Dan Walls was named to the newly created position of associate vice provost of enrollment management in May of 2006.  In this role, Mr. Walls is responsible for executing strategies, insuring coordination, and improving the seamless integration of admission and financial aid for all undergraduate programs.  He provides oversight and direction for the admission, financial aid and scholarship programs in Emory College, Oxford College, the Goizueta Business School and the Woodruff School of Nursing.

The coordination and integration efforts include ongoing analyses of admission trends, prospective student markets and undergraduate admission and financial aid policies and procedures.  Mr. Walls collaborates with the vice president for marketing to develop more comprehensive and coherent approaches for undergraduate education at Emory. This coordination better positions Emory to achieve its strategic undergraduate enrollment goals.

Walls has worked for 30 years in higher education, exclusively in undergraduate admission and financial aid.  For the past 23 years, he was director and dean of Admission at Emory.  During his tenure, Emory has moved to a position of national and international prominence.  Admission selectivity in Emory College improved to the “most selective” category, while student diversity, both ethnic and geographic, and student quality have surged.

Prior to coming to Emory in 1983, Walls was assistant dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.  His specific responsibilities included directing the admission program for the School of Engineering, serving as a member of the undergraduate financial aid staff, as well as coordinating Northwestern’s recruitment efforts in the Southeastern states, including specific programming in Atlanta.

Walls began his admission career at Illinois Wesleyan University, after graduating summa cum laude from Illinois Wesleyan in 1976. He earned a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Illinois State University in 1979.

Walls is an active member of the Southern and National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Southern and National College Board, and was chairperson from 1988-1990 of the Southern Consortium on College Admission.  He has served on a variety of regional and national committees, including the National Merit Scholarship Selection Committee and the Coca-Cola Scholars' National Selection Committee.

He has visited and spoken extensively at secondary schools across the country on a range of undergraduate enrollment topics, including effective college planning, selective admission and financial planning for college.