Sandra Elman

Sandra Elman is the President of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities in Redmond, Washington. She is the past chair of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (CRAC), which is comprised of the presidents and chairs of the seven regional accrediting commissions. Prior to assuming the position of president in 1996, Elman was the associate director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Before joining regional accreditation, she held a variety of administrative and faculty positions at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, and the University of California, Berkeley. She has published extensively in the fields of public policy and higher education and is coauthor of New Priorities for the University: Educating Competent Individuals for Applied Knowledge and Society Needs. She is an adjunct faculty member at Oregon State University and is a past chair of the board of trustees of Unity College in Maine. Elman received her BA degree in history and political science from Hunter College in New York and her MA and PhD degrees in policy, planning, and administration from the University of California, Berkeley.