ABOUT US
ABOUT US
OUR MISSION
ACS is a psychometric consulting company that works with clients for the design, development and evaluation of their assessments. ACS has partnered with testing agencies in the education, credentialing, and licensure communities to help build new programs, enhance currently existing programs and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their programs. We have experience in high-stakes professional credentialing, summative assessment in education, small sample size credentialing programs, assessment based certification programs, and all shapes and sizes in between. In all of our work, the ACS team is committed to providing practical solutions that help organizations ensure the validity, reliability, and fairness of their assessment programs.
MEET THE TEAM
Andrew Wiley, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
Drew has more than two decades of experience designing, evaluating, and working with education and professional credentialing programs including certification, licensure, and assessment-based certificates. He specializes in activities such as standard setting and practice analysis and working with programs to create custom solutions to address the unique nature of their programs.
Chad Buckendahl, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
Chad has more than two decades of experience designing, evaluating, and working with certification, licensure, professional credentialing, and educational assessment programs. He specializes in evaluation and quality assurance at the intersection of psychometrics, policy, and practice.
Susan Davis-Becker, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
Susan has spent two decades in the assessment industry working with numerous credentialing organizations and K-12 assessment programs before she co-founded ACS in 2016. She provided a full array of psychometric consultation including program design, practice analysis, test design, content development, alignment, standard setting, and program evaluation.
Deborah Schnipke, Ph.D.
Senior Psychometrician
Deborah has over 25 years of experience working in measurement, providing psychometric expertise for all aspects of the test development process in a variety of fields. She earned her B.S. in psychology and statistics at Bowling Green State University, Ohio and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Jaime Kavanaugh, MS.Ed.
Psychometrician
Jaime joined the ACS team in January of 2017. She has more than 20 years of experience conducting psychometric and test development activities related to licensure and certification. She also has extensive experience in assisting organizations meet the standards required to achieve and maintain accreditation.
Kelley Stethen, M.Ed.
Psychometric Associate
Kelley joined the ACS team in 2019 after completing an internship and finishing her M.Ed. in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment through the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kelley has a background in K-12 education and taught forensics and NGSS biology at the high school level before relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada to pursue her career in psychometrics.
Myrna Bacurin
Office Manager/Project Coordinator
Myrna joined ACS in 2017 and brought her extensive experience with finances and financial reporting, including: preparing cash-flow statements, income statements, balance sheets, budget reports, billing, accounts receivable and payroll. She is also responsible for handling all human resource activities within the company.
Russell Keglovits, MS. Ed.
Assessment Specialist
Russ joined ACS in 2019 after serving as a secondary mathematics consultant and accountability director at the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) where he was responsible for the design, development, and operation of the state’s school accountability systems. As director of accountability, Russ led the collection and reporting of the state’s education data.
Scott Russell
Senior Assessment Specialist
Scott has over 20 years of experience with assessment development and validation projects for certification, licensing, education, and training programs. He has worked with clients across diverse disciplines, including information technology, digital marketing, medical, environmental, sales, project management, and architecture.
Kyle Killworth, MS. Ed.
Psychometric Associate
Kyle joined ACS in October 2023 as a Psychometric Associate. He has a BA in Psychology from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis and completed his MS. Ed. in Educational Research Methodology, Measurement Track, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Heather Misner
Project Manager/Client Portfolio Manager
Heather Misner has worked in federal and state public health for 15 years, managing projects related to pandemics, radiation readiness, and medical interprofessional collaboration.
Sarah Alahmadi
Psychometrician
Sarah has a diverse assessment portfolio comprising of assessment systems management, developing and maintaining psychometrically sound assessment programs—involving projects on instrument design, item development, program effectiveness studies, validity studies, and more.