop outreach to alumni
• Planned/implemented events such as networking dinners with alumni and donors, field trips to NYC
• Worked with Penn State Admissions and college communications office on new marketing plan
• Reviewed, interviewed, and selected scholars in collaboration with the Smeal College of Business
• Collaborated with the Eberly College Office of Diversity and Inclusion to increase applicants from
underrepresented backgrounds
Courses Taught
First-Year Seminar Course Coordinator, Science May 2023 - August 2024
Penn State University – University Park Campus
• Responsible for oversight and management of 40 sections of the First Year Seminar (ASTRO 20 & PSU 16) courses across the Eberly College of Science
• Development and implementation of pre- and post-surveys of first-year students to assess high school behaviors, college expectations, and the difficulties in transitioning to Penn State
• Directly supports 30+ instructors through mentorship, teaching circles, and course consultations
• Facilitates monthly instructor sessions including informational meetings, workshops, and teaching circles
• Coordinates college-wide initiatives for inclusion in these courses including World in Conversation
• Organizes guest speaker requests for the college and ensures instructor access to these opportunities
PSU 16: First Year Seminar Science
Penn State University – University Park Campus
Forensic Science Majors Fall 2019
• BS/MBA Program Fall 2019, ‘20, ‘21
• Premedicine Majors Fall 2020, ‘21, ‘22, ‘23
• Exploratory: Existential Risks and the Future of Humanity Fall 2022, ‘23
PSU 16 facilitates students' adjustment to the high expectations, demanding workload, increased academic liberties, and other aspects of the transition to college life. In the Eberly College of Science, this course also functions as a way for students to explore their intended major, connect with departmental faculty, and understand the long-term experience of pursuing their academic pathway.
SC 201: Medical Professions (Online Asynchronous) Spring 2021, ‘22, ‘23
Penn State University – University Park Campus
SC 201 is a 1-credit course that is meant to help students who are planning to apply to health professional school in the future reflect on their journeys to healthcare, self-assess their readiness, develop plans to enhance their candidacy and move forward more confidently in their journey. The online section of the course is intentionally designed to be self-paced and develop students' reflective thinking, personal development, narrative writing, and research skills. Additionally, while the in-person section is intentionally focused on students pursuing future admission to medical, dental, and physician assistant programs the online section is intentionally designed to allow students with broader interests across doctoral health professions as well as other allied health careers.
SC 497: Health Equity Leadership Program | Philadelphia, PA Spring 2024
Penn State University – University Park Campus
SC 497: Health Equity Leadership Program is currently a 1-credit course where students from the Eberly College of Science on a health professions track traveled to the city of Philadelphia over spring break. This one-week experience provided opportunities for students to engage in community health education at Dobbins Technical High School, Vare Washington Elementary School, and with homeless and indigent populations across Philadelphia. Students shadowed physicians in the Kensington neighborhood with the Esperanza Health Center to better understand culturally competent and appropriate care. Students were also in seminars with community health workers and community organizations serving the recently incarcerated at Jefferson Health.
The Health Equity Leadership Program was funded through a Faculty Innovation award, alumni funding, support from the Premedicine Major program, as well as the Eberly College of Science’s Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion.
HIED 302: The Role of the Resident Assistant: Theory and Practice Spring 2015, ‘16
Penn State University – Altoona Campus
HIED 302: The Role of the Resident Assistant: Theory and Practice is an analysis of the various roles of the resident assistant, including interpersonal facilitator, disciplinarian, program developer, and activities facilitator. The course includes significant discussion of identity development, student development theory, and social change.
Presentations
NAAHP Conference 2024, Cincinnati, OH | June 2024
- “The Times they are a Changin’” – this session helps advisers make sense of the prehealth admissions landscape post-SCOTUS decision which ended Affirmative Action. Primarily, the session focuses on the strategies and approaches that advisers can utilize in serving their students of underrepresented and/or marginalized identities to allow their stories, perspectives, and lived experiences to inform and enhance their applications to health professional training programs.
- “CDEI & The Lunch Hour Podcast Live: Learning to Drive Change Through Empathy Mapping” – this plenary session helps advisers understand how to make sense of the large and complex issues facing prehealth advising as well as how to drive institutional and social change at their institutions through the use of the Empathy Mapping framework. This session was a live recording of The Lunch Hour podcast which is a production of NAAHP CDEI.
