Accreditation Conversations: Recent Episodes
Weave Education
Accreditation Conversations is a podcast for higher education leaders seeking collaborative insights on the accreditation process. Our episodes will feature conversations from education colleagues about all things institutional effectiveness. You’ll hear about higher education accreditation and assessment, data analysis and software, and the labor of love that is creating narratives, not just processes. Welcome to Accreditation Conversations!
From psychology professor to president of SACSCOC, join us for this episode with Dr. Belle Wheelan. In sharing her journey, you can hear her passion and commitment, her heart, for higher education and accreditation. Dr. Wheelan talks about topics from what makes a great peer reviewer to politics in higher education. She shares how the two work together to help institutions improve through innovation.
Growing up in a racial and gender revolution, Dr. Wheelan provides guidance on how to support women in the profession, as well as how programmatic accreditation leaders can support their team, organization, and institutional members. From hearing about her favorite novels to The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) Top Strategic Issues for Boards, come to learn from a thought leader of accreditation.
Join us as we discuss:
- The hardest parts of being involved in accreditation
- Providing impactful mentorship and guidance
- Peer evaluation as the hallmark of higher education accreditation
- The power of continuous dialogue between accreditors and institutions
- Leading programmatic accreditation organizations
See Dr. Belle Wheelan’s full bio below!
Dr. Belle Wheelan currently serves as President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and is the first African American and the first woman to serve in this capacity. Her career spans over 40 years and includes the roles of faculty member, chief student services officer, campus provost, college president and Secretary of Education. In several of those roles she was the first African American and/or woman to serve in those capacities. Dr. Wheelan received her Bachelor’s degree from Trinity University in Texas (1972) with a double major in Psychology and Sociology; her Master’s from Louisiana State University (1974) in Developmental Educational Psychology; and her Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (1984) in Educational Administration with a special concentration in community college leadership.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
In Dr. Heather Perfetti’s own words, accreditation, first and foremost, is really about doing the good work at institutions and doing it well. And we should be celebrating that through accreditation!
In this episode, Dr. Heather Perfetti, President at Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), joins the show to discuss her unique role. We dive deep into the value of the accreditation process and how impactful it can really be for the student experience, as well as touch on the taboo subject of myths that are perpetuated within the accreditation community and why we should be busting them!
Join us as we discuss:
- Mythbusting around accreditation
- What the Middle States Commission on Higher Education does
- Revising standards of accreditation to keep our process up to date
See Dr. Heather Perfetti’s full bio below!
Dr. Heather F. Perfetti, President
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
An experienced, high-level executive with a demonstrated and diverse history of working in complex educational environments, Heather F. Perfetti, Ed.D., J.D., became President of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on July 1, 2020. Over the course of her career, she has made an impact in numerous areas of higher education, including academic and student affairs, faculty affairs, legal and regulatory affairs, strategic planning, policy development, and innovative, organizational change management. She joined the Commission as a Vice President liaison to institutions in January 2015, served as Vice President for Legal Affairs and Chief of Staff in July 2017, and was then elevated to Senior Vice President in July 2018. On June 26, 2019, Dr. Perfetti was named President-Elect to begin her transition to President. Dr. Perfetti earned her Doctor of Education degree with specialization in Higher Education Leadership from Northcentral University (CA), the Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law, the Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Troy University (AL), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Frostburg State University (MD).
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
The equity gaps in higher education have never been more noticeable and prevalent than they are today.
Ensuring we are serving students and championing for their best interest on campus has always been our most important job as accreditors and assessors. But there is more that can be done to take improvements a step further if we are willing to have those conversations.
Assessment can impact equity on our campuses in a big way. Learning how to utilize our roles as assessment leaders to effect change on campus can make a world of difference, especially when thinking about what’s next when it comes to the future of equitable assessment.
Dr. Gianina Baker, Acting Director at National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), joins the show to discuss the importance of utilizing assessment to promote equity in higher education learning.
Join us as we discuss:
- NILOA’s newly released book “Reframing Assessment to Center Equity”
- How to center equity as a leader on campus
- The growth and maturing of assessment practices post-pandemic
See Dr. Gianina Baker’s full bio below!
Dr. Gianina Baker is the acting director at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) where she provides leadership and directs research specific to the assessment of student learning at colleges and universities. Additionally, Dr. Baker serves as the associate director of evaluation, learning, and equitable assessment at the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL). She supports and promotes OCCRL through her project management work of the REACH Collaborative. She also assists at OCCRL with assessment/evaluation consulting services, public engagement, and the organization's research agenda. Her main research interests include student learning outcomes assessment at Minority Serving Institutions, access and equity issues for underrepresented administrators and students, assessment in athletics, and higher education policy. Dr. Baker holds a Ph.D. in Educational Organization & Leadership with a Higher Education concentration from the University of Illinois, a M.A. in Human Development Counseling from Saint Louis University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Illinois Wesleyan University. Prior to this position, she was the Director of Institutional Effectiveness & Planning at Richland Community College.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
When students go to obtain a degree in higher education, they expect that what they have studied and paid for is worth it all in the end. The goal is to have student success after graduation.
