ASSESSMENT IN ACTION LCC hosts inaugural assessment summit Submitted by: members of the Luna Community College Assessment Team, including: Feb. 01, 2026
The Summit featured a range of engaging and interactive sessions. Tycie Jackson, Director of Early Education and Business, led a reflection activity that invited faculty and staff to consider what assessment has meant throughout their time at Luna, whether they are long-time employees or new to the work. Kraig Bellows, Director of Adult Education, facilitated a poster session workshop where participants explored what assessment looks like in their own areas in practical, applied ways. He will continue this work as a part of the AARC team by bringing more hands-on assessment design activities to individual faculty and programs. Kraig, with support from Cristino Griego (Culinary Arts Faculty) and Crystal Western Ford (Luna Strong Coordinator), also provided a delicious lunch for the campus community. To close out the day, Dr. Henrietta Romero, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services hosted a lively game of Assessment Jeopardy, giving participants the chance to test their knowledge of Luna’s assessment efforts and history of assessment in a fun and collaborative way. During the Assessment Summit, participants had the opportunity to vote on a name for Luna’s campus-wide assessment initiative. The title selected by the campus community is the LCC Assessment for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Success (ATLAS) Project. A call for poster presentations will be distributed via email in mid-February. This will be an opportunity for faculty and staff to showcase the important work taking place in the assessment of student learning across courses, programs, and co-curricular areas. Mary Frances Bibb, ACE Lab, Workforce, and Campus Life Coordinator, shared a strong example of assessment work in the cocurricular space that helped illustrate what assessment posters can look like in practice. This work marks an exciting step forward for LCC, and we look forward to sharing updates as our assessment efforts continue to advance through the LCC ATLAS Project.
Sierra Fernandez, Director of Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officer; Dr. Henrietta Romero, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services; Mary Frances Bibb, ACE Lab, Workforce, and Campus Life Coordinator; Aaron Smith, Lead Faculty, School of Business; Tycie Jackson, Director of Preschool and Departments of Education and Business; Jeff Gamblin, Director of Institutional Technology; and Kraig Bellows, Director of Adult Education On January 7, 2026, Luna Community College (LCC) hosted its first annual Assessment Summit, a day dedicated to campus-wide conversations and activities centered on the assessment of student learning and institutional effectiveness. We want to extend a warm thank you to our campus for participating in strengthening student learning on our campus and for participating in such a fun-filled day. We extend special thanks to the LCC Faculty Senate for partnering with us to host the Summit during in-service week. Assessment at LCC centers on students and their learning experiences. It helps us determine what is working well across classrooms, general education, academic programs, and co-curricular areas, while also highlighting where refinements are needed so we can continually strengthen how we support student growth and success. At its core, assessment is how we gauge how effectively we are operating in service of students. This work is a shared responsibility. Faculty, academic directors, and leaders of co-curricular programs each play a vital role in advancing student learning at Luna. As we expand assessment into non-instructional areas, it was important to have directors from across the campus involved in these conversations. In addition, leaders from the Assessment Committee, Curriculum Committee, Faculty Senate, and Academic Leadership shared how their roles connect to and support assessment efforts across the institution, reinforcing the collaborative foundation of the day’s discussions. Our Assessment Academy work is currently being led by the Assessment Academy Review Collective (AARC) on campus. The group evolved from the college’s HLC Assessment Academy team, and its membership will continue to adapt based on project needs. This cross-campus team has included Mary Frances Bibb, Tycie Jackson, Dr. Henrietta Romero, Sierra Fernandez, Aaron Smith, Kraig Bellows, Jeff Gamblin, and Betsy Sanchez, who have helped spearhead this effort and bring colleagues from across campus into the work. To begin the day, Sierra Fernandez, Director of Assessment and the college’s Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO), shared updates on our assessment and accreditation efforts, including Luna’s four-year participation in the HLC Assessment Academy. She also shared the great news that LCC was accepted to present at the New Mexico Higher Education Assessment and Retention (NMHEAR) Conference in March! During the update, Sierra was joined by Jeff Gamblin, Director of Institutional Technology, who shared how Workday Learn will be used to develop a training on assessment and Aaron Smith, Lead Business Faculty, who mentioned possible assessment data collection through the Blackboard LMS to help make the assessment process more standardized.
Sierra Fernandez, Director of Assessment and Accreditation Liaison Officer, shares updates on Luna Community College’s assessment and accreditation efforts during the inaugural Assessment Summit.
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