Our Consultants
Chart of Union and College Representation amongst Assessment Peer Consultants
Wendy Bjorklund
Wendy Bjorklund is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies where she has been involved with departmental level assessment for six years, three and a half years as her department's assessment committee's chairperson. She is in her second year of serving as the College of Fine Arts and Humanities assessment coordinator and is a member of the university's Assessment Steering Committee.
Shumona Dasgupta
Monica Devers
Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). I am interested in assessment on several levels.I conduct ongoing assessment in my classes using formative and summative assessment tools.I was responsible for establishing how our department would meet our new accreditation standards and how we would assess those standards. I participated in the MnSCU Leadership Academy. There are several components of that training that might help me as a peer consultant, including how to develop effective work teams, how to manage individual/team conflict, and how to work with a diverse group of people and facilitate their strengths to work collaboratively.
Chaturi Edrisinha
Chaturi Edrisinha is an assistant professor, and teaches applied behavior analysis courses in the Department of Educational Leadership and Community Psychology. She received her Ph.D from the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked as a behavior analyst for 15 years and has worked with school districts and governments on assessment and programming for persons with developmental disabilities. She is interested in assessment at multiple levels.
Lisa Foss
Carol Gaumnitz
Carol Gaumnitz is a Professor in the Department of Accounting, where she has taught financial accounting for the last 9 years. She has a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Western Michigan University. She is a member of the Herberger College of Business (HCoB) Assessment Steering Group, the HCoB Curriculum Committee, and the University Assessment Steering Committee. She oversees her department’s assessment activities and has been actively involved in the assessment efforts needed for the HCoB’s AACSB accreditation.
Melanie Guentzel
Melanie Guentzel is the Director of Graduate Student Services. She has a Ph.D. in Student Affairs Administration and Research from the University of Iowa. Melanie has participated in designing and implementing assessment practices in both academic and student affairs settings. Her areas of interest are assessment in graduate education and student life and development and using qualitative methods for assessment.
Michelle Kukoleca Hammes
Chris Inkster
Chris Inkster been the Assessment Coordinator for LR&TS since 2005. She facilitates three large scale annual assessments of student awareness of and satisfaction with library and technology services -- a survey conducted in the library (300-600 students), a telephone survey through the SCSU Survey (500-600 students), a national Web-based survey (300+ students and faculty) as well as smaller assessment projects. She enjoys designing surveys and conducting focus groups. Chris is a faculty reference librarian and teaches in the Center for Information Media.
Sandra Johnson
Sandra Johnson was the Assessment Coordinator for the College of Science and Engineering. In that capacity, and as a mathematics faculty member, she views assessment as an opportunity to improve student learning.
Frances Kayona
Jan Kircher
Jan Kircher is an assistant professor of social work. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD, a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and an undergraduate degree in Social Work from the University of South Dakota. She worked as a social worker for over fifteen years in the schools, residential treatment, and hospital settings. Dr. Kircher has been involved with program assessment both in the practice and in the academic setting. She has written a reaffirmation self study for the Council on Social Work Education and continues to be actively involved in program re-accredidation.
Thomas Krueger
Tom “TK” Krueger serves as the Shoemaker Residence Hall Director in the Department of Residential Life, and has been working in the Residence Halls since 2005. He hopes that his strong interest in the assessment of student/program learning outcomes will help assist colleagues across campus.
Jim Knutson-Kolodzne
Jim Knutson-Kolodzne is serving his third year on the Student Life & Development assessment committee. In August 2004, he started his position as Director of the American Indian Center. He also serves on the following university committees; Student-of-Color Recruitment and Retention, Enrollment Management, Cultural Diversity, Diversity Taskforce, Respect & Responsibility. At the system level he serves on MnSCU’s Diversity Officers Taskforce and the Diversity Awards Committee. In the St. Cloud community, he is a member of the Create CommUnity organization.
Elena Kurinski
Andrea Lawrence
Andrea Lawrence serves as a member of the Student Life and Development Assessment Committee. In August of 1999 she began working in the Department of Residential Life as a hall director. She served one year as the Resident Director of Alnwick Castle, in Alnwick, England for the Center for International Studies and is currently the Director of Sherburne Hall.
Kerry Marrer
Stacy Martig
Caryl Martin
Jennifer Sell Matzke
Jennifer Sell Matzke currently serves as the Associate Director for Staffing and Student Programs for the Department of Residential Life. Previous positions at SCSU include serving as the Assistant Director for First Year Experience in Residential Life and serving as an Academic Advisor in the Advising Center. Her primary interest is in the assessment of learning outcomes related to student life and development.
Joe Melcher
Joe Melcher has been the Assessment Coordinator for the College of Social Sciences since 2004 and General Education Assessment Director for SCSU since 2007. He looks forward to working with individual faculty and/or academic programs to make assessment of student learning both manageable and useful.
