Associate Vice President Lisa Krieg, who serves as the university’s chief accreditation officer, has been appointed by the President and Provost co-chair of the university’s 2025-2027 self-study and reaccreditation effort, serving as the primary administrative lead. Lisa previously co-chaired the 2016-18 self-study with fellow Co-Chair Amy Burkert. 

As the chief administrative lead, Lisa co-leads the Steering Committee; provides guidance to Working Group Co-chairs on Standards 1, 2 and 7; and oversees the Verification of Compliance (VoC) process.   

Lisa’s logistical responsibilities include functional leadership of the Coordinating Committee (CC), which serves as the organizational backbone for the daily operations and logistics of the Self-Study.  She has a lead role in coordinating with other CMU locations to ensureassure their preparedness for engagement, location-specific reports, materials, and visits, and she oversees the communication planning and efforts of the entire self-study. To accomplish these areas of responsibilities, Lisa relies on strong communication and collaboration skills, and Co-chair Amy Burkert, while supervising dedicated self-study staff and consultants, including the project coordinator, a communications lead and a dedicated professional writer. 

She enjoys the many partnerships and relationships forged during the university-wide endeavor, the energy of a shared undertaking, and the learning inherent in uncovering aspects of the educational and operational efforts that align with the standards and expectations of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Amy L. Burkert, PhD, the senior vice provost for academic initiatives and a teaching professor of biological sciences, has been appointed by President Jahanian and Provost Garrett as the co-chair and academic lead of Carnegie Mellon’s 2025-27 MSCHE Self-Study and reaccreditation process. 

Amy brings to her academic co-chair role deep expertise and broad-ranging experience in educational program design, implementation, assessment, review, and iterative improvement that spans across all degree levels, delivery modalities, as well as deployment at local and global locations. She has been a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon since 1990 and, before becoming Senior Vice Provost, she was a program director, associate department head, assistant dean and then Vice Provost for Education for 14 years. She has been engaged in and served in leadership roles to advance educational innovation, general education reform, high-impact educational practices, academic advising and student success initiatives and organizations at local, regional, and national levels and has been recognized by numerous honors and awards in these domains. 

With a career that spans more than four decades at Carnegie Mellon, Amy also has a deep understanding of the institution and its people, processes, policies and purpose. She looks forward to partnering again with co-chair, associate vice president and accreditation liaison officer, Lisa Krieg, as they build on the success and lessons learned from their work together as co-chairs of the 2016- 2018 reaccreditation process and years of collaboration as academic and administrative leaders. Amy also appreciates the opportunity to work closely with members of the Coordinating Committee, Steering Committee, Working Groups and Guiding Principle leads in collaboration to engage the entire CMU community in a reflective and evidence-informed comprehensive institutional review - mapping to the MSCHE Standards and Guiding Principles and also grounded in our mission and strategic framework. She appreciates the holistic, student-centered, and purpose-driven approach taken by Carnegie Mellon to persistently pursue excellence and transformative impact in education, research and service through study, assessment, and continuous iterative improvement.

The Coordinating Committee (CC) serves as the organizational backbone of the effort and manages the daily operations and logistics of the Self-Study. Members include the Self-Study Co-chairs, the Self-Study Data Lead, a Project Coordinator, a Communications Lead and a dedicated Report Writer. The CC has the detailed oversight necessary to make well-informed decisions throughout, consulting with university leadership or colleagues as needed. Key CC responsibilities include:

• Developing the Self-Study content, design, timelines and report drafts
• Verifying evidence inventory and compliance
• Coordinating regular meetings and visits, including a visit from the MSCHE vice president (Spring 2025), Team Chair (Fall 2026) and Peer Evaluation Team (Spring 2027)
• Organizing the branch campus visit to Carnegie Mellon University Qatar and to other locations (and the associated location-specific reports)
• Overseeing communication planning and implementation

Senior Vice Provost Amy Burkert and Associate Vice President Lisa Krieg will co-chair the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will also include co-chairs of each of the seven standards Working Groups, an internal expert for each of the Five Guiding Principles, and members of the Coordinating Committee.

• The Steering Committee provides guidance to Working Groups and promotes coordination and communication across Working Group committees to minimize redundancy, consolidate information requests, and facilitate communication. The Steering Committee will also liaise with internal constituents, gather information from academic and administrative units, and participate in meetings with MSCHE representatives.
• The Self-Study Co-Chairs and Steering Committee will oversee the report preparation and solicit university review and feedback through governance and advisory bodies, including student government bodies, to promote understanding of the process and incorporate their voices.

The Working Groups will examine each standard and its criteria in the context of the CMU mission and strategic priorities. Each Working Group will refer to information collected in the Evidence Inventory and Verification of Compliance efforts, collecting and analyzing information to:

• Document how well CMU meets or exceeds the standards and criteria
• Explore the Lines of Inquiry for each standard
• Identify CMU’s strengths and opportunities, particularly as they align with the Strategic Framework
• Develop evidence-based ideas to advance or achieve the university’s mission and goals

The Fourteenth Edition of the Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation newly outlines five principles which guide the analysis in each of the seven standards because of their importance in higher education:

Guiding Principles

1. Application of the Standards within the Context of an Institution’s Mission and Goals
2. Centrality of the Student Experience
3. Reflection on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
4. Emphasis on Data and Evidence-based Decision-making
5. Innovation as an Essential Part of Continuous Improvement

The CMU Self-Study has appointed internal experts for each of the Five Guiding Principles who serve as consultants across all working groups and committees.

The university’s global presence includes a Branch Campus in Qatar, international Additional Locations in Rwanda and Portugal, as well as domestic Additional Locations in Silicon Valley and New York City.

In addition to representatives of the Carnegie Mellon University Qatar campus serving on several Working Groups, faculty and staff leadership outside of Pittsburgh are engaged in the Self-Study process. Location-specific reports will be produced and visits to several CMU locations will occur in Spring 2027.