No student would want to go through long hours of schooling and their degree not be accredited in the end.
Herman Bounds, the Director of the Accreditation Group within the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, is tasked with ensuring that the accreditation agencies are following the proper regulations so that higher education institutions are upholding the standards for the students.
Join us as we discuss:
- Employer involvement with programmatic accreditors
- How accreditation agencies are conducting proper oversight of their institutions
- The steps to ensure a fair evaluation process for the institutions
Check out the book Herman mentioned during the podcast:
- Winning in FastTime: Harness the Competitive Advantage of Prometheus in Business and Life
See Herman’s full bio below!
Herman Bounds is the Director of the Accreditation Group within the Office of Postsecondary Education. He assumed that position in February 2014 after spending two years as an Education Program Specialist in the Accreditation Group. Herman was the Deputy Director at the Aviation Career Campus of Metro Technology Centers, a career and technical education school district in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. While serving as the deputy director Herman played a major role with developing a first of its kind workforce development project which provided Tinker Air Force Base with approximately 1,500 credentialed aviation maintenance technicians. During his tenure as deputy director the Aviation Career Campus maintained a 90 percent graduation and placement rate average for the aviation maintenance technology program. Herman was active in the accreditation process at the state level and served on site visit teams for the State Department of Career and Technical Education. Herman was also a subject matter expert for a human factors study (Psychological Study of Aircraft Accidents) conducted by Federal Aviation Administration. In addition, Herman is a U.S. Army veteran with 20 years of service.
Herman has a MS degree in Aerospace Administration from Southeastern Oklahoma State University; and an Ed.S. in Education Administrator Leadership from Walden University.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
Zoom lectures might be new to some students, but distance education is not, and neither is its accreditation.
In this episode, Leah Matthews joins the podcast to speak about her role as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). DEAC is in its 96th year of operating as a quality assurance body for distance education. But what exactly does that mean?
To Leah, personally, it means quite a lot. Her life's work has been to develop accreditation procedures to serve and protect students and communities.
Come along as we explore some timely topics in the accreditation world such as the accreditation of distance education, improvements to better protect students, and the future of accreditation.
Join us as we discuss:
- The quality review process of distance education programs
- NC-SARA’s importance to the success of distance education in America
- How the four regional compacts are champions for student protection
- Evaluating student-readiness for distance learning through accreditation standards
- The process of developing assessment standards as an accreditation commission
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- NC-SARA
- WCET
- Quality Matters
- EDUCAUSE
- Regional Compacts:
- Western (WICHE)
- Southern (SREB)
- Midwestern (MHEC)
- New England (NEBHE)
See Leah’s full bio below!
Leah Matthews currently serves as the Executive Director of the Distance Education Accrediting Commission located in Washington, DC. The DEAC is a private, non-profit accrediting organization founded in 1926. Ms. Matthews has over twenty years of experience in higher education accreditation. Her expertise in distance education policy led to her selection as a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s 2019 Distance Education and Innovation Committee. Ms. Matthews has contributed her expertise in distance education that includes serving as Chair of the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) a board member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) and as vice-president of the board of directors for the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE).
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
Dr. Josie Welsh, a leader in assessment and accreditation, joins the show today to share her perspective and insight on innovation in assessment, similarities and differences across accreditors, and helpful guidance for peer reviewers. Josie has a long list of impressive titles from President of Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education to a Team Chair for the Peer Corps of the Higher Learning Commission, and even a social psychologist.
In these roles, her main goal is to share her wealth of knowledge to affect real change in the accreditation and assessment space, whether that’s having an understanding of what is happening across different accreditors or thinking about what's practical and replicable on different campuses.
Dr. Welsh’s main suggestion on how to accomplish change is quite simple; we must all decide we want to work together through assessment and accreditation to accomplish the mission of each institution.
Join us as we discuss:
- The future of assessment in accreditation and higher education
- How to really get the most out of assessment for your students
- Being a peer evaluator and what the role really entails
- NACIQI’s role in accreditation and relationship with accreditors
- The upcoming AALHE conference
See Josie’s full bio below!
