Elections for open positions on the IACAT Board are being held this June.  There are three positions up for re-election: Treasurer, Secretary, and North America representative.  A call for nominations sent out in May received only one nomination for Treasurer, two for Secretary, and two for North America representative.  Brief bios for the candidates up for election are below; because there is only one candidate for Treasurer, no election is necessary.

You will be receiving an email from the FastTest survey system to complete the election.  The email will contain a specific passcode, which allows us to securely administer the election by ensuring identity of IACAT members and that each IACAT member can vote only once.  Please check your Junk Mail if you do not see this email.

DEADLINE TO VOTE: June 30, 2014

 

Secretary

Mohammed - National Testing Service

Muhammad Haroon Rashid did his PhD in Computer Sciences. His professional services to leading government organizations of Pakistan span over 32 years. He joined Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories in 1979 and established computing facility of the organization.  In 1985, Dr. Haroon joined National Institute of Electronics (NIE), Islamabad and developed various computer-based systems including Management Information System (MIS). In 1998 Dr. Haroon joined COMSATS as a key member of the core team which established and continued to work in order to bring the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) to a place where it is today with seven campuses and ranks 6th in the public sector universities of the country. Being Pro-rector of CIIT, he is responsible to provide vision and leadership for development and planning of the campuses. His relentless services have been hailed not only within the CIIT but equally so in the education fraternity across the country.  In order to promote quality education in Pakistan, he established National Testing Service - Pakistan (NTS) which has earned credibility and tested over 3.58 million candidates within a span of eleven years. At NTS, he is promoting computer based and computer adapted tests in the country. Dr. Haroon is known for his well-articulated thoughts, graceful manners and for assuming a mentoring role for his colleagues and sub-ordinates. He maintains a pleasant personality, pro-people’s welfare, and enjoys great respect among his students and fellow colleagues.  Recently in recognition of his meritorious services to the society, the Government of Pakistan conferred upon him the prestigious national award, Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) in 2012.

Richard Ackermann, TeamCode

Richard has had a compelling interest in CAT since attending Dave Weiss’ CAT Workshops in Minneapolis in 2007 and 2009. He owns a small company, Team Code, Inc., which provides the large scale assessment infrastructure for CASAS. CASAS is a test publisher of adult basic literacy achievement tests which is used in U.S., El Salvador, Brazil, and Singapore. Following Dave’s first workshop Richard helped implement a CAT for the Workforce Development Agency in Singapore. This CAT not only classifies persons at 8 literacy levels, but is also used for charting educational progress in reading, numeracy and listening. Richard is excited about the possibilities for ongoing innovation in CAT assessments and wishes to support the commendable endeavors of IACAT.

Duanli Yan, Educational Testing Service

Dr. Duanli Yan is a manager of data analysis and computational research in the research & development division of Educational Testing Service. Dr. Yan holds a Ph.D. in Psychometrics at Fordham University, NY.  She was the recipient of ETS presidential award and spot awards, as well as NCME Brenda H. Loyd Outstanding Dissertation Award.  She is also an adjunct professor at Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey.  Dr. Yan has been an invited symposium organizer, presenter, and instructor at many conferences including National Council of Measurement in Education (NCME), International Association for Computerized Adaptive Testing (IACAT), and International Psychometrics Society (IMPS) conferences. She has also been an invited discussant at NCME conferences, and has lectured on psychometric issues and methodologies internationally.

 

North America Representative

Darrin Grelle, SHL

Dr. Darrin Grelle has been with CEB’s SHL Talent Measurement Solutions for 8 years and is currently a Managing Research Scientist in the Research and Development team. In this role, he is responsible for leading the technical development of the SHL ability testing portfolio, focusing on the use of CAT in the pre-employment setting.  He has presented extensively on CAT at national and international conferences such as IACAT, Psychometrica, and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology on topics including cheating detection, algorithms to increase the efficiency of CAT, and SME parameter estimation methods and has published in journals including Human Performance . Darrin’s primary areas  of expertise include test development, validation, research methodology, and statistics and psychometrics. Darrin received his PhD from the University of Georgia in Applied Psychology – Measurement and Individual Differences. 

Alan Mead, Illinois Institute of Technology

Alan D. Mead is currently President of Talent Algorithms Inc, a measurement and analytics company focused on methodological areas such as CAT.  He sit on the editorial boards of the Journal of Business and Psychology and the Journal of Computer Adaptive Testing. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from University of Illinois-Urbana in 2000 with a concentration on I/O psychology and a minor concentration on quantitative psychology.  Prior to starting Talent Algorithms Inc, He was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL, USA. Before joining the faculty at IIT, he spent several years as a practitioner including positions such as consultant, research scientist, and psychometrician. He contributed to high-profile CAT projects such as the AICPA's computerized Uniform CPA Exam and the US Department of Labor's CAT-GATB.  Dr. Mead served as chief psychometrician for the Linux Professional Institute's Linux system administration certification exam.  His CAT research interests are: (a) exam security, (b) adaptive testing of personality, (c) novel item formats, and (d) on-the-fly item generation.  Broader CBT research interests include comparability of computerized and paper assessments and scoring novel formats.  He hopes that IACAT will encourage more research about CAT and serve to encourage more use of adaptive testing world-wide.  He thinks adaptive testing has inherent benefits and wider use will have beneficial side-effects, such as promulgating sophisticated psychometric practices.  He also thinks that IACAT can help practitioners have a voice.  As a hypothetical example: in the past, not all vendors of exam administration have supported adaptive testing.  IACAT could help practitioners by encouraging more uniform availability of CAT algorithms among vendors.  He also expects that IACAT will provide services to CAT researchers and professionals, such as a global clearinghouse for CAT research and an annual international CAT conference.