Dr. Jennifer Stephens Helm joined the university in 2005, first in the university's institutional research and assessment department and now leading the accreditation department. Dr. Stephens Helm has an extensive background in learning outcomes assessment where she has consulted with schools, school districts, state departments of education, and school reform organizations. She worked with the Accelerated Schools Project at Stanford University, developing a nationwide electronic reporting system of outcomes for the school reform organization. She has taught at both K-12 and higher education levels. She has presented and published at national and international conferences in the areas of school reform, distance learning, faculty development, institutional research, and assessment.
Dr. Stephens Helm holds committee appointments on the Association for Institutional Research Forum Theme and Plenary Speaker committee, Transparency by Design working group committee, and the Higher Learning Commission Assessment Academy committee. She is an alumni of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education and is professionally affiliated with the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), American Educational Research Association (AERA), WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET), National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN), and the Sloan-C organization.
She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on learning, development, and instruction from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.