Speakers
About our Speakers
Cliff Adelman
Since 2006, Cliff Adelman has been a Senior Associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, where he has specialized in international issues, with The Bologna Process for U.S. Eyes (2009) being the most cited of his four major publications on Bologna and international data on higher education.
Based on his Bologna work, he became one of the four authors of The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), and continues to serve the DQP and its discipline-based cousin, Tuning USA, as well as the international Tuning Academy.
In addition to the international, Adelman designed, organized, and managed Project Win-Win, an effort of 60 associate’s degree-granting institutions in 9 states to track down former students who deserved degrees but never received them, and either get the degrees awarded retroactively or bring the students back to school to finish.
Win-Win institutions worked through the records of 128k students, put 42k through Degree Audit, certified 6700 as degree eligible and brought 2100 back to school. Its lessons are now law in California, and influential in other states.
Prior to Bologna and Win-Win, and for 27 years, Adelman was a Senior Research Analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, where he built 3 national data sets and produced 15 research monographs and reference works, the most cited of which are Answers in the Tool Box (1999) and The Toolbox Revisited (2006), Moving Into Town—and Moving On: the Community College in the Lives of Traditional-age Students (2005), A Parallel Postsecondary Universe: the Certification System in Information Technology (2000), and Women and Men of the Engineering Path (1998).
Prior his tenure at the Department, he taught at the City College of the City University of New York, in the collegiate seminar program at Yale, and at the William Paterson University of New Jersey, where he also served as associate dean for five years.
He holds an A.B. from Brown University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His first novel, The Russian Embassy Party, was published in April 2013.
Ron Baker
Dr. Ron Baker is the President of Baker Collegiate Consulting, an organization committed to supporting the higher education community in meeting internal self-expectations and external accountability mandates. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Community College Baccalaureate Association and recently served as the Co-Director for the Oregon Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) Project and the Prototype Curriculum Advisor for the Community Colleges and Public Health Project.
Ron is a Fulbright Scholar and was selected for the 2014 Community College Administrator Seminar Russia program. His background includes key positions in a number of national and international projects, including the 21st Century Learning Outcomes Project, Learning College Project, Basic Education Online Project, and Nature of Innovation in the Community College Project.
Ron has a long and distinguished career in higher education. He was the Executive Vice President for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), one of seven regional accrediting agencies, where he was the architect and author of a major revision to the accreditation standards and evaluation process. Before joining NWCCU he was the Founding Vice President for Student Learning for Cascadia Community College, a Vanguard Learning College co-located with the University of Washington-Bothell, where he directed the development and alignment of its framework of student learning outcomes.
Ron also served as the Director of Distance Education for the Oregon community colleges where he created and implemented a comprehensive agreement for the joint development and delivery of distance learning courses across Oregon. In addition to his 14 years of classroom faculty experience, he served in a number of administrative capacities, including Director of Academic Technology, Division Chair, Director of Computing Services, and Department Head.
Ron holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Washington State University, an M.S. in Mathematics from New Mexico State University, an M.S. in Computer Education from Eastern Washington University, and an Ed.D. in Community College Leadership from Oregon State University.
Krista Johns
Krista Johns, JD, is Vice President for Policy and Research at the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, commonly referred to as ACCJC.
Prior to coming to the ACCJC, Dr. Johns served as Vice President of Instruction at Berkeley City College. Over her career, she has held faculty, director, and dean positions at The University of Mississippi, University of Nevada-Reno, and Diablo Valley College.
Ms. Johns has published monographs and articles on learning, change management, and various legal topics, and has published two books.
She has developed several curricula in legal education that have served as national models.
Ken O’Donnell
Ken O’Donnell works in Academic Affairs at the Office of the Chancellor of the California State
University.
The CSU is the world’s largest public system of four-year universities, enrolling over 400,000 students
on 23 campuses around the state.
Situated between the open-enrollment community colleges and the
selective UC system of research universities, the CSU is the state’s engine of economic growth and
upward mobility, making high-quality education affordable and accessible.
Many of its students are
underrepresented minorities, economically disadvantaged, or the first in their families to attend college. 60% of each graduating class transfers in from somewhere else.
In this context, Ken works on statewide curriculum, with a focus on student engagement and success and
the state’s shared coursework in general education. All students take GE, regardless of their major or
college of origin. This learning often comes early in their path to degree, and sets the pace for the rest of
their time in college.
In 2008, he was named by the Executive Vice Chancellor as state liaison to the AAC&U’s national project Give Students a Compass, which seeks to infuse high-impact educational practice into the lower-division college curriculum.
In 2010, he was appointed to the NASH/EdTrust campaign Access to Success, a
national effort to raise graduation rates and reduce achievement gaps. In 2011 his portfolio was
expanded to include implementation of a new law streamlining transfer in popular majors.
In 2012 Ken was asked to create a new department in the Office of the Chancellor, leading system office
work around Student Engagement and Academic Initiatives & Partnerships. The department’s work was
recognized in the 2013 AAC&U publication Bringing High Impact Practices to Scale, which he co-wrote
with George Kuh.
Ken’s day to day work is with faculty and administrators throughout the California State University, with
a professional interest in ePortfolios, learning outcomes assessment, and engaging, student-focused
pedagogy and curriculum. He has addressed numerous conferences and workshops around the country
on general education, and the role of public state systems in educational reform.
For ten years before coming to the CSU Ken was a member of the screenwriting faculty and an assistant
dean at the film school at Chapman University. He and his wife Cyndi live in Southern California.
Panelists
Carl Kenmitz
Carl Kemnitz, CSU Bakersfield Associate Vice President for Academic Programs. Lone continuing member from all stages of campus GE reform. Membership includes GE Task Force, GE Implementation Committee, and GE Curriculum Committee.
Kelly O'Bannon
Communications Faculty, GE Implementation Committee Vice-Chair and Structure Subcommittee Chair, Oral Communications Skill Reinforcement Group Lead
John Tarjan
John Tarjan has been a faculty member in the School of Business & Public Administration at CSU, Bakersfield for 29 years. He has served in numerous leadership positions, including two terms as Chair of the Academic Senate of the CSU and one term as Chair of the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates.
His experiences in general education include the following:
- Serving 12 years on the CSU Chancellor’s General Education Advisory Committee, including 6 years as chair.
- Serving several years on the GE Course Review Subcommittee.
- Being instrumental in founding, and serving 3 years, on the ICAS IGETC Standards Review Committee.
- Being a member of the CA Compass Steering Committee since its inception.
- Serving terms on all of the various CSUB campus general education implementation and oversight committees, including multiple terms as chair.
- Presenting on GE issues numerous times to state and national audiences.
