I write to share the bittersweet news that Karen Froslid Jones, Assistant Provost of Institutional Research and Assessment, has informed me that she intends to step down from her position as of August 2, 2024. While we will miss Karen’s leadership, we are excited to see her pursue a new professional opportunity as Associate Provost of Academic Planning and Assessment at George Washington University. 

Karen’s lasting impact on the American University community cannot be overstated. After briefly serving as a part-time graduate assistant in 1994, she became a full-time research analyst in 1995. Following several promotions to increasing levels of responsibility, she was appointed to her current role in 2014.

For more than two decades, Karen has advanced AU’s efforts to assess student learning, working with colleagues across campus to ensure that all programs have learning outcomes, assessment plans, and evidence that assessments are used to inform continuous improvement. More recently, she and her team assumed responsibility for the student evaluation of teaching, partnering with the Faculty Senate and others to produce more effective and meaningful reports.

Karen has shaped our comprehensive survey research program and played a central role in the Reinventing the Student Experience (RiSE) initiative, which led to new insights into the experiences of AU students and the ways in which we could better support them.

Karen has been instrumental in collaborating with the deans, Provost’s Office, and University Budget Office to project enrollment. She helped to develop one of the first electronically available data reporting systems (called “Eagledata”) and to create dashboards and key reporting mechanisms in MicroStrategy. She was also part of the team that launched the “We Know Success” site, which is regarded as a model for reporting post-graduation employment and graduate school enrollment outcomes. 

Thanks in large part to Karen’s coordination of our accreditation efforts during the last three cycles, the quality of AU’s report was recognized by Middle States each time. She has also been an active volunteer for Middle States, serving on the Committee on Application and Candidate Institutions and as a member of more than a dozen visiting teams to other institutions.

A leader in her field, Karen has taken on key positions within the Northeast Association of Institutional Research and the National Association of Institutional Research. She also established and led the Washington Area Student Learning Assessment Network, which brings together faculty and administrators from DC-area institutions to share best practices.  

In addition, Karen has taught several courses within the School of International Service during her tenure at AU, including International Relations Research Methods.

Please join me in thanking Karen for her many contributions to AU! We will find a time to celebrate her later this summer.