J. Michael Thompson is the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at the University of Southern California. J. Michael has worked in higher education for more than 30 years in a variety of roles at small private and mid-sized and large public universities, and now at USC, a large private university. He has worked in registrar's offices, admission offices, and computer centers. He has led organizations that include various other units such as financial aid, learning centers, transfer services, disability services, educational outreach units, SAA/EOP--the wide array of student success support at universities. For more than ten years, he has led groups of functional people and programmers to develop high touch through high tech systems, including one of the earliest electronic applications to college called Pathways. His group won an IBM Best Practices in Student Services award for UC Gateways. At USC, J. Michael has led the development of cutting-edge systems for worldwide educational outreach: Preparing for College, now available in eight different languages, and the Student Information Gateway, a postmodern communication tool for students interested in USC. Throughout his career, his two touchstones have been superior student service and developing and supporting the staff who work with him.