Judy Sunayama Foster

Judy Sunayama Foster

Judy Sunayama Foster, Institutional Effectiveness Coordinator for the DVC Office of Planning, Research and Student Outcomes, has been named one of the winners of the POWER awards presented by the RP (Research and Planning) Group and the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges.

This is the inaugural year of the POWER (Promising Outcomes Work and Exemplary Research) awards. Nominations were received from around the state in 19 categories.

Foster’s POWER award is in the category of “Excellence in Promoting Change as a Result of SLO Assessment.” She is a co-winner along with Carol Evans of the College of the Sequoias. Foster was acknowledged for her unrelenting, positive emphasis on faculty working on course and program SLOs, and her continuous and ongoing facilitation of the SLO environment. Her nominators indicated that “she provided the intranet platform and training to make a sea of change at DVC.”

Kathy Booth, executive director of the RP Group, said, “This prestigious award recognizes the hard work you have done to increase faculty and researcher understanding of student success and improve educational practices.” Foster feels that the award is a team award based on the work accomplished since 2003 by faculty and designated facilitators, student support staff, administrative support, and members of the Planning, Research and Student Outcomes Office. She particularly cites the work of Eng Saw, web applications specialist, who developed the eSLOs application and the Research intranet website.

“The ongoing SLO assessment process developed at DVC continues to be a ‘work in progress’,” Foster said, “but is now reaching a point where results are being used for resource allocation decisions.”

The awards were presented Oct. 7 at the SLO pre-conference workshop held prior to the Strengthening Student Success Conference in San Francisco. The workshop highlighted SLO achievements and recognized exemplary processes that have worked in the California community colleges.