Linda M. Crawford Walden University, USA

Linda M. Crawford, professor emerita at Walden University, received her doctoral degree from the University of Minnesota with emphases in curriculum and educational administration. In her most recent position as director of academic quality and accreditation for Laureate Education, she conducted quality assurance reviews, both domestically and internationally, at institutional, program, certificate, course, and service levels, including reviews for schools in Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Switzerland. She also advised institutions extensively on the faculty perspective related to academic initiatives, including development of new faculty orientation programs, faculty governance, and faculty models. Prior to her work in quality assurance, Linda held both teaching and administrative positions at all levels of education, including P-12, undergraduate, and graduate education. While serving as an assistant superintendent for a large, metropolitan area school district, Linda provided direction for research, evaluation, and assessment; P-12 curriculum and instruction; special education; instructional media and technology; state and federal programs, including desegregation, family service cooperatives, and all federal Title programs; policy development and maintenance; and community education. She also initiated online learning within the P-12 environment with a focus on serving homebound students or students otherwise missing school attendance and on providing low enrollment courses across districts. Involved in online education for two decades, Linda developed and taught courses for multiple universities in the areas of research, measurement and evaluation, curriculum theory and design, instructional practice, and educational law. She has published and presented locally, regionally, and nationally on topics of research, curriculum, educational philosophy, administration, and mentoring doctoral students. Her current research centers on mentoring graduate students and building a sense of community among students in the online environment. Linda is a two time recipient of the Walden University Bernard L. Turner Award for excellence in mentoring dissertation students and has also received the Walden University Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership Extraordinary Faculty Award.