ACCET has been blessed with no professional staff turnover for five years, so it’s not surprising that some career and personal developments would eventually catch up with us and disrupt this streak.  Here are some recent staff announcements: 

Assistant Executive Director Linsay Oakden will leave the staff after more than ten years of service in mid-May to relocate in Ravenna, Italy with her husband Kenan and baby son, Ozan.  Kenan has accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Bologna and they expect to be overseas for at least two years. Linsay’s contributions to ACCET are legendary and she will be dearly missed both professionally and personally.  We wish the three of them well as they begin this new chapter in their lives.

Senior Accreditation Coordinator Megan Ackerman-Yost left the staff in late February to accept an academic planning position in the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. This move will provide Megan with the opportunity to pursue her first academic love – science – and complete her doctorate. Megan was with ACCET for eight years and was a major staff player in many different realms.  I know you join me in thanking her for her dedicated and talented service.

We have also been informed that Accreditation Coordinator Carol Crehan will leave the staff in late April to accept a language education related position with the United Nations.  Carol’s expertise in the Intensive English area as well as her superb training/teaching skills are but of few of the qualities that we will miss as she moves on after four years and we are grateful for having her with us during that time.

So, after recovering from this news, the senior executive staff worked together to re-organize professional staff portfolios and hire talented new staff.  Major events are as follows:

Dr. Mary Clare DiGiacomo has been promoted to Assistant Executive Director effective upon Linsay’s departure.  Mary Clare’s organizational and interpersonal skills will serve us well as we look towards the future.  Her responsibilities will not be the same as Linsay’s but will encompass several key areas.

Ms. Miia Rasinen has joined the professional staff as an Accreditation Coordinator. She holds a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of West Virginia and an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame.  Her recent employment includes education/training related positions with the Electronic Transmission Association, the Truckload Carriers Association and Teach for America. 

We also will be hiring an additional Accreditation Coordinator in the coming weeks and will keep you posted once the appointment is made.

On the administrative side, Mr. Shubham Puri has joined the staff as Database Coordinator replacing Simin Xi who left the staff at the end of 2018 to accept a professional position with the United States Senate.  Shubham holds a Master’s degree in Applied Information Technology from Towson University (where he was employed part-time in the University’s Intensive English office) and an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Panjab University in India.

ACCET has always prided itself in serving its members and although we will surely miss Linsay, Megan and Carol, we are committed to continuing such service with our new team organization and players.  Thank you for supporting us in this new chapter.