Vic specializes in institutional research, student learning outcomes assessment, and higher education organizational effectiveness. He writes, consults, and teaches workshops on these subjects. He has published more than 100 articles and book chapters and delivered more than 200 presentations and workshops throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa. He is also senior advisor to IU’s Executive Vice President for University Regional Affairs, Planning and Policy and is a past president of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR).
Barbara is a respected national expert on assessment with extensive experience in accreditation. She served six years as a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. Barbara also has experience in a variety of higher education administrative positions, and has consulted on issues of assessment, general education, foreign language instruction, and faculty development. She taught for many years at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, prior to her appointment to WASC. Barbara holds a Ph.D. in German literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
David and the Alliance aim to improve student learning through voluntary and cooperative professional efforts to significantly improve assessment of — and accountability for — student learning outcomes. He is also a senior advisor to the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and a professor of government at Hamilton College. David was one of the primary developers and editors of the statement “New Leadership for Student Learning and Accountability: A Statement of Principles, Commitments to Action,” published in January 2008 by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation, with support from the Teagle Foundation.
One of Melfo’s first projects after joining Kent State University in fall of 2001 was to reengineer the advancement office’s telefundraising operation. While in place for nearly a decade, and automated since 1996, the operation was failing to generate the results that management had anticipated. To turn it around, Melfo applied a number of tactics that he had developed over his career, the first 10 years of which were focused primarily on phone center management and strategy design. Two of the first and perhaps most important changes made were to the materials used to train new hires, and to the training process itself. In doing so, he replaced a superficial “read this” approach to training with a committed, intensive training process that placed as much – if not more – importance on the theory behind the approach as to the wording itself. As a result, the KSU PhoneCenter experienced the largest growth in its history, more than doubling its output in the first three years following the changes. Other AI contributions: Scripting and Training for Effective Fundraising Calls
Appointed dean in April 2009, Chet previously served Georgetown University as Dean for Georgetown College and chair of the Department of Theology, then as interim dean, where he and his development team raised 172 million dollars. He is an expert on the U.S. Catholic Church, the history of Catholicism, the papacy, interfaith dialogue, and religious pluralism. Chet received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Liberal Studies Program in 2005, and, as a member of the American Theological Society, he served on the Academic Relations Task Force of the American Academy of Religion. Chet previously chaired the Arts and Humanities Committee for the Heinz Awards and the national Teaching Award Committee for the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies. He is co-editor of the Columbia University series on Religion and Politics and past editorial board member of Confluence: Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies. Frequently consulted by the media about contemporary issues in religion, Chet has appeared on Face the Nation, Meet the Press, NewsHour, Good Morning America, Nightline, and National Public Radio, among other outlets. He is also a contributor to the Washington Post/Newsweek website On Faith.
An expert in entrepreneurship, management, and information systems, Len arrived at Eller from Washington State University. At WSU, he was the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Markin Endowed Chair in Business Leadership within the university’s College of Business. Len previously served as the institution’s vice president for university development and foundation president for three years. In these roles, he led a transformation of WSU’s fundraising operation to reach record levels in fundraising, donor participation, board member giving, and endowment size. Len was previously the dean of the College of Business at WSU and the Philip L. Kays Distinguished Professor in Management Information Systems. As dean, he led a complete reengineering of the business program, resulting in the successful AACSB reaccreditation of the college. Len also helped lead an institution-wide innovation initiative driven by the College of Business and its nationally recognized entrepreneurship program. He came to WSU from Indiana University, where he served as coordinator of the MIS program at IU’s Kelley School of Business. Len is a past member of the Academy of Management, and the editorial board for the journal Small Group Research.
Dwayne has focused his scholarly and professional efforts in the field of teaching and learning, instructional technology, mobile learning, and Web-based learning. As VP of academics, he is providing leadership that will ensure Concordia has a learning environment that utilizes innovation to stimulate critical and analytical thinking and that equips its graduates to effectively communicate as they tackle global challenges. Prior to joining Concordia in the fall of 2011, Dwayne was the director of faculty enrichment at Abilene Christian University, where he helped the faculty develop active and engaging learning environments and provided strategic direction for mobile learning, instructional design, teaching and learning with technology, and faculty development.
In addition to being the associate vice president at Canada’s Open University, Rory is also a UNESCO/COL chair in open educational resources. He was previously the executive director of TeleEducation NB, a bilingual New Brunswick e-learning network. He also was previously a supervisor at Contact North, a distance education network in Northern Ontario. He has also worked abroad in the Middle East, Seychelles (Indian Ocean), and Europe. He has been honored with the Wedemeyer Excellence in Distance Education Award. He researches the implementation and management of distance education systems and networks from technological, pedagogical, and policy perspectives. His present research interests include the use of open educational resources and standards in technology-assisted learning, particularly in the development/application of learning objects. He is also researching how these would be applied and formatted on mobile devices for m-learning.
Harvey is a pioneer in the field of e-learning, social learning, and knowledge management and is the founder of Instancy Inc., an SaaS (software as a service) and Web 2.0 learning platform company. Prior to Instancy, Harvey served as the chief learning technology officer at Centra Software after the company he co-founded, MindLever, merged with Centra Software, a real-time collaboration company. Harvey has also served as an advisor to e-learning standards organizations such as Advanced Distributed Learning (US Department of Defense) and IMS, and he was nominated as e-Learning Executive of the Year in 2001.
Combining successful careers in both professional theatre and higher education spanning over thirty-four years, professor Susan Leigh recently retired as associate vice president for enrollment management and marketing after twenty-two years at DePaul University in Chicago to consult full time in higher education. While at DePaul, Susan made significant contributions to the advancement of student service standards by leveraging technologies along with “big data” resident within the PeopleSoft student information system to accomplish customer-centric business process redesign. Susan led the creation of DePaul Central in 2006, an award-winning one-stop cooperative model with two onsite campus locations. Drawing on her expertise in the university classroom, Susan developed ReEnvision Customer Service: Certification Training for Higher Education Professionals with beginner, advanced, and “train the trainer” levels. The new training curriculum that debuted In October in Denver with Academic Impressions for both national and international trainees can also be tailored and branded as campus specific upon request. A frequent speaker at conferences nationally, Susan’s ideas have been published in many journals; her most recent article appeared in the AACRAO SEM Quarterly, July edition.
