Special to the reporter

Dr. Harriott D. Calhoun, director of institutional research and information services at Jefferson State Community College, was presented the Outstanding Service Award by the Southern Association for Institutional Research at its 2005 conference in Charleston, S.C. The James Montgomery Outstanding Service Award, named for one of the founding members of the association, is awarded for significant contributions to the association over an extended period of time.

Calhoun served for five years as an elected member of the board of directors of the Southern Association for Institutional Research including service as vice president and conference program chair in 2000 and president in 2001. She served on committees, conducted workshops and made numerous presentations at association conferences. She is known among her colleagues for her mentoring spirit and her expertise in institutional research and regional accreditation.

Calhoun has been elected to the boards of seven professional associations in higher education. She has served as president of the National Council of Research and Planning, Southern Association for Institutional Research, Alabama Association for Institutional Research and Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association.

She has also served on the executive boards of the national Association for Institutional Research and the Southeastern Association for Community College Research.

She recently completed a three-year term (2002-05) on the board of directors of the American Association of Community Colleges. She is a consulting editor for Journal of Applied Research in the Community College and has served three terms on the Research Commission of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

The Alabama Association for Institutional Research awarded her the Joseph T. Sutton Leadership Award in 1999, and she was named outstanding administrator for the Alabama College System in 2002.

Calhoun is an experienced presenter, consultant and writer in the field of planning, assessment and institutional effectiveness in higher education. She is the author of &uot;Implementing Institutional Effectiveness at Two-Year Colleges&uot; and co-editor of &8220;Next Steps for the Community College: Consensus and Contradictions in Literature and Practice, New Directions for Community College.&8221;