Advisory Board

Steven D. Crow, Ph.D.

Steve Crow, recently retired from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools after completing 26 years of service with the organization, is now the CEO of S.D. Crow & Co, LLC. From 1997 until his retirement, he was the Executive Director/President of the Commission, and provided leadership to it and its 1000 member institutions, assuring the effectiveness of regional institutional accreditation and representing the organization nationally and internationally.

Crow was instrumental in making regional institutional accreditation responsive to e-Learning, U.S. education delivered internationally, and new collaborative and consortial arrangements created in several states. Under his leadership, the Commission received special attention for its creation of an alternative accreditation process based on quality improvement principles and practices, and for its adoption of new accrediting standards that focus on learning, service, and preparation for the future. Crow's bachelor's degree in history is from Lewis and Clark College (OR) and his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in U.S. History are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI). Prior to joining the Commission in 1982, he taught and did some administrative work at Kalamazoo College, Bowdoin College, Vanderbilt University, and Bates College.

Myk Garn, Ph.D.

Myk Garn is the Director of Educational Technology for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). The SREB was founded in 1948 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works with leaders and policymakers in 16 member states to improve pre-K through postsecondary education. Myk directs the SREB Educational Technology Cooperative which provides information and analysis on the potential impact of educational technology to guide schools, colleges, state education agencies, and legislative policy makers as they create and expand effective uses of technology.

Prior to joining SREB in May 2008, Dr. Garn was Associate Vice President for eLearning at the Kentucky Council for Postsecondary Education (CPE) where he served as Executive Director of the Kentucky Virtual Campus. Prior to Kentucky he served as Director of Distance Education for the University System of Georgia, Executive Director of the Instructional Technology Development Center at Lamar University in Texas. Dr. Garn received holds a B.A. in Photography from Brooks Institute, an M.A. in Educational System Design from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Evaluation from the University of Kentucky.

Larry Gould, Ph.D.

Dr. Lawrence (Larry) V. Gould is Provost/Chief Academic Officer at Fort Hays State University (FHSU). While at FHSU, Dr. Gould has served as a faculty member in Political Science, president of the Faculty Senate, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Executive Assistant to the President and Director of the Docking Institute of Public Affairs. He previously taught at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and was a research associate with the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Beginning in 1991, Provost Gould has played a key role in the development of the FHSU domestic distance learning environment, internationalization of the campus, the university's participation in the Higher Learning Commission's alternate regional accreditation track known as the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) and led the way in creating and managing the university's dual degree Bachelor of General Studies programming in China and Turkey. FHSU now has over 2400 students in China participating in cross-border distance education programming.

Dr. Gould is on the Executive Board of the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement in Higher Education and a member of the Implementation Board for the American Democracy Project. Larry has published several recent articles on academic quality work initiatives. Finally, Dr. Gould is the recipient of two prominent national awards for provosts-the National Academic Advising Association's 2000 Pacesetter Award and the William M. Plater Award for Leadership in Civic Engagement.

Carol A. Twigg, Ph.D.

Dr. Carol A. Twigg is President and CEO of the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT). NCAT serves as a resource for colleges and universities, providing leadership in how effective use of information technology can improve student learning while reducing instructional costs. A widely published writer and a sought-after speaker, Dr. Twigg is seen as an authority on using information technology to transform teaching and learning in higher education.

In 1995, Newsweek named Dr. Twigg one of the 50 most influential thinkers in the information revolution, and in 2003, she was the recipient of the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education. Dr. Twigg received her B.A. from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo.