Paula Carollo

Paula Carollo has over 25 years of student financial aid experience in two-year public and for-profit institutions. She came to FAS in 2023, and as a consultant, she supports financial aid offices nationwide. She provides Interim Staffing, Consulting, and Assessing Services to improve business processes, strengthen compliance efforts, and enhance student satisfaction.

Paula’s career in financial aid began in 1996 as a Financial Aid Technician, then transitioned to the Senior Financial Aid Officer for a Professional Pilot Program at Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, a small, for-profit school in Oakland, CA. She continued gaining experience and has worked as a Director of Financial Aid at several clock-hour, for-profit institutions that offer certificates and undergraduate degrees. She has experience with audits, with her most recent audit, FY22, resulting in zero findings. She also worked as an Associate Registrar at the Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) for 10+ years and gained additional experience in Admissions and Student Records. She was also named Employee of the Year in 2008 at NWACC.

Paula is experienced working financial aid software systems, including Banner, Colleague, Genesis, and Diamond D, in addition to the U.S. Department of Education’s suite of applications and websites for administering Federal Financial Aid.

Paula was a member of an LLC from 2003 to 2016 and completed all the accounting and tax filing functions. She also has experience teaching business classes. She is compassionate and detail-oriented.

Paula completed her Master of Arts in Higher Education Leadership from John Brown University and a Bachelor of Science from Arkansas Tech University.