The HPC Workforce Development and Retention Action group will host an interactive Zoom-based Webinar, HPC Culture and Identity, given by Dr. Denice Ward Hood, Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) at the University of Illinois, on Thursday, February 15 from 1:00-2:00 PM CST.

Issues and questions to be addressed in HPC are sufficiently complex and nuanced so that multiple perspectives, world views and lived experiences are needed to adequately attend to them. HPC is attractive as a field because it appeals to individuals’ unique curiosity, skills, and aptitude. Your whole, authentic self is an asset and a source of innovation. This talk with be a space for discussion about culture and identities and the ways in which they inform and guide our work.

Dr. Denice Ward Hood

Denice Ward Hood is the Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Teaching Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership in the College of Education. From 2016-2019, she served as the Director of Online Programs in the College of Education. Dr. Hood was also the Director of Graduate Studies in the EPOL department, 2016-2018. From 2016 – 2019, she was the faculty coordinator for the Diversity and Equity in Education degree program. Dr. Hood has over 30 years of experience in program evaluation, learning outcomes assessment, and social science research, particularly within higher education.

Dr. Hood’s courses include College Student Development, The College Student, Introduction to Diversity and Equity, Testing and Measurement, Student Affairs Administration, Program Evaluation, Race, Gender and Sexuality Issues, and several doctoral research seminars.

Her engagement in the professional community includes serving as the president of the Arizona Educational Research Association and the program chair for the Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (TIG) of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). The breadth of Dr. Hood’s evaluation projects includes program evaluation at the local and state level as well as serving as developing the evaluation plan and serving as the external evaluator for numerous NSF grants.

Dr. Hood completed a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her PhD in Educational Psychology from Arizona State University.