Josie Welsh is a social psychologist who has worked in faculty and administration teaching research methodology and design and overseeing areas of assessment, institutional effectiveness, faculty development, curriculum management, and data analytics at small private, large public, and specialized institutions. She is president of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education(AALHE) and serves as a team chair for the Peer Corps of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). Josie also has served as a lead evaluator in the SACSCOC region and as an accreditation liaison officer within WSCUC. Josie frequently speaks and writes about trends in the field, the future of assessment, and the reaffirmation process. She advocates for mission-focused, broad approaches to assurance of learning and student success. Josie can be reached at jwelsh@aalhe.org.
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
Fun and accreditation don’t usually appear in the same sentence together. But they should.
When it’s fun, you know it’s working.
In this episode, I speak with Mark LaCelle-Peterson, Founding Team Member and President at Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), about how his programs bring fun back to accreditation — and shape the conversation about pedagogy.
Join us as we discuss:
- Strategies that energize colleges about their successes
- 4 performance standards for professional educators
- Building a community of cohorts around participation
- Revisioning accreditation as cyclical learning and improvement
- A philosophy of pedagogy focused on student paths to success
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Marilyn Cochran-Smith and her book Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education
- Improvement in Action: Advancing Quality in America’s Schools (Continuous Improvement in Education Series) by Anthony S. Bryk
- AAQEP Standards & Guide
- Ep. 2 w/ Linda Suskie
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website
here.
An accreditation visit can feel like an enemy encroaching on campus. Already suffering from accreditation fatigue, faculty and administrators just want to get that team off-campus as painlessly as possible.
But program accreditors offer institutions a chance to grow through a quality improvement process.
In this episode, I interview Anthony Stanowski, President and CEO of Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management, about how schools can benefit from accreditation processes.
Join us as we discuss:
- Reasons accreditors aren't the enemy
- Why premier programs should seek program accreditation
- How to eliminate accreditation fatigue
- Following your sherpas
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website
here.
Most institutions going through the accreditation process tend to panic if they get a ding. Inherently, however, assessment isn’t about proving how good you are. It’s about improving.
To institutions of learning, the notion that we aren’t perfect isn’t exactly novel.
In this episode, I interview Dr. Tisha Paredes, Accreditation Consultant and former Assistant Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness at Old Dominion University, about why the stress of accreditation can be good and steps for higher ed institutions to take to improve.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why assessment should lead to improvement
- How to handle an identified weak area
- Investing in people by demystifying accreditation
- Becoming a reviewer
- The future of accreditation
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
Most accreditation standards do not focus enough on teaching and learning. Accreditation, after all, is not about research but education.
In this episode, I interview Linda Suskie, a higher education assessment consultant, about two areas accreditation can help improve: faculty professional development and course design.
Join us as we discuss:
- The need for institutions to provide adequate support to help faculty learn about teaching methods
- A four-column course syllabi designed to motivate students
- How higher ed should communicate about learning
- Listening to why students are going to college and addressing learning outcomes that matter
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Dee Fink course design resources
- Reframing Assessment to Center Equity (forthcoming in 2022)
- How to Measure Anything by Douglas Hubbard
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website here.
Accreditation is a voluntary activity of institutions that want to demonstrate clearly to the public that they meet a high standard of accountability.
Accreditors, too, may seek accreditation from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CHEA’s role is to set the standards of academic quality for institutions, students and families, and communities.
In this first episode of Accreditation Conversations, I interview Dr. Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, President at CHEA, about accrediting accreditors, supporting a highly educated citizenry, and defining student learning outcomes.
Join us as we discuss:
- The origin and values of CHEA
- Prioritizing student learning outcomes and continuous improvement
- Trends in data collection and assessment
- Educating parents, students, and the public about the importance of accreditation
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- CHEA
- CHEA/CIQG 2022 Annual Conference
Keep connected with us by subscribing to Accreditation Conversations on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Check out our website at https://weaveeducation.com/assessment-accreditation-webinars-ebooks-guides/
Most of us probably didn’t want to be accreditation experts when we grew up. Accreditation leaders tend to fall into the role because of their talents and their vision for how accreditation serves staff and faculty, students, and the institution as a whole.
That’s why we’ve created a space for accreditation leaders on campus to learn from institutional effectiveness experts through fulfilling and authentic conversations.
In this trailer episode of Accreditation Conversations, producer Jordan Alford interviews host Amy Dykens, CEO at Weave Education, about what listeners should expect from the podcast.
Join Amy and Jordan to learn about:
- Our guests: accreditation leaders of all programs or institutions
- Our themes: funding, processes, engagement, student learning, and more
- Our audience: anyone who wants to hear the inside scoop from both sides of the accreditation ecosystem
- Our vision: talk, listen, learn, share, and improve
Keep connected with us by subscribing on Google Podcasts , Apple Podcasts, Spotify , our website , or search for Accreditation Conversations in your favorite podcast player.