- Host of LGBTQIA Experience Exchange – this session is a safe space for advisers who identify as sexuality or gender diverse to connect and create a community with advisers with shared experiences. We discussed the difficulties of our community within the health professions and have collaborated on projects to support this population.
NEAAHP Conference 2023, Niagara Falls, NY | June 2023
- “So, tell me about yourself” – session focused on giving advisers the tools and resources to guide their students in taking control of their personal narratives and identities in the application process.
- Host of LGBTQIA Experience Exchange – this session was a safe space for advisers who identify as sexuality or gender diverse to connect and create a community with advisers with shared experiences. We discussed the difficulties of our community within the health professions and have collaborated on projects to support this population.
- “The Penn State Prehealth Portfolio: The "Capstone Project" in PreHealth Advising's Curriculum” (POSTER) – this poster session showcased the Penn State Prehealth curriculum and how we have used our portfolio system to enhance applicant advising, student services, and success rates of our applicants.
NAAHP Conference 2022, Denver, CO | June 2022
- “A Report on the Interdisciplinary Approach to Finding Solutions to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) topics in Health Professions Advising from 2021 Regional Conferences” – session focused on giving the data from the Empathy Mapping sessions that the NAAHP CDEI conducted in 2021
- Host of LGBTQIA Experience Exchange – this session was a safe space for advisers who identify as sexuality or gender diverse to connect and create community with advisers with shared experiences. We discussed the difficulties of our community within the health professions and have collaborated on projects to support this population.
Penn State Conference on Innovative Advising 2022 | September 2022
- “Interdisciplinary Advising Partnerships” – session was about the ways in which PreHealth Advising at Penn State has built collaboration with other offices into our operating model. We gave advice on how other offices can take this concept and apply it in their own advising spaces. Penn State Conference on Innovative Advising 2021 September 2021
- “Utilizing Portfolios & Comprehensive Interviews for Graduate, Professional, and Career Readiness” – this session showed the ways in which PreHealth Advising has utilized mock applications, secondary essays, and mock interviews packaged together as a “Comprehensive Interview” to enhance our students' readiness for graduate health professions while showing how others could apply this concept in their own advising practices.
Penn State Conference on Innovative Advising 2020 | October 2020
- “A Health Professions Crash Course” –provides an overview of the challenges of the graduate health professions pathways including trends, changes in requirements, and provides advisers with the toolkit to support students within their majors & partnering with our office for student success.
Accepted Presenter at 2020 NACADA Region II & Region IV Conferences March/April 2020
- Title: “World-Wide-What – Residential students in online courses” – both conferences were canceled because of the COVID19 pandemic.
Penn State Conference on Innovative Advising 2019 | September 2019
- “World-Wide-What – Residential students in online courses” – this session was about the literature (at the time, pre-COVID19) on what success strategies students who were residential students but had to take online course(s) used to find success from the instructor, adviser, and student’s lenses.
NACADA Region II 2019 Conference | March 2019
- “Out in STEM: Not your LGBT 101” - overviews the literature around sexuality and gender-diverse students in STEM, their retention, and their future authentically as living “out” in their future workplaces – also gave practical advice on structural issues at institutions that can be addressed to improve retention and success of these populations in STEM.
Penn State Conference on Innovative Advising 2018 | September 2018
- “Out in STEM”- overviews the literature around sexuality and gender-diverse students in STEM, their retention, and their future authentically as living “out” in their future workplaces – also gave practical advice on structural issues at institutions that can be addressed to improve retention and success of these populations in STEM.
Skills
Course Management: Canvas, Blackboard, Zoom, Adobe Connect, Microsoft Teams
Student Record Management: PeopleSoft, Starfish, VZO (new student orientation), Colleague, Simplicity
Student Engagement & Conduct: OrgSync, JACS
Data Mining: iTwo, SPSS, PeopleSoft Queries
Web-Based Content Management: Sites, Confluence, Cascade
Awards
Student Organization Advisor of the Year, Penn State Altoona 2015 – 2016 | Residence Hall Association & National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH)
Penn State Eberly College of Science: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Award | 2020-21 Academic Year