AALHE 2025 Keynote

We are excited to announce that Jillian Kinzie will be our 2025 Keynote Speaker!
Her presentation topic will be posted soon.

Dr. Jillian Kinzie
Associate Director, National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University School of Education

She conducts research and leads project activities on the effective use of student engagement data to improve educational quality and serves as senior scholar with the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) project. She is co-author of Transforming Academic Culture & Curriculum: Integrating and Scaffolding Research Throughout Undergraduate Education (2024), Radical Reimagining for Student Success (2023), Delivering on the Promise of High-Impact Practices: Research and Models for Achieving Equity, Fidelity, Impact and Scale (2022), Assessment in Student Affairs (2016), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education (2015), Student Success in College (2005/2010), and One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional and Innovative Models of Student Affairs Practice (2008/2014).

She is co-editor of New Directions in Higher Education, is on the editorial board of Innovative Higher Education and the Journal of Postsecondary Student Success and serves on the board of the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. She is a peer reviewer for several accreditors and regularly consults with colleges and universities about assessment, effective educational practice, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and support for student success. 

Her scholarly interests include the assessment of student engagement, how colleges use data to improve, student and academic affairs partnerships and the impact of programs and practices to support student success, as well as first-year student development, teaching and learning in college, access and equity, and women in underrepresented fields. She has published on these topics and translated this scholarship at hundreds of institutions and higher education member organizations to increase the use of assessment results to inform improvements in undergraduate education and to enhance conditions for student success. She served as PI on the Lumina Foundation funded “Assessing Quality and Equity in HIPs”; a Strada Foundation study, “Learning about Undergraduates’ Preparation for Work and Careers” an assessment of college students career and workforce preparation, and an NSF supported project studying the implementation of scaffolded research-rich curriculum in STEM fields.

She was awarded the NASPA George D. Kuh Outstanding Contribution to Research in 2024 and received the Robert J. Menges Honored Presentation by the Professional Organizational Development (POD) Network in 2005 and 2011. Kinzie earned her PhD from Indiana University in higher education with a minor in women’s studies. Prior to this, she served on the faculty of Indiana University and coordinated the master’s program in higher education and student affairs. She also worked in academic and student affairs at Miami University and Case Western Reserve University.

Past Keynote Speakers

Thursday, June 6th, 2024
Thinking with A.I. and the Future of Assessment
José Antonio Bowen, Ph.D., F.R.S.A.

José Bowen teaches techniques to transform assignments and assessments to motivate and engage students by placing greater emphasis on the process and experience of learning.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2023
The Perfect Story: How to Tell Stories That Inform, Influence, and Inspire
Karen Eber

Karen Eber demonstrates how to scientifically hack the art of storytelling by leveraging the Five Factory Settings of the Brain and showing how to tell stories that inform, influence, and inspire. 

Monday, June 6th, 2022
Strengthening Communities of Assessment by Centering Equity and Racial Justice
Dr. Tia Brown McNair, American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

Tia Brown McNair will draw from multiple AAC&U-sponsored projects to highlight efforts that build institutional capacity to achieve shared goals for making excellence inclusive.

 Wednesday, June 8th, 2022
Assessing Nuance: Including Voices of Student Populations that are Challenging to Quantify
Dr. Sonja Ardoin, Appalachian State University

Sonja Ardoin will discuss the nuances and complications of assessing the learning of the full campus community, centering on first-generation college students and students from poor and working-class background.

Monday, June 7th, 2021
Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education
Dr. Jane Marie Souza, University of Rochester and Dr. Tara Rose, Louisiana State University

Jane Marie Souza and Tara Rose will discuss their edited compendium, Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education: Diverse Approaches to Addressing Accreditation Standards

Tuesday, June 8th, 2021
People-Centered Intelligences
Dr. John Mayer, University of New Hampshire

A discussion with Dr. John D. Mayer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire on key measures and their relations to school and workplace behavior.

Wednesday, June 9th, 2021
Clear, Simple, and Wrong
Dr. David Eubanks, Furman University and Dr. Kate Drezek McConnell, Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U)

This session weaves together three recent studies of student learning to show how common assumptions about data summaries can lead us astray, and how to avoid that fate.

Monday, June 16th, 2020
Looking Back to Move Forward: Building Towards Equitable Assessment
Dr. Natasha Jankowski

This keynote takes time to project forward while looking back, building upon the growth of diverse approaches to assess student learning which have unfolded over the past ten years of AALHE supporting assessment professionals.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Diversity Makes All the Difference: Assessing Student Learning and Educational Outcomes in Higher Education Institutions
Dr. Keena Arbuthnot

In this keynote address, Dr. Arbuthnot will encourage the audience to think more broadly about how higher education institutions can ensure that they develop and utilize culturally responsive assessments.

Monday, June 10, 2019
Aligning Assessment Efforts for Impact and Success
Dr. Adrianna Kezar

Dr. Kezar will describe her research on how, and under what conditions, assessment can improve teaching and learning.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Weaving Assessment into the Institutional Fabric: The Benefits of Cross-functional Teams
Dr. Amelia Parnell

The session will provide examples of collaborative work at campuses across the United States and will conclude with considerations regarding the intersections of communication and leadership and how to sustain a culture of assessment in the years ahead.