Faculty Involved
Dr. Marilee Bresciani
Dr. Marilee J. Bresciani, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Postsecondary Education Leadership at San Diego State University, where she coordinates the masters in Student Affairs/Services in community colleges and higher education, the certificate in institutional research, planning, and assessment, and the masters and doctorate in community college leadership. The curriculum at San Diego State University emphasizes student learning centeredness, integration of the curricular and co-curricular learning paradigms, and analysis, planning, and responsible practice of leaders in a socially just and global environment.
Dr. Bresciani’s research focuses on the evaluation of student learning and development. She uses grounded theory to explore how systems and processes contribute to student learning centeredness, which includes the study of leaders’ roles in these systems and processes.
Dr. Bresciani has held faculty and higher education administration positions for over 20 years. In those positions, she has conducted enrollment management research, quantitative and qualitative institutional research, course-embedded assessment, and academic and administrative program assessment. Previously as Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment at Texas A&M University and as Director of Assessment at North Carolina State University, Dr. Bresciani led university-wide initiatives to embed faculty-driven outcomes-based assessment in the curriculum. She has led reforms in outcomes-based assessment program review, assessment of general education, quality enhancement, and assessment of the co-curricular.
Dr. Bresciani has been invited to present and publish her findings on assessment and is a leading author of two books on assessing student learning and outcomes-based assessment program review. She has edited a book on good practice case studies in general education assessment and is currently at work on identifying good practices in assessment of student learning in student affairs/services. Dr. Bresciani has developed and delivered several courses on assessment of student learning, and serves on the editorial board of the NASPA Journal. She is a reviewer for the Australian Quality Assurance Agency and is also a managing partner in an international assessment and enrollment management consulting firm.
Dr. Bresciani holds a Ph.D. in Administration, Curriculum, and Instruction from the University of Nebraska and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Hastings College.
Dr. Frank Harris III
Frank Harris III is an Assistant Professor of Postsecondary Education and teaches primarily in the Master of Arts with a specialization in Student Affairs program. Previously, he served as Associate Director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education.
Dr. Harris’ research focuses on college men and masculinities, gendered trends in postsecondary learning environments, and equity in outcomes for historically underrepresented and underserved students. His scholarship has been published in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Journal, New Directions for Student Services, the Journal of Men’s Studies, and the Journal of College Student Development. His chapter, The impact of fraternity membership on African American college men (co-written with Dr. Shaun R. Harper), appeared in Michael Cuyjet’s edited book, African American Men in College (Jossey-Bass, 2006), the most comprehensive volume on African American male collegians to date. In 2007, Dr. Harris earned national dissertation of the year awards from the American Educational Research Association (Division J – Postsecondary Education) and the Association of Student Judicial Affairs.
Dr. Harris’ professional experiences encompass a wide range of administrative areas including: sponsored research projects administration, student affairs administration, new student orientation programs, multicultural student affairs, academic advising, and enrollment services. He participates actively in several national professional associations for research and practice in higher education and student affairs through conference presentations and committee service including: the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). In 2006-2007 he served as chair of the NASPA Region 6 Men and Masculinities Knowledge Community. He is co-instructor (with Dr. Jason Laker) of Guy Things: Men, Masculinities, and Student Development, a national online course through ACPA’s E-Learning Series. Dr. Harris is also a faculty affiliate of the African American Male Student Retention and Success Community of Practice for the International Center for Student Success and Institutional Accountability (ICSSIA).
Dr. Harris completed a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies at Loyola Marymount University and a Master of Arts in Speech Communication at California State University, Northridge. His Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration is from the University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education.