Matt Boisvert is a co-founder of Pharos Resources and serves as President.  Prior to launching Pharos Resources, Matt served as the Assistant Dean of Marketing Operations and Marketing Instructor for Abilene Christian University’s College of Business Administration.  Before joining the ACU faculty, Matt was the Executive Director of ACU’s Office of Career and Academic Development, overseeing the “Support Our Students” program and career and academic counseling services.  At ACU, he expanded the College of Business advising center into a full-service Career Development Center, contributing to ACU COBA’s recent recognition as the highest placement rate among Master’s programs in the nation.  Matt received an MBA specializing in Services Marketing and Management from Arizona State University and a BBA from ACU.  Matt has been recognized as the “Teacher of the Year” for ACU’s Management Sciences department, SpringBoard entrepreneur, and as an AbileneBiz “Top 20 Under 40” honoree.

Rachel Phillips-Buck is a co-founder of Pharos Resources and serves as Vice President for Student Success and a senior consultant. She works closely with clients to create and coordinate best retention practices on their campuses. Since 2006, she has been the visioneer/designer of Pharos 360 and has implemented the platform and best practices for campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to her work with Pharos Resources, she was a career counselor at Abilene Christian University. She taught the Career and Life Planning Class and created and delivered the “Discovery for Deciding” program, a five-week program that helped students choose and confirm his/her major. Rachel is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and approaches all of her work with Pharos Resources with a perspective informed by her training in Systems Theory. Rachel received a BS in Psychology and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from ACU.

James Langford is the Chief Information Officer for Pharos Resources and works to align our technology with our mission. James joined the team in January 2015 after a 25-year career at Abilene Christian University researching and implementing new technologies. He led several key innovations such as the move to Google Apps, the mobile portal for the ConnectEd initiative, creation of the HeadsUp (headsup.io) mobile web app for small-group interaction, and launching of the Maker Lab, a project to foster problem-solving through the cooperation of the arts, science and engineering. James uses this knowledge of both higher education and technology systems to enhance Pharos’ offerings to colleges and universities.

Rachel Elam is the Director of Success Initiatives at Pharos Resources. She joined the Pharos team in August 2013 and now works around the clock to ensure every client is meticulously cared for by providing clear implementation of the software and follow-up support. Rachel’s prior experience includes working with the Career Center and Business Services at Abilene Christian University, where she engaged students and faculty on a daily basis with exceptional customer service and project management. Rachel received her BS in Art Education from ACU.

Bradon Carey Owens joined Pharos Resources as the Director of Operations in 2019. Prior to joining Pharos Resources, Bradon served as the Associate Registrar for Technology and Operations for Abilene Christian University. Her work included being a critical part of all software implementations involving student data. Before joining the Registrar’s Office, Bradon served several years in the university’s Career Center as the Employer Relations Manager. Bradon began her career by serving in executive placement and business development roles for placement and consulting firms in Dallas, Texas. Bradon received a BBA in Management from Hardin-Simmons University.

Shawna Nehl is the Director of Client Development at Pharos Resources. She began her career with Pharos in 2010 and rejoined the team in 2019 to expand Pharos’ Relational Retention client community. She works closely with customers from first meeting all the way through implementation to ensure a seamless launch of their Pharos retention solution software. Prior to her work with Pharos Resources, Shawna has had great success working in multiple industries to build exceptional sales practices and teams and develop continuous improvement practices. Shawna received her BBA in Marketing and Management from Abilene Christian University and her MBA from the University of West Florida. To connect with Shawna, you can send an email to shawna.nehl@pharosresources.com or call 800-704-6043 x 201.

Viva Gore is the Director of Retention Intelligence at Pharos Resources. Through Pharos Spark and Pharos Focus, Viva helps clients to understand their retention trends over time, identify student populations on their campus that have the highest risk of not retaining, and celebrate success as informed practice leads to retention gains. Viva previously worked in Impact-based roles in the UK charity sector. Through this work, Viva supported UK-wide and London community based organisations in creating Evaluation Frameworks, developing and implementing data collection methods, and analysing and reporting on the Impact of interventions. 

Rebekah Green is the Director of Client Success at Pharos Resources, where she manages the Help Center that connects Pharos users to an online community for support, ideas, questions, and feedback. She spent 19 years in various roles in higher education at Abilene Christian University before joining Pharos Resources in 2022.  At ACU, Rebekah worked within academic departments, financial aid, enrollment management, the Career Center, and Student Services. Most recently, she was the Director of Student Services, managing the front-line services for financial aid, billing, the Registrar’s Office, Academic Advising, the Office of Graduate Programs, and the incoming call center for the university. Rebekah has a Bachelor of Applied Studies degree from Abilene Christian University.

John Zaneski is the Director of Technical Operations at Pharos Resources. He joined the Pharos team in April 2022 and ensures clients’ technological needs are met so they can focus on supporting students.  John assists with implementations, streamlines processes, fine-tunes configurations and enables new capabilities within Pharos’s technical ecosystem. His prior experience includes working both in IT support across desktops, laptops, servers, and virtual environments, and in various design and development contexts from data processing and web services.  With exposure to a myriad of environments and challenges, John can identify many facets of a problem and create efficient solutions.