Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education General Sessions

September 30, 1:15 PM CT

• Chelsea Miller
  Director, Education Portfolio and Opportunity, Walmart

Chelsea is a highly adaptive strategist who thrives in challenge-driven, solution-centered environments. Currently at Walmart directing the vision and enablement of their education benefits program, Live Better U.

With over a decade of nonprofit and political experience in North Carolina and Arkansas, she has a proven record as a collaborative leader and facilitator in the non-profit, political, employer education, corporate social responsibility, and community development arenas.

October 1, 10:00 AM CT

Quality Assurance in Noncredit Credentials

Historically, non-credit programs and credentials have not been included as part of the institutional accreditation process. However, as more institutions provide non-credit offerings - whether developed internally or in partnership with external providers - there is growing interest from institutions, learners, and employers in evaluating the quality of those programs and providers. This panel will cover how two leading accreditors, the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) and the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) are tackling these questions and explore what the future might hold for ensuring the quality of non-credit credentials and programs.

 

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  Melanie Booth
  Higher Learning Commission

Dr. Melanie Booth serves as the Executive Director of the Higher Learning Commission’s new innovation division, the Credential Lab. Prior to joining HLC, she served as Vice President of Educational Programs & Engagement with the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA); Founding Executive Director of The Quality Assurance Commons for Higher and Postsecondary Education; and Vice President of Educational Programs with WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC).  

Her college and university leadership experience includes serving as an academic dean, director of academic and student services departments, and a faculty member at various postsecondary institutions, primarily in service to new majority learners. Dr. Booth has also been an independent consultant working in the intersections of higher education and work, including work-based and community-engaged learning; prior learning assessment and competency-based education; alternative credentials and skills-based learning; and distance education. 

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  Laura M. Gambino
  New England Commission of Higher Education

Dr. Laura M. Gambino is a Vice President for the New England Commission of Higher Education, where her work focuses on helping institutions and the Commission use data and conduct assessment for institutional learning and improvement.  She also oversees NECHE’s Information Technology and is project director for the Commission’s Non-Credit Quality Assurance work.  Prior to joining NECHE in 2018, Gambino was Associate Dean for Assessment and Technology and Professor of Information Technology at Guttman Community College (CUNY) and a Visiting Scholar at the Community College Research Center (CCRC), Teacher’s College, Columbia University.  Gambino, a leading ePortfolio and assessment practitioner and researcher, served as a Coach for the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA). She is co-author of High-Impact ePortfolio Practice: A Catalyst for Student, Faculty, and Institutional Learning and co-edited Catalyst in Action: Case Studies of High-Impact ePortfolio Practice.

• Kermit Kaleba
  Lumina Foundation

Kermit Kaleba is the strategy director of employment-aligned credential programs for Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. Kaleba leads a portfolio designed to increase the number of occupational short-term credential and AA degree programs. Kaleba previously served as managing director for policy at National Skills Coalition. He also served as executive director of the Washington D.C. Workforce Investment Council.  Kermit has J.D. and bachelor’s degrees from the College of William and Mary.

 

 

Moderator: Kristi Wold-McCormick
University of Colorado Boulder