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Board Members

CASAS is fortunate to benefit from a cadre of informed, committed and forward-thinking trustees. CASAS directors help establish and support strategic priorities and are fully engaged in setting the direction and performance goals of the organization. Their responsibility is to ensure that the CASAS Executive Team acts solely to forward the CASAS mission.

Michel Anderson has over 30 years’ experience as a Business and land use consultant specializing in governmental relations, project management, development processing and public affairs. Anderson has served on the board of directors of numerous community based non-profits organizations. Anderson earned a BA from the University of Cincinnati and a MBA from the University of San Diego.

Michael Beck is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of standardized assessment and performance standard-setting. He has provided assessment consultation and development activities for high-stakes tests in more than 25 states. He has also conducted test development activities for all major test publishers, nearly 50 textbook publishers, and a wide variety of federal, military, and industrial clients. A frequent writer and speaker on assessment development and interpretation issues, he has presented talks or workshops in 46 states and at over 60 national educational conferences. His published research and assessment-policy articles have appeared in over 20 professional journals and edited books. He is currently the president of BETA, LLC

Tim Garfield is of counsel to the law firm of Schwartz Hyde & Garfield, LLP, where he specializes in the representation of schools and colleges. Prior to private practice, Garfield served as Deputy County Counsel for the County of San Diego. He is the co-author of College and School Law (2010), published by the American Bar Association. He has served as a member of many community boards, including the Grossmont College Foundation.

James B. Olsen has extensive experience in all areas of test design and development including blueprint development, item writing guidelines, item writing and review, computer based and computer adaptive test development, psychometric and statistical analysis and research and validation. He has served as psychometrician for projects with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, IBM, Network Associates, National Computer Systems (now Pearson Education), Knowledge Universe, and the U.S. Department of Education. Among various past affiliations, he was formerly with National Science Foundation Projects — first as Evaluation Director and later as Co-Principal Investigator.

Jere Batten is a CPA, CFE, and president of Batten Accountancy in San Diego. She has been a CPA and small business advisor for more than 25 years. She is a member of the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and President of the San Diego Chapter. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. Before she founded Batten Accountancy, she was an audit manager and head of fraud prevention and forensic accounting at a noted accounting firm in San Diego.

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