Voices of Reach: Vinny Vincent-Dunn
Senior Director of Financial Aid and Registered Apprenticeship Programs
Voices of Reach highlights members of the Reach University community and their work to live Reach’s mission, core values, and commitment to expanding access to work-embedded higher education.
There are some people at Reach University that you know before you meet them. Vinny Vincent-Dunn, Senior Director of Financial Aid and Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), is one of those people. His name naturally comes up in conversations. In fact, it’s not uncommon to hear multiple shouts of “Vinny!” anytime he enters a Zoom meeting. You don’t have to spend much time with him to understand why he’s got a bit of a fanbase.
For all the involvement and enthusiasm he brings to Reach every day, you would think he always wanted to be in financial aid. But Vinny didn’t plan to be on this side of education. He wanted to be a teacher, which, when you think about it, gives him an even clearer understanding and perspective of what our candidates are going through. While this may not have been the path Vinny originally set out on, it’s safe to say he ended up in a role that still lets him be creative, even with something as seemingly blunt as financial aid.
Vinny earned his degree in elementary and special education from Manchester University before beginning his teaching career in Chicago, Illinois. After eventually moving back to Indiana, he applied to 117 teaching positions, not that he’s counting, and received no callbacks. This is when Vinny’s story turns. He decided to pursue his master's in education with a focus in technology, more specifically, Institutional Research and Design. He found his way into the financial aid department at Indiana University, where his creativity kicked in when he realized he was still teaching, in many ways. “I quickly discovered I was still teaching,” Vinny said. The subject matter and students had just changed.
Two decades later, his teaching instincts still shape how he shows up as the Senior Director of Financial Aid and RAPs. He treats mistakes as learning opportunities, and every project as a group effort. He’s the type of leader who gets in the weeds with his employees to move projects forward faster.
When you take a look at the way Vinny leads, it’s easy to see how he practices Reach’s values every day. He owns the work and the outcome by getting into the deep work with his team. He questions what is and builds what’s next by encouraging testing instead of defaulting to “this is how we’ve always done it.” Finally, Vinny makes space for his team and coworkers to ask questions, make mistakes, and share problem-solving, giving us a great example of what it means to grow and succeed together.
These values also guide Vinny daily and help him better understand and serve our candidates. His ability to turn data into a story helps us continue our human-first approach to higher education. Each record Vinny sees is the story of a candidate, and each data point can be traced back to someone juggling a full life at home, with family and community, while pursuing their degree.
Vinny’s clear passion and enthusiasm for all things Reach doesn’t end at the end of a computer monitor or Zoom meeting. Ask him about his tattoo collection sometime; he’ll grin and proudly show off his Reach University tattoo on his left hand. He says it’s the start of his Reach tattoo sleeve, and he’s already got several coworkers excited to see the rest of it as time goes on.
For Vinny, the subject matter may have changed, but he has found a way to bring his passion for teaching and creativity to candidates. His idea of a classroom may have changed, but his passion for teaching did not.
