Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research & 
the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute
Indiana University–Bloomington
Bloomington, IN

I am currently leading several research projects on the effective use of student engagement data to improve educational quality, including a Spencer Foundation project, Learning to Improve: A Study of Evidence-Based Improvement in Higher Education. I also serve as Senior Scholar on the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) project, an initiative to study assessment in higher education and assist institutions and others in discovering and adopting promising practices in the assessment of college student learning outcomes. Managing the Documenting Effective Education Practices (DEEP) project and Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students (BEAMS), which aimed to identify best practices to support student success, provided great insight into the practices that matter for student learning. All these projects have provided me a rich perspective on effective educational practices and institutional conditions to increase student persistence, learning and success.

I earned my PhD from Indiana University in higher education with a minor in women’s studies. Prior to this, I served on the faculty of Indiana University and coordinated the University’s master’s program in higher education and student affairs. I also worked as a researcher and administrator in academic and student affairs at several institutions, including Miami University and Case Western Reserve University. My scholarly interests include the assessment of student engagement, how colleges use data to improve, the impact of programs and practices designed to support student success—including learning communities, service-learning, and undergraduate research—as well as first-year student development, student and academic affairs partnerships, teaching and learning in college, access and equity, and women in underrepresented fields.

I’ve co-authored numerous publications including Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter (Jossey-Bass, 2005/2010); Continuity and Change in College Choice: National Policy, Institutional Practices and Student Decision Making, a monograph published by Lumina Foundation; and One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional and Innovative Models of Student Affairs Practice (Routledge, 2008/2014).

I am co-editor of New Directions in Higher Education, and serve on the editorial boards of the Journal of College Student Development and Learning Communities Research and Practice, and on the Accreditation Commission of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation and the board of Washington Internship Institute. In 2001, I was awarded a Student Choice Award for Outstanding Faculty at Indiana University and in 2005 and 2011 received the Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation by the Professional Organizational Development (POD) Network for faculty development.