Inaugural Assessment Champion Award Recognizes Samantha Swindell

The Office of Assessment for Curricular Effectiveness (ACE) and the Division of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement (DAESA) are delighted to recognize Samantha Swindell, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and Career Track Professor in the Department of Psychology, with the inaugural Assessment Champion Award.

Presented at the DAESA Awards Ceremony in April 2025, the Assessment Champion Award honors faculty and staff members who promote meaningful undergraduate program assessment efforts that support student learning.

Samantha Swindell has been a longstanding supporter and partner in advancing undergraduate program assessment at WSU.

Lindsey Brown
ACE Director

In her current role as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, Samantha provides outstanding leadership and masterfully communicates the value of program assessment, establishing partnerships with colleagues at multiple levels across the university and across campuses. She regularly engages with faculty assessment coordinators, chairs/directors, advisors, and others to help meet program needs, address challenges, and celebrate successes.

In 2018, Samantha was instrumental in leading a revision to the WSU Faculty Manual to formally recognize faculty participation in assessment work in the annual review process, reinforcing the message that assessment is integral to what faculty regularly do as teachers.

Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean, she served as Faculty Assessment Coordinator and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Psychology where she developed and implemented the program’s assessment plan and coordinated assessment efforts and logistics, developing a working knowledge of good practices in assessment in the discipline.

Samantha is also actively involved with multiple assessment-focused committees at WSU, contributing thoughtful insights and leadership to help advance program assessment that supports WSU’s educational quality and student achievement:

• As part of her current role, she leads a college-wide committee comprised of the faculty assessment coordinator from each undergraduate program in the college, providing a valuable avenue for faculty assessment coordinators to share and receive ideas and resources, as well as strategize about challenges and opportunities, to support iterative improvement.
• Samantha also serves on WSU’s Liaison Council for Undergraduate Program Assessment, where she plays a pivotal role in reviewing university-wide progress and practices, and collaboratively developing strategies and policies for making undergraduate program assessment sustainable.
• She has also served on UCORE’s Subcommittee for Assessment since its inception in 2016, helping to examine results of UCORE assessment of student learning and suggesting uses of those results to inform or influence decisions intended to enhance undergraduate student learning.

People often associate assessment with meeting our accreditation requirements and that is certainly important. But beyond that, I’ve always thought about it as our commitment to serving students to the best of our ability.

Samantha Swindell
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts and Sciences
Career Track Professor, Department of Psychology

As part of its mission to prepare WSU undergraduate students academically for lifelong achievement and success, DAESA and its units and programs manage the distribution of numerous, diverse awards to faculty, staff, and students. The awards promote excellence in undergraduate education and student success across the institution. For more information, see the DAESA Awards and Recognition webpages.