Claire Torres-lugo
Dr. Torres holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, a master’s degree in Medical sciences and a Doctorate in Educational Administration. She has considerable experience with regional and program specific accreditations and specialized knowledge in the areas of assessment and measurement of student learning, distance education program development, data analysis and reporting, as well as research methods and design. In the area of accreditation and compliance she oversaw and facilitated institutional and college level compliance and effectiveness matters for diverse programs such as Education, School Counseling, Law, and Nursing. In her various roles as Director of Assessment, Accreditation and Compliance she developed skills that allowed her to work closely with faculty members and academic department chairs in the development of outcomes and evaluative measures needed to maintain program approval status in the state of Florida and national accrediting bodies. One of her biggest accomplishments was, in collaboration with the University of North Florida Information Technology Department, to design an innovative electronic candidate performance assessment system to effectively track students’ achievement of required standards and competencies. She also has clinical research experience gained by working as a Research Technologist at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville where she managed multiple experimental protocols in the quest of finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and most recently as a Research Administrator in a teaching hospital. She participated in research summer rotations at the National Institutes of Health as part of the Minority Access Research Career program at the University of Puerto Rico. She is passionate about education in general and believes that education can significantly change students’ world views and the world view of those benefit from the services they provide. As a seasoned educator, she has advocated for education from different fronts (1) as a science high school chemistry teacher, (2) adjunct professor (for both masters and doctoral degree programs), (3) Director of Assessment, Accreditation, Compliance and Institutional Effectiveness and Planning, (4) as an advocate in favor of educational initiatives at the state and national levels, (5) as a research consultant to a large urban school district in Florida where she conducted a teacher satisfaction project that investigated teacher retention, and (6) as a consultant working closely with the Florida Department of Education on policy issues concerning the quality of teacher education programs in the state of Florida university system. Most recently, she is working with doctoral education students at Walden University where she assists students as dissertation chair and/or committee member with a methodology background.
Courses Taught
EDDD 8003 - Research Tools
EDDD 8106 - Program Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
Education
EdD, University of North Florida
MS, University of South Florida
BS, University of Puerto Rico
Awards / Honors
AERA Top Three Best Dissertation in the Nation Rec, American Educational Research Association, 2005
Delores Auzenne Fellowship for Graduate Students, Universtiy of North Florida, 2000
Middle Level Best Dissertation Award, National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2005
Outstanding Chemistry Student, American Chemical Society, 1987
Minority Access Research Fellow (NIH_MARC), University of Puerto Rico, 1987
Thomas Mulkeen Best Dissertation Award, University of North Florida, 2004
Who's Who Among America's High School Teachers, , 1998
Publications
Shumard, C. M., Torres, C., Torres-lugo, C. (1990). In vitro processing at the 3'-terminal region of pre- 18S rRNA by a nucleolar endoribonuclease. Molecular and Cellular Biology