Meet the Vice Provost for Institutional and Educational Effectiveness
Makiko Imamura, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Institutional and Educational Effectiveness (VPIEE) works closely with senior leadership, faculty, and staff across the College to facilitate data-informed decision-making and programming for continuous improvement in educational effectiveness and institutional practice. VPIEE oversees the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching, Office of Assessment and Educational Effectiveness, Office of Institutional Research, and Data Analyst; leads the Institutional Effectiveness Committee and the Data Governance Committee; provides strategic leadership and administrative support to the Chair of Core Curriculum Committee and the Chair of Program Review Committee; and serves as the WSCUC Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO). VPIEE is also responsible for facilitating and monitoring the Strategic Plan progress and for fostering the campus-wide understanding of the use of Key Performance Indicators.
Makiko Imamura, serving as the VPIEE since July, 2023, is a Professor of Communication and has been at Saint Mary’s College since 2011. Her recent accomplishments as VPIEE include successful completion of reaffirmation of accreditation with WSCUC; designing and launching of the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching; development of Program Assessment Advisory Board as the central function of the Office of Assessment and Educational Effectiveness; revitalization of Data Governance Committee and its work; development of Key Performance Indicators and Strategic Plan initiative tracking system; reinstatement of administrative department reviews; and development of robust faculty support infrastructure for academic program reviews. Prior to her appointment as VPIEE, Dr. Imamura has led various campus-wide initiatives in partnership with colleagues and stakeholders - Core Curriculum revision as the Chair of the Core Curriculum Committee, program review revision as the Director of Assessment and Educational Effectiveness, and summer intensive faculty development program in response to COVID-19 as the co-Director of Faculty Development. Dr. Imamura was also one of the core group members that revamped the Student Feedback Form (formerly known as Course Evaluation). In addition to these key initiatives, she has previously served as the Chair of Institutional Review Board (IRB), Director of Graduate Kinesiology, and the inaugural Director of Master of Arts in Communication.
Dr. Imamura has a BA in English with single subject English Teaching Credential from Tsuda University in Japan, and both MA and Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas. Her expertise is in intergroup/intercultural communication and quantitative research methods. Her scholarship is informed by theories of social identities and communication, and explores the cyclical relationship between communication behaviors, experiences, perceptions, identities, stereotypes, and intergroup attitudes.