Commission Launches Nationwide Search for Next Visionary President
The WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) today announced that President Jamienne S. Studley will complete her service at the end of 2024 after a remarkable tenure and a distinguished career advancing student success and equity in higher education. WSCUC’s Commission will retain an executive search firm to lead a nationwide search for the next president.
“On behalf of WSCUC Commissioners and colleagues across the country, I want to thank Jamie for her unwavering dedication to students and profound impact on higher education,” said WSCUC Chair Tracy Poon Tambascia. “Jamie has inspired big picture thinking with practical solutions, synthesizing policy and practice to truly enhance educational quality and effectiveness. We are grateful for her service and look forward to identifying a visionary and innovative leader who will continue to drive WSCUC’s strategic priorities. We anticipate identifying this person by the end of the year. Until then, Jamie and WSCUC’s dedicated staff will maintain the agency’s forward momentum and continue to effectively serve our member institutions.”
Studley has led WSCUC since January 2018, championing innovation and effectiveness in accreditation. Under her leadership, WSCUC introduced its “Better Conversations, Better Data” initiative and launched the Key Indicators Dashboard, a publicly available data visualization tool that provides trend and benchmarking metrics for WSCUC-accredited institutions. Studley and her team guided development of WSCUC’s 2023 Standards of Accreditation, weaving requirements that promote success for all students throughout the Standards. She is chair of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC) and represented institutional accreditors in two rounds of federal negotiated rulemaking, a process she helped implement during her first tenure with the U.S. Department of Education.
“The search that brought me to WSCUC led with ‘a passion for student success,’ and that is what consistently motivates me in working with WSCUC institutions and the Commission, staff, and volunteers,” said Studley. “This role is a perfect capstone for a career that started with student activism and spans campus, regulatory, legal, and justice advocacy roles. I’m honored to serve as WSCUC’s president and confident WSCUC will continue as a leader in higher education excellence, equity, evidence, and innovation.”
Studley previously served with the U.S Department of Education as deputy undersecretary, general counsel, and chair of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). She has been called the “listener in chief” on the Department of Education team that launched the College Scorecard. She was also president of Skidmore College, CEO of Public Advocates, Inc., and associate dean and lecturer at Yale Law School, where she played a key role in equity and gender initiatives and creating the school’s groundbreaking public interest loan forgiveness program.
Phillip Doolittle, immediate past WSCUC chair and former executive vice chancellor of finance and administration and chief financial officer at University of Massachusetts Global, will chair WSCUC’s search committee.
Click here to download photos of President Studley
The WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education that serves public and private higher education institutions around the world. WSCUC accreditation aids institutions in developing and sustaining effective educational programs and assures the educational community and the general public that an accredited institution has met high standards of quality and effectiveness.