Joan Bailey and Sarah McCrackin were recognized as USF Health Culture Champions for their commitment to serving the students of USF Health.
Joan Bailey has spent nearly three decades helping students understand how to finance their education. She鈥檚 a respected voice in a profession where regulations and policies are rapidly and continually changing including serving as president of the Southern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and a voting member of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Those positions have given her access to emerging policies and opportunities to advocate on behalf of her students at the state and federal government levels. That experience has made Bailey a valuable resource to the nearly 9,000 students she and her team serve.
Joan Bailey, director of the USF Health Financial Aid Office.
Since taking over as director of the in 2015, she and her team continue to take a proactive approach to keep up with the evolving landscape of financial aid. She looked for new ways to make complex financial aid information easier for USF Health students to understand. As a result, she led a project to develop a series of informational financial aid videos. The series provided another way to communicate information about scholarships, grants, key deadlines and repayment options, a few of the many things that she and her team continually communicate to students. The videos reflect Bailey鈥檚 philosophy that effective financial aid counseling requires clear and accurate communication.
With rules and policies continually changing, Bailey emphasizes giving students the information they need to make informed decisions. As a result, she鈥檚 helped remove some of the uncertainty students can face with financial aid requirements allowing them to focus on graduating.
鈥淭he fun part of my job is seeing the students from when they start to when they graduate. I strongly believe financial aid plays a critical role in each stage, whether it鈥檚 recruiting, enrolling retaining and getting them to graduation,鈥 Bailey said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great knowing that me and my team played a role in getting them to the finish line.鈥
Sarah McCrackin, fourth-year medical student at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.
One of those students nearing the finish line is Sarah McCrackin, a fourth-year medical student who found time in her demanding schedule to step in front of the camera to help Bailey and her team deliver the message. McCrackin, who hopes to match into internal medicine, became the face of the financial aid video series, helping to turn complicated information into conversations that were more relatable to students.
The Tallahassee, Fla., native is known across the college for her infectious personality and selflessness. Her willingness to take time to help others reflected the same service-to-others spirit in which the videos were created.
鈥淭he financial aid office has helped me with everything I鈥檝e needed when it came to paying for medical school,鈥 McCrackin said. 鈥淚鈥檓 glad that I was able to help with this. I didn鈥檛 get to this point in medical school without them.鈥
Their work on the series earned them USF Health Culture Coins for their shared goal to help students navigate financial aid. Bryan Bognar, senior associate vice president of Student Success and chair of the Department of Medical Education, presented them with their culture coins during the annual USF Health Student Success Roundtable in August.