Faculty Involved
Dr. Marilee Bresciani
Marilee J. Bresciani, Ph.D. is 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 21 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. Marilee Bresciani can be reached at mbrescia@mail.sdsu.edu
Dr. Frank Harris III
Dr. Harris is an Assistant Professor of Postsecondary Educational Leadership and Student Affairs at San Diego State University. He is actively engaged in research that considers issues concerning college men and masculinities, gendered trends in postsecondary learning environments, and student development in higher education.
His dissertation study, The Meanings College Men Make of Masculinities and Contextual Influences on Behaviors, Outcomes and Gendered Environmental Norms: A Grounded Theory Study, was recognized for excellence by the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (Dissertation of the Year), the American Educational Research Association (Division J Dissertation of the Year), and the American College Personnel Association’s Standing Committee for Men (Outstanding Research Award).
Since 2004, Dr. Harris has presented more than 30 research papers, symposia, and workshops at regional and national conferences for postsecondary educators. He participates actively in 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).
Dr. Harris’ professional experiences encompass the following administrative areas and responsibilities: sponsored projects administration, student affairs administration, student crisis support and advocacy, new student orientation programs, multicultural student affairs, academic advising, and enrollment services. Prior to joining the faculty at San Diego State University in 2007, Dr. Harris served as Associate Director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Urban Education where he is currently appointed as a research associate.
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 is from the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.
Please visit Dr. Harris’ website at: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/fharris
Dr. Frank Harris III can be reached at frank.harris@sdsu.edu.
Dr. Shaila Mulholland
Shaila Mulholland, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education in the College of Education at San Diego State University. Currently, Dr. Mulholland’s teaching and research interests focus on the history, philosophy, and development of community colleges, and on examining and documenting innovative approaches to improve student learning and preparation for postsecondary education.
Through her research, Dr. Mulholland seeks to illuminate the experiences of students and institutions (such as community colleges) that are either often marginalized, misunderstood, and/or misrepresented in education. She has integrated various interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies to gain a holistic understanding of the intended and unintended consequences of educational policies and programs. Utilizing such an approach, Dr. Mulholland recently completed an ASHE-Lumina Foundation funded dissertation project, The Lessons from Fifty Years of Access and Equity Struggles in Indiana, which explored the evolution of the Indiana statewide community college system from 1950 to 2000.
Prior to coming to San Diego State University, Dr. Mulholland was an independent researcher with the California Community College Collaborative (C4) based at the University of California Riverside; a research assistant with the Alliance for International Higher Education Policy Studies at New York University’s Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy; and a project associate with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) at Indiana University Bloomington. She is an active member of the following professional organizations: the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the American Education Research Association (AERA), Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), the Organization of Educational Historians (OEH), and the History of Education Society (HES).
Dr. Mulholland holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from New York University and a M.S. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington.
Dr. Cyd Jenefsky
Cyd Jenefsky, Ph.D., is adjunct faculty for the Center for Educational Leadership, Innovation and Policy. She is Professor and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at John F. Kennedy University. As director
of the Office for Educational Effectiveness at JFKU, she led the collaborative design and implementation of outcomes-based systems for assessing student learning and program quality.
Dr. Jenefsky also serves as an organizational consultant and workshop leader in the U.S and internationally. In her consulting work, she collaborates
with university faculty, deans and senior leadership to innovate new systems
and practices to enhance student and organizational learning. This includes cultivating capacity for meaningful assessment of student learning, fostering innovations in academic learning, implementing outcomes-based program review processes, and designing peer mentoring and peer leadershipprograms to accomplish broad cultural shifts in the
organization. She also assists universities with meeting accreditation requirements, and
conducts workshops for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
At the invitation of the Fetzer Institute, Dr. Jenefsky is now embarking on a four year mentoring project on transformative learning in higher education. Working with eight elders and fifteen other mid-career educational leaders, the project seeks to cultivate the next generation of higher ed leadership in transformative learning.
During her 25 years in higher education, Dr. Jenefsky has also spearheaded university diversity initiatives; directed the Ford Institute for Integrative Coaching at JFKU; and has designed/directed academic programs in multicultural studies, women's studies, and social ecology at JFKU and the University of Georgia. Her early research focuses on the multiple constructions of gender, race and ethnicity in U.S. culture, including higher education. Her book, *Without Apology: The Art and Politics of Andrea Dworkin *(1998), is the first critical analysis of the late author's literary nonfiction. She graduated *Phi Beta Kappa* from the University of California at Davis, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Jenefsky can be reached at jenefsky@jfku.edu.