Gloria Melgarejo
Gloria Melgarejo Granada teaches as Assistant Professor of French and Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages since 2004. She is currently involved in the Assessment Committee in her department, responsible for current assessment projects within the French section. She received in 2006 a SCSU Professional Development grant to continue her training in evaluation and language proficiency tests through at the CIEP International Center for Studies in Pedagogy located in Sèvres, France. She completed the Peer Consultant Assessment training in October 2008.
Christine Metzo
Mumbi Mwangi
Ken Miller
Kenneth Miller is a professor in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department. He is currently in his ninth year at St. Cloud State University. Dr. Miller has been in charge of assembling the accreditation (ABET) self-study for the Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering programs for the last six years. His current project is updating and documenting the department assessment methods.
Plamen Miltenoff
Michele Mumm
Amos Olagunju
Amos Olagunju has previously served as a managerial department chair, and a dean of graduate studies and chief research officer. Olagunju received his doctorate in Educational Research and Evaluation from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Over the years, Olagunju served on university-wide academic program evaluation task force, teaching effectiveness and outcome assessment committees at different institutions. He has over 20 years of experience with academic program assessment.
Mark Petzold
Mark Petzold is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He is currently responsible for assessment and ABET accreditation for the undergraduate programs in his department, and is responsible for writing the ABET reports and self-studies for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering programs. In addition, he is a Program Evaluator for the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, representing the IEEE in accreditation work.
Alex Polacco
Professor in Department of Management, College of Business. Have been coordinating assessment efforts at core course level for past year and a half. Been teaching courses in management at SCSU for 2 years. Had been a senior manager, consultant, engineer to diverse industries for over 20 years principally in areas of Quality Management systems, Operations, and Turnarounds. Implemented ISO 9001, AS9100, Six Sigma, Auditing/Assessment programs.
Grama Rangamani
Hiral Shah
Hiral Shah is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department. Dr. Shah primarily teaches in the Engineering Management program. She received her Ph.D. with concentration in Engineering Management from Eastern Michigan University. She holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and has a background in Educational and Industrial Psychology. Her research interest is in the area of curriculum and certification exam development, online teaching, and Lean manufacturing.
Joyce Simones
Joyce Simones, is a professor in the Department of Nursing Sciences where she has been the Assessment Coordinator for the past 5 years. She has also been a member of the College of Science and Engineering (COSE). The Nursing Department has been nationally accredited for the past 5 years by Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
Marcelyn Smale
Chukwunyere "Chuks" Ugochukwu
Assistant Professor of Community Development in the Community Studies Department has a healthy interest in assessment resulting in his training as an assessment peer consultant. He looks forward to working with colleagues that are green to the assessment process.
Stuart Umberger
Stuart Umberger serves as a member of the Student Life & Development assessment committee. In July of 2006, he started at SCSU as an Assistant Director for the Center for Student Organizations & Leadership Development office. His primary focus is in the development of Leadership programs and initiatives at SCSU. He also serves as the primary Fraternity & Sorority Learning Community Advisor.
David Warne
Brenda Wentworth
Brenda Wentworth was SCSU's Director of Assessment from 1998-2002. Working with faculty is a pleasure she misses from her assessment leadership days. She hopes her training in assessment can assist others in their endeavors.
Gary Whitford
Gary Whitford has served as Field Coordinator for the Social Work Department. During that time he also directed the assessment efforts for the program, which involves meeting accreditation requirements for assessment as prescribed by the Council on Social Work Education.
Carolyn Williams
Dr. Carolyn Ruth A. Williams is an Associate Dean for Multicultural Affairs and STEM Initiatives.She has previously served as Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Social Sciences for seven years. She is currently in her 9th year at SCSU. Dean Williams has a wide array of experience working with program review, accreditation, assessing student learning and assessing programs success in accomplishing their goals and objectives. She has experience as a consultant for National Science Foundation, serving on their site visit teams for their Engineering Centers, evaluating the Centers activities, research, education and knowledge transfer. She has served on the National Institutes of Health(NIH) Advisory Board 5 year term. and she is a consultant for the U.S. Department of Education Postsecondary Education for GANN, Upward Bound, Ron McNair, etc. She also serves as a reviewer for the Minnesota State Department of Education.
Maria Womack (on leave of absence)
Jill Zasadny
Jill Zasadny is an English PhD teaching at St Cloud State University she is also currently working with the Ready or Not Assessment program headed by Paul Carney at Fergus Falls Community College. She has completed assessment training in conjunction with the SCSU focus on evaluating and improving student learning. Interested in teaching strategies as well as peer consultation, she is more than willing to be called upon in any academic capacity where she might be of assistance.
Sandrine Zerbib
