Message from the President
M. LaCheeta McPherson, Ph.D., MLS(ASCP)cm

Summer is a time for vacations and rest, but that is not always the case for the CAAHEP staff and board.  The Board of Directors meets each July, followed by the annual CoA Summer Workshop. This year, the board meeting and workshop were held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans.   
 
This summer's CoA's Workshop focused on Distance Education (DE) with a presentation of the DE Project that began in April. Dr. Michael Hillyard was the consultant for the project that reviewed the comments and questions posed by a focus group comprised of CoA representatives and board members. Dr. Hillyard's history with accreditation and the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) provided the background needed to formulate questions related to compliance with the Standards Template. The one-day DE presentation proved to be an excellent starting point for CoA's. From this study and comments, additional materials will be forthcoming for the CoA's.
 
On the second day of the workshop, Katherine Lee, Tony Makin and Keith Orloff demonstrated how they assure consistency in application of standards through the development of an interpretive guide for ARC/STSA.  This impressive document is available to other CoA's who wish to develop a similar guide.
 
During the board meeting the directors selected a Recent Graduate Commissioner. We had five excellent candidates who were nominated. Katie Bowe was selected. Ms. Bowe is a graduate from Macomb Community College's Surgical Technology Program. Ms. Bowe has been active in national organizations since high school. She is currently pursuing a BS Degree at Oakland University.
 
The Board approved two policy changes: one addresses Conflict of Interest for CAAHEP volunteers and the other one addresses Transfer of Sponsorship. Details of these policy changes will be presented in CoA Notes.  With the approval of two new CoA's in April, new board liaisons were assigned: John Padgett was assigned to Recreational Therapy and Cameron Harris was assigned to Anesthesia Technologist/Technician.  The Performance Oversight Committee, chaired by Kerry Weinberg, recommended that with the expanded role of board liaisons, a special site on the CAAHEP Hub would be created.  This site will store all required liaison documents and report forms.
 
Two Open Hearings on Standards were conducted during the Annual Workshop by the Standards Committee, chaired by Kalyani Naik: The Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in Orthotics and Prosthetics and the Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in Recreational Therapy.  
 
With the process of re-recognition by CHEA, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, CAAHEP has to complete several steps.  The first step is application for eligibility to be considered. Kathy Megivern distributed a CHEA letter to the Board of Directors indicating that CHEA's Committee on Recognition will present to the CHEA Board in September the recommendation that CAAHEP be considered eligible to undertake recognition review.  Upon approval from CHEA's Board, the second step is the writing of a self study and completion of a site visit.  I will keep the CAAHEP community informed of these steps as they progress.
 
Lastly I would remind you that CAAHEP now has a Blog created by Kathy Megivern. The last two entries are direct responses to recent press regarding for-profit higher education and Senate hearings on accreditation.  As these seem to be hot topics, I would encourage you to keep up with the latest developments and CAAHEP's responses through this tool.