NASPA Online Learning Community

Foundational Steps to Building Assessment and Capacity in Student Affairs

Foundational Steps to Building Assessment and Capacity in Student Affairs

Includes a Live Web Event on 06/03/2024 at 1:00 PM (EDT)

Dr. Chrissy L. Davis Jones

Vice President, Student Success and Chief Enrollment Officer

HACC Central Pennsylvania's Community College

Dr. Chrissy Davis Jones currently serves as the vice president for Student Success and chief enrollment officer at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) in Central Pennsylvania with nearly 25 years of experience at various post-secondary institutions, and with 18 of those years focused on developing, restructuring, and implementing student success-related programs. 

Since Chrissy arrived at HACC, she has quickly made an impact by securing a 2.3-million-dollar Title 3 SIP Grant to transform the first-year experience for greater student success. She also oversaw the selection of HACC becoming one of seven colleges selected to become an Achieving the Dream institution in 2022 - focusing on whole college transformation for student success and data literacy. Lastly, Dr. Davis Jones established and co-leads the College's strategic enrollment planning committee. Her focus on the implementation of a collegewide strategic enrollment plan with student access and success at the center led to an increase in HACC's fall-to-fall and fall-to-spring retention for the first time in 10 years. 

Dr. Davis Jones is considered a systems thinker; this coupled with her research and data-informed approach, has led to Chrissy being asked to serve as a consultant to higher education institutions in need of support to facilitate change.

Angela M. Campbell

Assistant Vice President, Assessment, Planning and Strategy

HACC Central Pennsylvania's Community College

Angela M. Campbell, Ph.D., LPC serves as the Assistant Vice President of Assessment, Planning and Strategy. She is responsible for planning, managing strategic initiatives, process improvements and quality assurance projects that improve Student Success and Enrollment Management (OSSEM) program performance. Angela works closely with OSSEM executives and collaborates across the college to establish objectives, develop and implement short-and-long term strategies, oversees Assessment for the Division, and supports a model for institutional capacity building in data literacy. She serves as the co-chair of strategic enrollment management and collaborates with other college leaders for Institutional Effectiveness.

Angela has worked at HACC Central Pennsylvania’s Community College for 20 years serving in various roles and most recently in her current position for the past three years. As Co-Chair of SEM, she assisted in the development and implementation of a plan that lead to an increase in our F2F and F2S retention at the college for the first time in 10 years. Angela was recently nominated for the Building a Culture of Assessment Award by SAAL - Student Affairs Assessment Leaders organization.

Angela earned her Ph.D. from Western Michigan University in Psychology, Applied Behavior Systems Analysis with an emphasis in Educational Systems.

Shelly Blanchette

Director, Student Success Operations and Strategy

HACC Central Pennsylvania's Community College

Shelly Blanchette, M.S., LPC serves as the Director of Student Success Operations and Strategy at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. She is responsible for monitoring enrollment metrics and honing leading indicators to better predict and track progression toward enrollment targets. Shelly leverages data-informed insights and collaborative partnerships for process improvements, to pilot programs, and identify strategic interventions leading to student success and sustainable enrollment health. 

Shelly earned her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut and M.S. in Counseling from Shippensburg University. She has worked in higher education across various institution types for over 20 years both within student services and as an adjunct faculty member. Shelly credits her experience in overseeing the launching of student services at an expansion campus with readying her for the work she currently does.

The webinar begins to answer three important questions about the process of developing assessment within student affairs, 1) Where are you? In other words, where is the institution with regard to what is currently in place. What is the current process, policy and procedure that exists? This means a situational analysis of what currently exists is at the foundation of the start. 2) Where do you need to be? It is important to begin with an end in mind. What would you or your supervisor like to see after building the process for conducting assessment has been developed? 3) What are the steps you need to take to get there? There will undoubtedly be differences based on institutional culture however, beginning the process by answering these three questions will be an excellent starting point for any assessment leader who is beginning to build a structure of assessment.

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Outline tasks associated with building structure and staff capacity for assessment within student affairs
  2. Explain how to teach outcome development in the co-curricular with an emphasis on learning outcomes
  3. Name a “hidden” component required for staff to effectively conduct assessment
  4. Recognize one strategy to keep equity work infused in your work and at the forefront
Components visible upon registration.