Office of Academic Assessment hires Dory Thompson as assistant director

The Office of Academic Assessment has hired Dory Thompson to serve as the assistant director and lead programmatic assessment initiatives at Auburn University.

As assistant director, Thompson will support the assessment of student learning across Auburn University’s twelve academic colleges and 300+ academic degree programs. She will coordinate and lead Auburn's internal assessment feedback system and annual Meta-Assessment Institute. In addition, Thompson will consult with faculty and create professional development events to support high quality assessment practices and learning improvement initiatives.

“I’m incredibly excited to have Dr. Thompson join Auburn University’s Office of Academic Assessment team and bring her expertise and fresh perspective to programming and support of assessment at Auburn,” said Katie Boyd, director for academic assessment. “As assistant director, she will continue to encourage high quality assessment practices as well as help programs leverage data to inform learning improvement initiatives.”

Thompson joins Auburn after having served as the assistant director of assessment at Kansas State University for two years, where she assisted K-State’s more than 250 programs with accreditation and student learning assessment activities. Thompson also administered university-wide and national surveys and presented technology and assessment trainings for university faculty and staff and for other institutions around the US.

Thompson received a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Georgia in 2018. During her graduate studies, she specialized in educational and music psychology, as well as measurement and assessment. Thompson has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in music education. She has previously taught instrumental music, science and mathematics at the middle and high school levels in Georgia. Her research focuses primarily on quantitative research methods in measurement and assessment, specifically in the building and maintaining of performance measures.

Thompson’s recent publications and national presentations have centered around developing a streamlined assessment process through automated data collection using the Canvas learning management system. She believes the purpose of assessment is to support faculty and students in cultivating a deeper understanding of learning that goes beyond what grades may provide.

“I look forward to developing a relationship with faculty and programs to help gain useful information about student learning," said Dory.