Dr.(Prof.) Carol VanZile-Tamsen

Carol VanZile-Tamsen, Ph.D., is an accomplished academic administrator and scholar specializing in educational psychology, assessment, and teaching innovation. She currently serves as Associate Vice Provost and Director of Curriculum, Assessment, & Teaching Transformation at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In this role, she has led critical initiatives including the integration of educational support services, advancement of online learning systems, and coordination of accreditation efforts. With a robust academic foundation—including a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from SUNY Buffalo—Dr. VanZile-Tamsen has consistently blended research with practice throughout her career. Her scholarly focus lies in metacognitive self-regulation, instructional assessment, psychometric theory, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She has taught a wide range of subjects such as educational statistics, psychometric theory, and human cognition, and has held adjunct roles in both the Graduate School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences at SUNY Buffalo. Dr. VanZile-Tamsen has over 25 peer-reviewed publications and numerous presentations addressing student retention, self-regulated learning, sexual assault research, and program evaluation. Her contributions have been recognized with honors including the Professional Staff Senate Staff Recognition Award and the Institutional Research Leadership in Student Retention Award. She was also a key participant in the Elon University Faculty Research Seminar on Capstone Experiences, a multi-national collaboration that generated influential publications on general education reform. She brings extensive leadership and program development experience, having worked as a faculty member, research analyst, and associate director in various academic units, including the Center for Educational Innovation and the Office of University Accreditation. Her work often intersects institutional research, data analysis, accreditation, and continuous improvement planning. Dr. VanZile-Tamsen's collaborative spirit has been instrumental in her work with national educational research networks such as the SUNY Council on Assessment and the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning. Her research and policy advocacy extend to improving student learning assessment and leveraging data analytics to inform strategic academic planning. With an h-index of 25 and over 3,000 citations on Google Scholar, Dr. VanZile-Tamsen remains an influential figure in higher education research. Her commitment to equity, data-driven decision-making, and fostering reflective learning environments continues to shape effective instructional strategies and institutional effectiveness across the SUNY system and beyond.

• Educational Assessment
• Curriculum Design
• Program Evaluation
• Metacognitive Instruction
• Data Analysis
• Psychometrics
• Rasch Analysis
• Survey Design
• Strategic Planning
• Faculty Mentorship
• Accreditation Reporting
• Teaching Pedagogy
• Mixed Methods Research
• Instructional Design
• Higher Education Administration
• SPSS
• AMOS
• HLM
• Qualitative Research
• ePortfolio Design
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