Hello and welcome to Hunter College's Office of Assessment! I have worked in higher education assessment, accreditation and institutional research for twelve years, and in higher education as a whole since the 1990s. I received my AB (Political Science) and MPA from Columbia University, and my Ph.D. (Political Science) from the University of Michigan. With formal academic training and a decade of teaching experience in Political Science and survey research, I am also very familiar with the curriculum design, teaching and learning aspects of college life.
Before coming to Hunter College in September, 2018, I served as Senior Director of Accreditation & Assessment at Long Island University. Prior to that, I worked at the University at Albany, SUNY from September, 2006 through February, 2017, where I led academic assessment efforts since 2010. The main foci of my position were academic assessment, including academic program reviews, general education assessment, student learning outcomes assessment, and program-level and institutional accreditation; and design, administration, analysis, and reporting of surveys of students, faculty, staff and alumni. My academic research focuses on assessment and accreditation, as well as survey research methodology. I have also done research on election poll reliability and served as a consultant for the National Election Pool, the exit poll consortium. My political science research also includes work on political blogs, political behavior, media and politics, and race.
My philosophy of assessment is centered around the principle that assessment is just one part of a cycle that starts with each program's values and mission -- what you are passionate about! -- and then moves on to goals, outcomes, curriculum design, & teaching and learning. Assessment is the set of tools by which you regularly make sure that what you are doing in the classroom is aligned with the things you are passionate about! Thus, the primary audience for your program's assessment work isn't me or your Dean or Provost, or our accreditor -- it's you and your own program and department!
