Glass, Higgins, Abraham '17 Appointed to Arcadia University Board of Trustees

GLENSIDE, Pa., June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arcadia University has elected three new members to its Board of Trustees: Nancy Glass, CEO and executive producer for Glass Entertainment Group, an award-winning television production company; Peri Wallace Higgins, president and founder of Evolve Advisors; and Aliyah Abraham, management and program analyst for the U.S. Department of Commerce and a 2017 graduate of Arcadia. 

Glass is a six-time Emmy Award-winning producer and writer. She started Glass Entertainment Group in 2003, and since then the company has produced more than 3,000 hours of cable television shows, documentaries, digital programming, and podcasts. Glass has anchored and reported for several national television shows, including Inside Edition, American Journal, Sneak Previews, This Evening, and Attitudes on Lifetime. For the past five years, Glass Entertainment Group has been listed as one of the top 100 production companies in the world by RealScreen Magazine, and Glass is included on the 2022 Variety list of Titans of Unscripted Television. 

Glass is a member and past chair of the Board of Advisors for Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences as well as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Greater Philadelphia Film Office. She previously served as a member of the Board of Directors for Women's Campaign International, an organization that supports women in their efforts to participate in market and political processes in emerging democracies. 

Glass earned a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University. Some of her distinctions as an industry pioneer include being the first woman to be the solo host of a nationally syndicated news show, the first person in syndication to be nominated for a national news Emmy, and the first person in cable to be nominated for an Emmy for Best Daytime Talk Show Host.

Higgins is President and Founder of Evolve Advisors, a minority-owned and woman-owned management consulting firm that assists clients in developing innovative strategies for growth and efficiencies. Prior to founding Evolve, Higgins was a founder and managing partner of two real estate investment funds and managed the private equity portfolio of a diversified holding company. Her early career was spent in investment banking.

Higgins is a founding member and former vice chair of the Board of Horizons at The Episcopal Academy and serves as an Executive Board member of Horizons Greater Philadelphia. These organizations provide summer learning programs for children from underserved communities in the Philadelphia area. She previously served on the boards of the Vetri Foundation for Children, The Franklin Institute Benefactors Society, The West Hill School, Turner Funds, and The Episcopal Academy, where she was a member of the Executive Board.

Higgins earned a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Harvard University.

Elected as a Recent Graduate Trustee, Abraham works in the U.S. Department of Commerce as a Management & Program Analyst/Human Capital Business Partner, where she conducts analyses related to the effectiveness of programs and the efficiency of management operations for Human Capital matters, specializing in Human Capital data analytics. Her contributions in this role include the development of several data visualization personnel reporting systems that assist agency leadership with strategic planning and personnel oversight, the creation of new organizational tools for tracking of congressionally funded positions, and most recently spearheading transformational recruitment efforts to obtain potential candidates from diverse backgrounds. She previously served as Equal Employment Opportunity specialist at the Department of the Navy, NAVSEA Philadelphia Division.

Abraham earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Arcadia University in 2017. At Arcadia, Abraham was active in several activities, demonstrating leadership and initiative as the founding president of Melanin in Action, the organizer of the Knights for Nutrition Food Pantry Task Force, and the organizer of the Day of Silence Part 1 & 2. Abraham was a finalist for the 2018 Arcadia University Senior Golden Disc award. In 2018, Abraham received the Arcadia University Alumni Association Student Impact Award.

In 2018, Abraham founded the Black Alumni Association of Arcadia University (BAAAU), serving as its president through 2021. In this capacity, she launched the Preview Travel Fund to increase the participation rates of Black students in Arcadia's flagship Preview Program field study courses. Abraham was awarded the 2021 Arcadia University Black Alumni Association's Sankofa Award. In addition, she serves as a representative-at-large on Arcadia's alumni council and as an advisory board member for Arcadia's Gateway to Success/Act 101 Program. 

Arcadia University is a top-ranked private University in Greater Philadelphia that provides an educational experience that is values-based; rooted in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI); and places students at the center. The Institute of International Education has ranked Arcadia first nationally in study abroad for 10 of the last 12 years, and the Princeton Review has ranked Arcadia among the "Best in the Northeast" for seven consecutive years. The University's Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant programs are nationally ranked in their respective categories by U.S. News & World Report, which also ranks Arcadia among the top 25 percent in its category and cites Arcadia for being among the "most innovative" and "best value" colleges. Approximately 3,700 students study at Arcadia, with 2,300 undergraduate students choosing from more than 65 fields of study. Arcadia promises a distinctively global, integrative, and personal learning experience that prepares students to contribute and lead in a diverse and dynamic world. Through its community of practice, Arcadia has made facilitating a safe and welcoming environment a priority by developing and implementing anti-Black Racism Initiatives (ABRI) on campus and in its surrounding communities. Visit www.arcadia.edu.

SOURCE Arcadia University