DHSc Program Advisory Board

The DHSc program utilizes an Advisory Board to ensure requirements for accreditation are met and appropriate standards are established and maintained. The Advisory Board’s primary function is to ensure thorough evaluation of the program and setting high standards of excellence. Working collectively, the Advisory Board and program leaders consider short- and long-term improvements to the program operations and/or policies.

The Advisory Board’s fundamental function is to oversee the program activities and outcomes and to assist the program leadership in future planning. The Advisory Board convenes formally once/year, but additional online correspondence may take place. Board activities include reviewing program evaluations of any type, which would typically be presented by the program leadership in summary form, not hard copies of the surveys or identifiable data points. During each meeting, the members of the program leadership will present a summary of any evaluation data that have been collected. For example, most meetings will include discussion of a summary of recent recruitment and admissions data, course evaluations and other student outcomes, and overall student academic progress. The Advisory Board may request further review of specific data if deemed necessary, which is certainly confidential, but depending on the situation, may or may not be de-identified.

The Advisory Board does not evaluate individual student progress. Members of the Advisory Board serve as a global resource to the program leaders. If their input or expertise, as individuals or as a group, is potentially helpful to the program leaders in evaluating and remediating student performance, their input will be requested. However, typically, the program staff are responsible for these matters. The program leadership would be expected to discuss student progress, remediation strategies, and outcomes during the regular Advisory Board meetings.

All of the activities and correspondence of the Advisory Board are confidential. Most program evaluations to be discussed will be summative de-identified documents. If identifiers are important to include, the Board will be reminded of the confidentiality of the content of the documents and all related conversations, analyses, and actions. A confidentiality agreement form is available to advisory boards for signatures, if needed. However, this process of sharing identifiers would be very rare and uncustomary.

It is the hope and expectation that an advisory board member will serve two years. All recommendations of the Advisory Board will be documented in meeting minutes. Typically progress on outstanding issues will be discussed at the next meeting. The Advisory Board will meet by online conferencing and use electronic communications in the interim.