CQAIE

CONTACT US

Center for Quality Assurance in International Education

1001 North Fairfax Street, Suite 520

Alexandria, Virginia 22314 USA

Tel: +1 703 519 0922

Fax: +1 703 519 0997

Email: cqaie@cqaie.org

STAFF

Dr. Marjorie Peace Lenn is the founding President of the Center for Quality Assurance

in International Education. The Center provides assistance in the development and

improvement of national quality assurance (accreditation) systems throughout the

globe; facilitates issues of trade and quality in the globalization of higher education and

facilitates the globalization of the professions for purposes of mobility.

Dr. Lenn has three decades of experience in domestic and international quality

assurance, beginning with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges while a

senior administrator at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Vice President of the

Council on Postsecondary Accreditation in Washington D.C. where she was responsible for

the recognition process of “accrediting the Accreditors”, and since 1991, the

international dimensions of quality assurance as President of the Center. She has served

on multiple domestic and international boards including the International Network of

Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) on which she served on its

Board of Directors most of its existence since its founding in 1991. She is widely published

and speaks extensively throughout the globe.

The Center and Dr. Lenn have a long history working with key intergovernmental

organizations in the area of quality assurance such as: The World Bank (through its

national quality assurance infrastructure projects over the last 2 decades and a major

project strengthening the Bank’s support of quality assurance through development grants

to regional networks of quality assurance agencies globally, beginning with the Asia Pacific

region for which Dr. Lenn wrote the envisioning paper published by the Bank in

2004); UNESCO (through quality assurance work in Eastern/Central Europe; its

academic credentialing activity through Regional Conventions; the Working Group on

Cross-Border Education which produced principles of good practice for international use;

and other activities through the division on Access, Mobility and Quality Assurance); the

OECD (through several initiatives in quality assurances related to the globalization of

higher education, including electronic delivery and the global initiative on principles with

partner UNESCO); the Organization of American States(OAS) (through its

development activities in the Caribbean and Central America); and the United

Nations Development Program (through its domestic quality assurance development program

in the professions); the Asia Development Bank (through projects related to quality in

Asian higher education and vocational/occupational training) and others.

Dr. Lenn is the official advisor to the U.S. government on trade in education services.

(The United States is one of the top three global providers of higher education. Within the

U.S., education stands as 5^th in order of trade in services.) IN 2002, the Center

co-sponsored a landmark global forum on trade in education services with the OECD,

the World Bank and various agencies of the U.S. government including the Office of US

Trade Representative and U.S. Departments of Commerce, State and Education. The

Center has sponsored 16 conferences on Professional Accreditation and

Certification: Gateways to Quality and Mobility in the Americas with the typical

partners being Ministries of Education and Trade in a wide variety of host countries.

Dr. Lenn has lived in China and has led in-country accreditation infrastructure development

and enhancement in:

Asia: Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,

Mongolia, People’s Republic of China, Thailand and Vietnam

Africa: Egypt, Namibia, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa and Zambia

Europe: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovak Republic and Sweden

Americas: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, English Speaking Caribbean

and Mexico

Middle East: Israel, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates

Dr. Bethany S. Jones represents the Center for Quality Assurance in International Education

in its Middle East regional office, where she works for the Executive Affairs Authority of

Abu Dhabi Emirate (United Arab Emirates) in strategic policy creation and review. Dr. Jones

is James Madison Distinguished Professor Emerita at James Madison University in

Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she served as Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Jones received her B.A. degree from Chestnut Hill College and her M.A. and Ph.D.

degrees in French from Case Western Reserve University. While at Case Western Reserve

she did pioneering work in computer applications to the study of the humanities. She did

post-graduate studies at Harvard University, where she has also returned as guest lecturer

on managing change in higher education. Following her doctoral work, Dr. Jones held

faculty appointments and administrative positions at Cleveland State University, the University

of Delaware, Missouri State University, and then went to James Madison as chief

academic officer for six years.

Following that assignment, she assumed the role of Executive Director of International

Programs at James Madison, with a portfolio of responsibilities which included

educational programming for over 500 study abroad students; immigration and academic

support services for over 600 international students, faculty and staff; new program

development around the world; work in international economic development;

faculty development; and running the Commonwealth of Virginia International

Internship Program.

Over the years Dr. Jones has served on many local, national and international committees

with organizations such as the American Council on Education, the Ohio Board of Regents,

the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, and the

American Association of State Colleges and Universities. With Dr. Russel C. Jones for

seven years she wrote the International Engineering Education Digest,

distributed electronically to approximately 40,000 readers around the world each month.

Dr. Jones has particular expertise in international education, higher education

reorganization, planning for quality assurance, faculty performance reviews,

curriculum development, and preparation of engineers for international practice. She has

been active in teacher education beginning with work in the Cleveland, Ohio, Public

Schools, and continuing with service in Missouri and Virginia. Her work has been supported

at various times by the Cleveland Foundation, the Jessie Ball DuPont Religious, Educational

and Charitable Fund, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the Soros

Foundation Moldova, the Eurasia Foundation, and the National Endowment for the

Humanities. She was formerly a US delegate to the World Federation of

Engineering Organizations’ Standing Committee on Capacity Building.

Dr. Jones is bi-lingual (French-English) and has lived abroad for extended periods of time.

She has worked with higher education leaders and programs in countries such as the

United Arab Emirates, China, Northern Ireland, Korea, Turkey, France, Italy, the U.K.,

Spain, Romania, Moldova, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Tunisia, and

Malta. She lives in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Sharon Carter Matthews, AIA, works in the area of professional and specialized

accreditation. She is currently serving as the secretariat (under the auspices of the National

Architectural Accrediting Board) for the Canberra Accord. The Accord is a group of

accrediting and/or validating agencies from countries around the world negotiating an

agreement to recognize graduates of each other’s systems.

Ms. Matthews has been in leadership and administrative positions in higher education in

the United States since 1987. She has taught at Yale University, the University of

Cincinnati, and the University of New Haven. She administered academic programs

at Norwich University and at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, both of which

have strong international components. She has been the Executive Director of the National

Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and is a member of the committee to rewrite the

next edition (2009) of the Conditions and Procedures for architectural accreditation in the

US. She also continues to be an evaluator of credentials for international applicants who

wish to apply for architectural licensure in the US.

As Executive Director of the NAAB she was responsible for the development of

conditions and procedures for recognition of programs internationally as well as those in

the US. She administered the ongoing accreditation of 160 programs and organized

training for 120 volunteers and staff each year. She, with James Scheeler of the

International Union of Architects, organized the 2006 inaugural meeting in Washington, DC

of the group working toward the Canberra Accord. Ms. Matthews has been an invited

speaker on the subject of professional accreditation and negotiated agreements at

conferences in Istanbul, Costa Rica, Toronto, The Hague, Mexico City, Seoul, and in 2008

at a meeting of deans of schools in the Western Hemisphere in Houston, Texas.

As a consultant she has worked closely with the Korea Architectural Accrediting Board

(KAAB) and has conducted their team training for the past two years. She has also

consulted with schools in Turkey and is, this summer of 2008, developing a new

architecture program with an international focus at the State University of South Dakota.

Ms. Matthews received her M Arch from Yale University and a BA from Columbia

University. In 2002 she was recognized for her achievements in education by Women

in Design in Massachusetts. Her community activities include serving as the Commissioner

of Education and Research for the Boston Society of Architects and as a Commissioner on

the Planning Board of Montpelier, VT.