The Founding Strategic Consultants.
A permanent historical record honoring the professionals who came alongside IACDE Founder Dr. Roxanne Kemp during the Commission’s formative period—contributing research, professional insight, strategic counsel, and practical perspective as a new institution was being built.
A vision became an institution through deliberate work.
IACDE began with a vision to develop an independent quality-assurance organization responsive to the realities of digital, online, hybrid, and emerging education.
During that early period, the Commission was still taking shape. Standards had to be researched. Systems had to be developed. Institutional needs had to be considered. Processes, professional expectations, positioning, organizational culture, and long-term direction all required thoughtful examination.
A small group of professionals came alongside Dr. Roxanne Kemp during this formative work. They brought different areas of expertise and offered research, analysis, constructive challenge, professional judgment, and counsel as the organization developed.
Founding Strategic Consultant is not simply a current staffing designation. It is a historical distinction recognizing individuals who worked with and advised the Founder during IACDE’s formative development. Professional roles may evolve over time, but their contribution to this chapter of the Commission’s history remains part of the institutional record.
Different expertise. One emerging institution.
Structure, organizational change, administrative processes, stakeholder needs, and systems capable of supporting institutional growth.
Leadership, professional engagement, collaboration, development, communication, and the human dimensions of building an institution.
Standards, institutional needs, comparable models, market analysis, strategic positioning, and evidence-informed planning.
Professionals who contributed to IACDE’s earliest work.
Each consultant brought a different professional lens to the institution-building process. Their early counsel contributed to IACDE’s thinking around systems, people, research, organizational development, and strategy.
Dr. Kahla D. LaPlante
Dr. Kahla LaPlante brought a systems-oriented perspective to IACDE’s formative development, with professional experience in project management, organizational change, operational improvement, stakeholder engagement, and institutional development.
Her counsel reinforced the importance of designing organizational systems that could support both sustainable growth and the people responsible for carrying the work forward.
- Strategic Project Management
- Change Management
- Operational Excellence
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Organizational Development
Dr. LaPlante contributed professional insight related to organizational systems, administrative processes, sustainable growth, change management, and the practical infrastructure necessary to support a developing Commission.
Ciara Owens, M.S.
Ciara Owens brought a people-centered perspective to IACDE’s early development, drawing from experience in higher-education operations, leadership development, mentoring, professional engagement, and organizational culture.
Her contribution helped ensure that emerging systems and strategies were considered alongside the human dimensions of leadership, collaboration, professional growth, and institutional culture.
- Higher Education Operations
- People-Centered Leadership
- Leadership Development
- Professional Engagement
- Organizational Culture
Ms. Owens contributed insight related to leadership, professional engagement, team development, organizational culture, and the people-centered dimensions of building an effective institution.
Dr. Lisa Maricondo
Dr. Lisa Maricondo contributed research and analytical support during IACDE’s formative period, helping examine the developing accreditation landscape, institutional needs, comparable models, professional expectations, and strategic considerations relevant to a new digital-education quality-assurance organization.
Her work helped bring evidence and comparative analysis into early planning conversations as the Commission considered its structure, positioning, services, and long-term development.
- Market Research
- Needs Analysis
- Standards Research
- Competitive Review
- Strategic Planning
Dr. Maricondo contributed research into standards, institutional needs, market conditions, comparable organizations, pricing considerations, and strategic positioning during IACDE’s earliest development.
The organization may evolve. Its founding history does not.
IACDE will continue to grow, develop its standards, expand its professional community, strengthen its systems, and build new international relationships. The Founding Strategic Consultants remain part of the Commission’s permanent historical record because they contributed their time, knowledge, experience, and counsel during the period when IACDE itself was still becoming an institution.
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