Undergraduate Services | SIU College of Business

Valerie Brooks Wallin brings 23 years of experience in advisement to the College of Business, where she is currently the interim chief academic advisor. She also advises in the School of Art & Design, and she has previously advised in the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Education & Human Services before joining the College of Business in 2018. In that time she was selected as the 2015 Provost Award for Excellence in Academic Advisement recipient.

Being a Saluki is nothing new to Brooks Wallin. She earned an Associate's degree from Lincoln Trail College before earning a Bachelor's degree and later a Master's degree in Education from Southern Illinois University. She is an executive board member for the Illinois Academic Advising Association, serving as the membership & elections chair. She is also an academic representative on the Administrative Professional Staff Council’s Judicial Review Board at SIU.

Brooks Wallin combines her vast advisement knowledge and exceptional care for students to provide the students in the College of Business with the best Saluki experience possible.

Rachel graduated from the SIU College of Business with a management degree and a marketing minor in 2001. She continued on to earn her master’s degree in 2010 in workforce education and development. She brings with her 14 years of experience within Undergraduate Admissions here at SIU. She has done it all from recruitment to serving as associate director and interim director.

Ivan Vargas joined the College of Business in 2019 as an academic advisor. Ivan is a three degree Saluki with bachelor degrees in Economics and Cinema and Photography with a minor in History. He also earned a master’s degree in Economics.

He prepared for his role as an advisor by working as a GA for the SIU Undergraduate Admissions office where he assisted in events, promoted SIU to prospective students and helped fulfill requests for marketing materials. Ivan also worked as an academic coach and tutor, a student coordinator for the Center of Inclusive Excellence and as a group leader for the arts and Literacy Summer Camp in Brooklyn, NY. His Saluki spirit was put to work as a section leader in the Marching Salukis. Although not an official business student, Ivan was a business student at heart as a member of the Graduate Student Investment Fund.