An opportunity to work in the Marquette admissions office brought Jim Frey back to campus a year after he graduated. As luck would have it, the timing of the move helped put him on a path toward his future career.

He started work on a Monday, but the director of admissions was headed out of town and didn’t have time to train him. Instead, the director handed Jim the application of a prospective student from Hong Kong and said, “See what you can do with this.”

Jim spent three days working on the application, and the director was impressed with his attention to detail — so impressed that he asked Jim if he wanted to be in charge of all undergraduate foreign applicants.

After 19 years of work as a foreign educational credential evaluator at Marquette and four other institutions, he founded Educational Credential Evaluators Inc., a nonprofit public service corporation that evaluates educational credentials for people educated overseas who are seeking further education or professional licensing in the United States.

Established in 1980, the business has 90 employees and serves 35,000 applicants per year. A recipient of three major professional awards in international education, Jim retired in January 2012 but continues to assist the company’s training programs.

“Because education is dynamic, not static, the information required is constantly changing,” says Jim, who developed a reputation as an excellent researcher and trainer throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and New Zealand during his 50-plus-year career. “I enjoyed the challenge of keeping up and the opportunity to teach others.”

Get to Know: Dr. James S. Frey

Hometown:  Milwaukee

Someone past or present he’d like to have dinner with: Former United State President Bill Clinton

The Marquette faculty or staff member who had a great impact on him:  History Professor Frank Klement

Favorite Marquette memory:  The ability to schedule 18 to 21 credits per semester in a way that provided time to work 25 hours at Boston Store.