A faculty and staff member at UALR have been selected to serve on the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association.

Dr. Jim Vander Putten, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, and Dr. Brad Patterson, director of UALR Testing Services and Student Life Research, have both been selected as peer reviewers for the commission.

As such, Vander Putten and Patterson will be involved in all stages of the accreditation process for institutions in a 19-state region of the North Central U.S., including participating in site visits.

The commission maintains a Peer Review Corps of approximately 1,300 faculty and administrators from institutions within the region.

Peer reviewers are responsible for assuring that an institution is complying with the accreditation criteria as well as for helping an institution advance within the context of its own mission.

As Peer Corps members, they will have a unique opportunity to gain new ideas from the institutions they visit, while adding significant value in the process of assuring and improving quality in higher education.

Vander Putten and Patterson will each serve a two-year term. Thereafter, they will each be reviewed for another four-year term.