Austin named to Higher Learning Commission council
BATESVILLE — Anne Austin’s colleagues in the Higher Learning Commission have nominated her to serve on the HLC’s Institutional
Actions Council. Austin is the vice chancellor for research, planning and assessment at the University of Arkansas Community
College at Batesville. Austin has worked at UACCB since 1995 and has served in various capacities, including as a business faculty member, assistant academic dean and dean of learning.
Austin has been a member of the HLC Peer Review Corps since 2014. As such, she serves as a peer reviewer for institutions across the nation. “Being on the Peer Review Corps has been phenomenal professional development for me,” she said. “I’ve had the opportunity to see how other institutions make things work and how they deal with the same challenges we face. Educators as a group are incredibly generous with what they know. They want to share their knowledge.”
Austin will attend an IAC training session April 5 at the HLC annual conference in Chicago. Her four-year term on the council will begin in September. To be eligible to serve on the council, members of the Peer Review Corps must have completed a minimum of five comprehensive evaluations and be trained to conduct other types of reviews, such as those related to institutional change, financial or nonfinancial indicators, or other topics. Council members are authorized to make decisions concerning accreditation based on reports from the peer-review teams.
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