A new director with extensive accreditation experience and new dedicated staff have been appointed to lead TCU’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
Dr. David Allen joins TCU on June 1, 2021, as director of Institutional Effectiveness, responsible for ensuring and demonstrating institutional effectiveness, including institutional accreditation. The director has primary responsibility for assessing, planning, implementing, documenting, communicating, evaluating and continuously improving assessment and accreditation processes throughout the university. Allen will office in the Harrison building and report directly to Vice Provost Susan Mace Weeks.
Allen joins TCU from Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) in Laredo, Texas, where he served as associate vice president for institutional assessment, research and planning; SACSCOC liaison; and the IPEDS keyholder. He began his career as a science teacher and then moved into assessment with Harcourt Educational Measurement (2000-2001) and Educational Testing Service (2001-2012) in San Antonio. He served on the faculty of Wayland Baptist University and Murray State University, was director of the Center for Environmental Education at Murray State, and joined TAMIU in 2016 as an assessment analyst. He was promoted to the associate vice president role in 2017. He holds a PhD in education with a focus on school improvement from Texas State University-San Marcos, an MS in environmental science from Oklahoma State University, and a BS in science education.
Brianna Edwards joins TCU as accreditation coordinator. She previously worked in the TCU Office of Institutional Effectiveness for two years as a graduate assistant supporting accreditation reporting requirements. Edwards is a member of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education, and holds an MEd in Higher Educational Leadership from TCU and a BA in Public Relations from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Patti Gregg will continue to support the office during the transition to a new director. She recently retired after almost 20 years in assessment, institutional research and strategic planning roles at Georgia State University. She has more than 40 years of higher education teaching, research and administration experience. Gregg holds a PhD in higher education from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of South Florida.
Dr. Sandra Callaghan will work closely with the director of Institutional Effectiveness to provide administrative leadership of the 2023 SACSCOC reaffirmation process. Callaghan became director of the Center for International Studies in 2017 after teaching for nearly 20 years in TCU’s Department of Accounting. She has served as a leader for Academic Affairs on the Connected Campus Committee during the pandemic. Callaghan holds a PhD from Michigan State University and MPA from the University of Texas at Austin.