Research indicates that a crucial factor to student persistence is the quality of student relationship with at least one person in the university community, often the academic advisor. Even though retention and persistence rates are consistently lower for online and non-traditional (or adult) students than traditional (young, on-campus) students, distance education continues to grow. This paper reviews research and one university’s journey to build capacity and quality of distance student services. Considering academic advisor evaluation survey results, online learning management and student information system quantitative data, along with distance degree student qualitative data, this paper shares mix methods action research findings as well as appreciative and proactive advising practices that impact retention, persistence and degree completion for globally distributed and post-traditional online learners.