Karen Paulson is a Senior Associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS).  A member of the staff since 1996, she focuses on curricular, assessment and evaluation issues as well as state postsecondary needs assessments.  Currently she is working on a Ford Foundation grant analyzing good practices and lessons learned in higher education policy processes internationally; in addition she also works with institutions on assessment/accreditation issues and evaluates several federal grants.  While completing her Ph.D. in Higher Education at Penn State, Karen worked on the evaluation team for a national engineering education coalition.  She holds engineering Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as a Master’s degree in Higher Education from that institution.