Zoe Irvin

Ms. Irvin has been a member of the Howard Community College (HCC) faculty and staff since 1981. After coming to HCC as an adjunct math instructor, Ms. Irvin has served the students and employees of HCC as professor of mathematics, the founding chair of the mathematics division, director of faculty development, and chief information technology officer.

In Ms. Irvin’s current position of executive director of planning, research, and organizational development, she is responsible for providing research design, evaluation, and planning services, as well as exploring new opportunities to bring best practices to Howard Community College. Additionally, she leads the college’s strategic action committee and serves as the college accreditation liaison officer to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Ms. Irvin is a key facilitator for the development of the Board of Trustees Key Performance Indicator reports, MSCHE self-study, and major process improvement work, such as the HCC Forward Implementation Steering Committee, as well as the Commission on the Future event series.

Working with faculty and staff across the college, her team monitors progress on the college’s Institutional Effectiveness Plan. Her institutional research (IR) team ensures that all public accountability mandates are met, and employees have access to authentic data to inform their decision making. The IR staff facilitates new HCC committees that are formed to address senior administration process improvement activities, as well as the professional development cross-functional committee charged with identifying, developing, and implementing the core professional development competencies for all faculty and staff. The learning outcomes assessment (LOA) team develops research projects with the faculty to analyze and improve student learning outcomes at the course and program level. This work is then blended with research facilitated by the research and planning team (RP) to analyze the impact of other college staff efforts to apply high-impact practice; such as, coaching, tutoring, and technology support, to provide a holistic evaluation of student learning in and out of the HCC classroom.

Ms. Irvin is affiliated with the following national research and planning groups: Society for College and University Planning; American Education Research Association; Association for the Study of Higher Education; and Association for Institutional Research. She is also active in the national Alliance for Innovation and Transformation (AFIT) and has served as an examiner for the American Productivity and Quality Center, the Maryland (state) and Baldrige (national) quality award programs, and as a chair and team member evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Ms. Irvin holds a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a Master of Science degree in numerical sciences from The Johns Hopkins University.