Join us for an engaging discussion with assessment professionals from four different institutions around the topic of learning assessment and making data-informed decisions. Panelists will share their ideas and experiences and attendees will have time to ask questions.
Special Guest Panelists
Dr. Dan Bureau
Assistant Vice President for Student Health and Wellbeing, Louisiana State University
Dan Bureau is the Assistant Vice President for Student Health and Wellbeing at Louisiana State University and has served in this role since August 2021. He is the immediate past president of CAS and has served on the Council since 2008, representing the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA). Over his 26 years in the field of higher education, Dan has worked at the University of Massachusetts, University of New Mexico and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign before completing his doctorate from Indiana University where he worked at the Center for Postsecondary Research primarily with the National Survey of Student Engagement. After his time at IU, in 2011 he moved to the University of Memphis where he served in numerous roles prior to his current role at Louisiana State University.
He is a recognized contributor to the field of higher education with over 100 presentations at conferences, including ACPA, AFA and NASPA. He has written extensively about areas such as fraternity and sorority life, assessment, student learning in the co-curriculum and has over 60 publications across journals, book chapters, edited books, monographs and association publications. He is the co-editor of the book "Leading Assessment for Student Success: Ten Tenets that Change Culture and Practice in Student Affairs". He was also the 2004 President of AFA. He has been recognized with the ACPA Diamond Honoree award, AFA's Robert H. Shaffer award, the NASPA Fraternity and Sorority Knowledge Community Distinguished Service Award and recently with Indiana University's Robert Shaffer Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Ciji Heiser (Moderator)
Director of Assessment, Marketing and Communications, Western Michigan University
Ciji Ann Heiser, Ph.D. serves as the Director of Assessment, Marketing, and Communications at Western Michigan University. She leads assessment, evaluation and strategic planning efforts with a culturally responsive and equity-centered lens. Her team prioritizes compassion and belonging in each of their communications from TikTok to news stories. The majority of her work involves partnering with stakeholders to cultivate and report credible and actionable evidence. As a mixed-methodologist, her skills in qualitative and quantitative instrument design and analysis are critical to asking questions, finding answers, and telling stories that matter and represent a wide diversity of lived experiences necessary to advance equity and disrupt injustice. As the daughter of a single-mother in a low-income household, and a first-generation college student, she believes deeply in the power of education and community to influence the outcome of peoples' lives. She received her B.A. in international relations from Bucknell University, M.Ed. from Kent State University, M.S. and Ph.D. in educational research methodology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. At home, she loves being Evan's wife, and Sidney and Clark's mama. Her dog Lily is a constant source of positivity and reminds her every day to take a breath and snuggle. Running, weight-lifting, time with friends, cooking, baking and reading are her mechanisms for well-being.
Dr. Nicole Long
Assistant Vice President, Student Experience and Belonging in the Division of Student Life, University of Delaware
Dr. Nicole Long is the Assistant Vice President, Student Experience and Belonging in the Division of Student Life at the University of Delaware. Her career is in higher education, with work in institutional research and assessment offices, as well as 17 years of progressive leadership in student affairs administration in the areas of communications, diversity, student conduct administration, and fraternity and sorority advising. While serving in administrative capacities, Dr. Long has maintained faculty appointments in education graduate programs and serves as a reviewer for the Journal of College Student Development. She is a professionally engaged leader in higher education, with current service as an advisory board member for the Council for the Advancement of Standards and as a peer evaluator with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education national accreditation organization and past service as board chair for Student Affairs Assessment Leaders. In 2017, ACPA-College Student Educators International named Dr. Long as an Annuit Coeptis Emerging Professional. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from DePaul University, Master of Education in college student personnel from Ohio University, and Doctor of Philosophy in counseling and personnel services and graduate certificate in measurement, statistics, and evaluation from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Darby Roberts
Director of Student Life Studies, Texas A&M University
Darby Roberts currently serves as the Director of Student Life Studies at Texas A&M University, having been promoted from Associate Director, Assistant Director, Assessment Coordinator, and graduate assistant in the same department. Before joining Student Life Studies, Darby worked as an Area Coordinator in the Texas A&M Department of Residence Life and as a Hall Director at the University of Tennessee.
Darby also teaches in the Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education master’s program. Her course, Assessment and Interventions in Student Affairs, prepares students to assess departments, programs, and student learning in the co-curricular.
Her professional involvement includes being co-chair for NASPA’s Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community and co-editing Learning is Not a Sprint, a NASPA book published in June 2012. In 2016, she co-authored Student Affairs Assessment: Theory to Practice and co-edited Assessing Student Leadership, a monograph in the New Directions for Student Leadership series. She co-authored the second edition of Frameworks for Assessing Learning and Development Outcomes. She has contributed several chapters in books related to assessment and student learning. Darby frequently presents at national conferences and consults around the country.
Darby earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in business analysis and research (management information systems), a Master of Science in human resources management, and a Doctor of Philosophy in educational administration, all from Texas &AM University. The title of her dissertation was Skill Development among Student Affairs Professionals in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Region III.
Outside of her formal job duties Darby serves the Division of Student Affairs by chairing the Assessment Team and serving on the Committee on Student Learning in the Co-curricular, as well as the Division of Student Affairs Diversity Committee. She was one of the founding members of the Student Leader Learning Outcomes (SLLO) Project to promote the assessment and documentation of student learning in the co-curricular.
Darby has received several awards for her contributions to Texas A&M. The honors include: 2014 NASPA Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Knowledge Community’s Innovation Award, 2005 Division of Student Affairs Professional Staff Award, 2002 Alpha Phi Omega Distinguished Service Key, 2000 Enhancing Diversity Professional Staff Award, 2000 Fish Camp Namesake, and 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Division of Student Affairs Outstanding Team, Group or Committee Award.
In her spare time, Darby also volunteers at the local animal shelter and is on the Board of Directors for the Aggieland Humane Society.
Dr. Karen Singer-Freeman
Director of Research, Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Wake Forest University
Dr. Karen Singer-Freeman is the Director of Research in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Wake Forest University, Co-Chair of the Grand Challenges in Assessment Project, and a member of the AAC&U ePortfolio Institute faculty. Her research examines educational interventions that support the academic success of underserved students. Previously, Dr. Singer-Freeman served as the Director of Academic Planning and Assessment in the Office of Assessment and Accreditation at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and as a tenured Associate Professor and Department Chair of Psychology at Purchase College, State University of New York. At Purchase College, Dr. Singer-Freeman received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and served as Project Director and Associate Director of NIH/NIGMS funded programs for STEM students from underserved groups. Dr. Singer-Freeman publishes and gives presentations on culturally relevant assessment and ePortfolio pedagogy, and was named a Scientific Thinking and Integrative Reasoning Scholar by the Association of American College and Universities.