About Us

Trident University's Assessment Committee

Dr Elna van Heerden, Chair

Director of Assessment

Dr. Elna van Heerden leads the academic and co-curricular assessment efforts at Trident University International. Elna championed evidence-based university assessment practices that have and impact on the institution’s educational effectiveness, and the learning experiences of TUI students.

Prior to her appointment at TUI, Elna worked at the University of Johannesburg and the University of South Africa. She holds a D.Ed (Philosophy of Education) from the University of South Africa, and is a graduate of the WASC Assessment Leadership Academy class of 2010.

Some of her most recent co-authored conference presentations are: “Institutionalizing Signature Assignments through Learning Outcomes and AAC&U rubrics” (WASC ARC Conference, San Diego 2013), “Third Horizon Challenges in the Education of IT Professionals” ( WASC ARC Conference, San Francisco, 2011) and “Seeking Evidence for Learning in Complex Learning Domains” (IADIS conference Rome, 2010).

Dr Harold Griffin

Faculty Lead, BSHS-HCM

Dr. Griffin is originally from Houston, Texas, but now resides in Wendell, NC. He spent nearly two decades working in and serving the healthcare industry. For nearly 15 years, he has been affiliated with higher education in various capacities. Dr. Griffin began as an adjunct faculty member and eventually became the President/CEO of two colleges/universities. Over the years, he has been very involved in outcomes assessment. His work in learning outcomes assessment began at a private, liberal arts university, in Houston, where he worked with colleagues to develop general education outcomes, and then mechanisms for assessing student mastery of these competencies.

At both institutions where Dr. Griffin served as President/CEO, he played an integral role in the development of comprehensive assessment models, which were designed to assess program and course level learning outcomes. He recently worked with a private, liberal arts college in the development of their general education student learning outcomes and corresponding assessment rubrics.

He has worked with TUI colleagues to develop general education learning outcomes and a writing rubric. Dr. Griffin has also provided input into the development of an oral communication rubric. These rubrics and others will likely be rolled out during the Spring 2012 quarter and the results used to establish both reliability and validity in the instruments. Furthermore, he has worked with colleagues, in the BSHS program, to examine and alter the program outcomes. The BSHS program will shortly begin working on the development of mechanisms for assessing program level student learning outcomes.

Dr Annette Hebble

Faculty Lead for graduate and undergraduate accounting

Dr. Hebble received her Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Houston. She has taught accounting courses, primarily at the graduate level for more than 25 years. She also has public accounting experience.

Dr. Hebble has been involved in both program and course assessments. Recently, her emphasis has been on developing course rubrics that are effective, yet simple to apply.

Dr Peggy Swigart

Faculty Lead—MSHRM Degree Program

Dr. Swigart received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, M.B.A. from Western Illinois University, and B.A. from Upper Iowa University.

In her four years with TUI, Dr. Swigart has been a full-time professor in the human resource management area and now is Faculty Lead of the Master of Human Resource Management degree program. In addition, she has twenty years experience as a practitioner in human resource management in the private sector.

Dr. Swigart’s experiences in student learning assessment center on building embedded assignments and assessment activities into the MSHRM degree program. Her current focus is on integrating signature assignments, which are assignments designed to assess specific learning outcomes.

Dr David Turbow

Faculty Lead for Environmental Health

Dr. David Turbow holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara, a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from California State University Fullerton, and a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Health Science & Policy from the University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Turbow has approximately 20 years of university level of teaching experience in the life sciences and earth sciences, including nine years as a doctoral dissertation mentor. Since his appointment at TUI began in June 2004, Dr. Turbow has taught courses at all degree levels for the College of Health Sciences. He previously served as Chair of the Master of Science in Health Sciences Program Review Committee, and Senior Capstone Course Review committee. Dr. Turbow served as Faculty Lead in Environmental Health at TUI from 2010-2012. He also served on two Faculty Voice and Communication committees. Collaborating with colleagues, Dr. Turbow co-created rubrics to assess course design, critical thinking, and writing. He has been involved with program assessment and self-study, as well as university wide Academic Strategic Planning efforts at TUI.

As a member of TUI’s Assessment Committee, Dr. Turbow co-authored a Program Learning Outcomes manual and a Program Review Guide and helped to lead Faculty Workshops. Dr. Turbow also participated in Institutional Assessment Planning evaluation, as well as Academic Program Review planning to ensure continuous improvement in student learning and compliance with regional accreditation standards.

Outside of academia, Dr. Turbow works in the private sector as a consultant, characterizing risk of waterborne pathogen ingestion. He also works with both the regulatory community and non-governmental agencies to facilitate their water pollution prevention planning efforts. His main research focus is on evaluating public health protection policies.

Dr Mina Richards

Professor of Business Administration

Dr. Richards holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from California State University Los Angeles, an MBA from University of Phoenix, a Master of Science in the Management of Information Systems and ABD from Claremont Graduate University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. She also obtained her Adult Education Teaching Credentials from University of San Diego, California.

She joined Trident University in 2009 and has been an active faculty member with the College of Business Administration and Information Systems. She is also a member of the MSTM Program Review Committee, MSITM and BSITM Curriculum Committees, and a newly appointed member to the university wide Assessment Committee. Dr. Richards has taught technology courses for the last 10 years at online and traditional universities.

In addition to her teaching and committee assignments at Trident, she is also involved in course development. One of her roles with the university is to work within a common mission to provide course modifications for existing courses and to design courses for the newly created business analysis and design concentrations. Among her recent contributions to Trident University was co-authoring a poster entitled “Third Horizon Challenges in the Education of IT Professionals” presented to the WASC ARC conference held in 2011; a co-authoring poster “Institutionalizing Signature Assignments through Learning Outcomes and AAC&U Value Rubrics” at the WASC ARC conference in San Diego 2013; a poster proposing a faculty survey entitled “Best Practices Study of Exemplary Faculty at Trident” showed case at Trident University Faculty Expo in January 2013. Additionally, she is engaged in ad-hoc IT consultancy projects for a foreign government Department of Agriculture.