Scott Wallace-Juedes named director of undergraduate financial aid

Scott Wallace-Juedes has been named director of undergraduate financial aid, following a national search, announced Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan and University Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi. 

Beginning Aug. 1, Wallace-Juedes will oversee the Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid, a new office that will be created through a larger restructuring of Student Financial Services to provide more school-specific services across the university. Storlazzi said he and other university leaders had concluded that the new structure would work best “from the standpoints of service, communications, and compliance.” Quinlan said he was excited about the potential for “great synergy between financial aid, undergraduate admissions, and the Yale College Dean’s Office.”

Since 2011 Wallace-Juedes has worked at Wellesley College where he serves as director of student financial services and assistant dean of admission and financial aid. Wallace-Juedes previously worked as an associate director of financial aid at Oberlin College and as an assistant director of admissions at Notre Dame College of Ohio.

At Wellesley Wallace-Juedes reorganized Wellesley’s Student Financial Services to focus staff efforts on service and responsiveness by reimagining how student service officers collaborate in a new shared space. He also adapted and implemented several new information technology solutions, including a new billing gateway and payment portal for students and parents. Recently, he has served as a leader for MyIntuition, an online quick college cost estimator originally created at Wellesley that is now used by fifteen selective colleges and universities. Wallace-Juedes has been recognized as a national leader in higher education finance and has presented at more than a dozen conferences and symposia, including the College Board Forum and QuestBridge College Access Conference.

In his new role Wallace-Juedes will oversee Yale’s approximately $140 million undergraduate financial aid budget, which allows the university to meet the full demonstrated financial need of all students, regardless of citizenship. For more than 50 years Yale College has had a policy of offering financial aid solely on the basis of need, and in recent years Yale has expanded its commitment to affordability, ensuring that students from the lowest-income families have access to the full undergraduate experience. In addition to a longstanding policy that parents with less than $65,000 in annual income and typical assets are not expected to contribute financially to a student’s Yale education, Yale has expanded several supplemental award programs and reduced student effort expectations for students with the greatest financial need.

Born in Colorado and raised in rural Western Nebraska, Wallace-Juedes is a first-generation college student who earned his B.A. from Hastings College in Hastings Nebraska. He will be joined by his husband, Dr. Wendell D. Wallace-Juedes, and their 3-year-old son Maceo. Wendell Wallace-Juedes was born and raised in New Orleans and is currently a foot and ankle surgeon in private practice. The two met while living in Ohio, and they share a passion for travel, exploring historic places, and spending time doing outdoor activities. Maceo loves to sing, practice his yoga, read, and play anything (as long as it is outdoors), they said.

“I am passionate about the impact that need-based financial aid policy plays in making college affordable,” Wallace-Juedes said. “Yale has a long-standing and deep commitment to need-based aid and extraordinary aid policies. I am delighted to join the staff in the new Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid, Dean Quinlan, and University Director Storlazzi in serving Yale College students and their families.”

Storlazzi, who has more than 40 years of experience at Yale, said, “I am thrilled to welcome Scott to Yale. He brings a wealth of experience working directly with students and families to navigate the process of financing an undergraduate education.” Quinlan added, “I look forward to working closely with the entire staff at the new Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid to communicate Yale’s extraordinary financial aid policies to the public, and to serve as a responsive and compassionate resource to our students, applicants, and admitted students.” As part of the restructuring, Quinlan’s title will become dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid.

Quinlan and Storlazzi thanked their fellow search committee members:  Sara Battista, University Bursar; JaVaughn “JT” Flowers ’17 of Pierson College; Tobias Holden ’17 of Trumbull College; Burgwell Howard, dean of student engagement; Joel Silverman, dean of Morse College and lecturer in English; Rebecca Tynan, associate director of admissions; and Kerry Worsencroft, director of student financial services operations. They also extended thanks to the search firm Isaacson, Miller for fielding a strong pool of applicants from across the country.