Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness Staff

As an expert in program evaluation and institutional effectiveness, Myra Burnett leads the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. She has led faculty in developing student learning outcomes in her roles as chair of the Psychology Department, and later, as Vice Provost. For over 10 years, Dr. Burnett has promoted adoption of practices that promote institutional effectiveness throughout the College, with particular attention to Academic Affairs.

In her role as vice president for Institutional Effectiveness, she will continue this work through her service as the Spelman College Accreditation Liaison for our regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

James Sanders directs the work of the Institutional Research Office, coordinating the completion of over 40 Institutional Surveys, including those for U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges, The Princeton Review, Kiplinger’s Best Colleges, and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges Annual Profile. He is responsible for creating the Fact Book, as well as the Digital Fact Book, a resource for finding frequently-requested information.

Institutional Research is responsible for data collection, analysis and reporting in support of strategic planning and data-informed decision-making. Sanders and his team report official institutional data to the US Department of Education, oversee the College’s operational planning and reporting process, and conduct student course evaluations each semester.

Sanders has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University.

Venetta Coleman is the director of Institutional Effectiveness and director of the Quality Enhancement Plan – Spelman Pathways: Creating your Path to Life and Career Excellence. Dr. Coleman is responsible for implementing the College’s next project for improving the quality of the educational experience and related outcomes. A required element of the regional accreditation process, the QEP is evaluated as part of the decennial review by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Dr. Coleman continues her responsibility to foster a culture of effective data governance and informed decision-making, specifically related to departmental performance, student performance, and student learning outcomes. She serves as a key team member to implement and promote campus-wide business institutional effectiveness, and has the leadership role in the collaborative functional effort to develop, deploy and maintain a repository and reporting system for student learning outcomes. In this capacity, she consults with and provides subject expertise to department chairs, and other academic leadership, regarding the development and assessment of student performance and learning outcomes to ensure that they are aligned with the goals and objectives of the Spelman College strategic plan.

A Spelman alumna, Dr. Coleman earned a doctorate in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida.

Keokuk Kight brings over 15 years of experience in higher education to the team and earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Hampton University and master’s in counseling psychology from Bowie State University. As the QEP Manager, Kight has a leadership role in the collaborative functional efforts to develop, deploy and maintain programming to support successful implementation of the QEP. Her efforts will focus on career development with an emphasis on life balance, holistic wellness and success beyond Spelman College. 

LaDiamond Lett serves as the program coordinator and brings over five years of experience in nonprofit management, teen mentorship, and college preparedness programming for high school aged youth. She earned her bachelor’s degree in speech and theatre from Albany State University and master’s in nonprofit management and leadership from the University of Georgia. Lett was a 2020 Myron G. Burney Service Award Recipient.

As the program coordinator, Lett provides support to all major initiatives in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.