Cindy Kay Stevens, University of Maryland, USA

Evidence from published studies (e.g., Inkelas et al., 2007; Longerbeam, 2010; Szelényi et al., 2013) suggests that undergraduates in living-learning programs adapt better to their college experiences than do students in traditional residence-hall arrangements. Yet, different types of living-learning programs have different effects (Inkelas et al., 2008), which complicates effort to evaluate and document program effects. Drawing from experience with 29 distinct living-learning programs at University of Maryland, I will highlight how approaches for measuring learning outcomes can be tailored to unique program goals.

Cynthia Kay Stevens serves as an associate dean in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, where she chairs the General Education diversity and history and social science faculty boards, the ROTC advisory committee, and oversees the living-learning and other special programs. She joined the Management & Organization faculty at University of Maryland in 1990, after completing her Ph.D. in psychology from University of Washington. Her research focuses on cognitive and social factors that affect individual and group behavior. She has studied such phenomena in the context of staffing (interviews, job search & choice, recruitment), training (skill acquisition, maintenance and retention), and interpersonal work relationships (e.g., diversity dynamics, dysfunctional work relationships and difficult employees). Her work has appeared in Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, and Journal of Applied Psychology. Dr. Stevens has taught in the MBA, EMBA and Ph.D. programs at the Smith School and in EMBA programs at University of Iowa, Seattle University, and Wuhan University (China). She has consulted with businesses on leadership development, performance management, and diversity-related issues and works as an executive coach.