Director of Strategic Directions, Assessment & Accreditation
Dr. Jessica Miranda
Dr. Jessica L. W. Miranda joined the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu as the Director of Strategic Directions, Assessment, and Accreditation in January 2023. In this role, Dr. Miranda serves as the university’s Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) Accreditation Liaison Officer; she develops and implement processes to measure UHWO’s strategic impact; and she leads assessment efforts on campus to foster a culture of continuous improvement in academic, student life, and administrative programming. Prior to her current position, Dr. Miranda served as the Director of Assessment, Accreditation, and Accountability for the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa from 2014 to 2023 and as their Assessment Coordinator from 2012 to 2014. She is a tenured Associate Specialist and Graduate Faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Dr. Miranda holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation; a M.A. in Second Language Studies with specializations in Language Teaching and Language Assessment, Measurement, and Program Evaluation; and a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies: Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has been honored as the recipient of the 2017 Peter and Patricia A. Dunn-Rankin Scholarship for Research in Educational Psychology, the 2014 Innovation and Transformation Award from the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for her work developing the college’s Measuring Our Success website, and the 2012 Harry Whitten Prize for Scholarly Excellence by the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Her professional contributions to the field are in the areas of psychometrics and educational measurement; program evaluation; and accreditation preparation, implementation, and research. She is an active contributor to the field through extensive state, national, and international presentations. Dr. Miranda currently serves as a national Accreditation Commissioner for the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP).