LeShane Saddler New VP for Enrollment Management

As a defensive back on Lou Holtz's nationally ranked Notre Dame football teams of the early 1990s, LeShane Saddler gained a deep appreciation for the importance of team play.

As the new leader of St. Ambrose's Enrollment Management (EM) Division, Saddler is employing his old coach's oft-repeated assertion: Teamwork is the foundation of success.

"Recruitment, enrollment and retention require a campus-wide commitment to attracting, assisting, educating and graduating our students," said Saddler, who became SAU's vice president for enrollment management on July 1. "From coaches, to professors, to admissions counselors, to social media managers, even current students, we are all part of a team looking to share the value of a St. Ambrose education with every prospective student we meet."

Saddler came to St. Ambrose after serving as the director of undergraduate admissions at the University of California-San Diego since 2018. Prior to that, he spent a decade in admissions leadership roles at his alma mater in South Bend, Indiana.

At St. Ambrose, he joins his brother Ryan Saddler '96, '06 MEdT, the university's associate vice president for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the director of the Accessibility Resource Center.

"Ryan's deep understanding and appreciation of St. Ambrose's commitment to social justice and the life-changing impact of our degrees drew me here," LeShane Saddler said. "I look forward to helping him make SAU richer by building a more diverse student body."

A native of Waterloo, Iowa, LeShane Saddler said renewing the University's long-established success in recruiting students from Iowa and Illinois will be a primary focus for the EM Division, and that "winning in our own backyards of Davenport and the Quad Cities region" will be a goal.

"We need to be certain the point guard just down the road at Davenport Central knows we are here for her; that every member of the Moline High School Chorale really knows about the accomplished faculty and alumni in our Music Department; and that the editor of the Assumption High School student newspaper has read about the amazing job placement rates of our communications programs," he said.