Darren Smith of Bridgewater has been named the inaugural executive director of Institutional Effectiveness at Raritan Valley Community College.
In this role, Smith will support strategic leadership, oversight, and management of the college’s ongoing assessment, institutional research, use of data, and institutional effectiveness. He also will serve as RVCC’s accreditation liaison officer for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and will assist with collegewide resource and budget allocation and the creation of strategic and master plans.
“We are excited to welcome Darren Smith to Raritan Valley Community College as RVCC’s first Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness,” said RVCC President Michael J. McDonough. “With his wealth of experience in higher education, particularly in the community college sector, he will be an invaluable addition to the College.”
Smith, who began working at RVCC last month, previously served as director of Institutional Effectiveness at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. He also has been an Education Policy Fellow with the University of North Carolina System Office and was the director of Institutional Effectiveness at Sampson Community College in North Carolina.
While at Sampson Community College, Smith was responsible for accreditation, planning, grants, institutional research, and assessment. At the UNC system office, his work involved system-level institutional research and analytical projects, as well as support for the strategic-planning process for the entire system. At Valencia College, his focus included strategic planning, assessment, and accreditation.
Smith began his career at Sampson Community College as a biology instructor teaching classes in general biology and human anatomy and physiology courses.
The Michigan native completed his master’s degree in biological sciences at Western Michigan University and earned his bachelor’s in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan.
