Higher Learning Commission

HLC’s Credential Lab is an innovation-focused initiative aimed at assuring quality of alternative credential content providers for the benefit of learners, colleges and universities, and employers. 

The project that is funded in part by a $250,000 Lumina Foundation grant has major goals that include:  

• design of a new kind of quality assurance system that will vet the nation’s growing market of content providers, and  
• delivery of resources and guidance for colleges and universities that are transforming offerings and engaging in partnerships in order to meet the needs of the nation’s fast-evolving learn-to-work environment. 

The first steps with the initiative include:   

• HLC’s Credential Lab has an executive director;
• the 20-member Leadership Advisory Board is in place;  
• a team of experts in quality assurance and credentialing is being assembled to design, test, and implement a new model for assuring quality of external providers;  
• an institutional working group that will align resources with the needs of institutions will be appointed soon. 

“HLC has seen the rapid expansion of alternative credentials and the confusion over quality that the flooded market is creating,” said Barbara Gellman-Danley, president of HLC.  

“With our strategic vision and long history in scaling quality assurance systems, we think the time is now for HLC to be involved and believe our effort will benefit higher education, the credential marketplace, its learners, the workforce and all of our futures.” 

How We Got Here  

While the Lab and its work are new, HLC can trace beginnings of the concept to 2017 when a blue-ribbon panel, Partners for Transformation, began looking at change to the higher education landscape.  

This work resulted in publication of Innovation: Beyond the Horizon and the Future of Higher Education.  It also led to convening of a second group, the Stakeholder's Roundtable, which looked at strategic directions for the future, with a focus on identifying and filling gaps between needs in the nation’s workforce and higher education. 

In April 2022, Evolving: Accreditation and the Credential Landscape was published. Then in May 2023, HLC conducted a survey of members, which showed most were offering some form of alternative credentials and had expectations for future growth in credentials.   

Most of those surveyed indicated desire for a service that could vet the alternative content providers and assure the quality of the providers they are considering as partners.  

Meet Melanie Booth 

As the new executive director of HLC’s Credential Lab, Melanie Booth has seen mounting interest and excitement that reflect findings of the survey, albeit across many sectors and organizations.  

“We’ve been hearing from a lot of different people who are interested in this initiative. Many are content providers who are interested in seeking HLC’s review and endorsement. Others are at colleges and universities. Everyone from higher education thought leaders to industry advocates have expressed interest. They’re saying, ‘We want to participate.’ ‘We need your help.’ ‘We’ve got ideas, and the Credential Lab is an initiative that will make a difference.’” 

The outpouring of interest and support is thrilling for Booth, whose career has spanned higher education’s landscape.  

A native of California, Booth began her career as a community college faculty member in Washington state in the mid 1990s before moving to St. Mary’s College of California, where she created a comprehensive learning resource program for its adult learner population. She then served as dean at the former Marylhurst University in Oregon, where prior learning assessment, experiential learning, career services, and accreditation were on her plate.  

An education consultant with experience in employability and work-based learning, distance education, prison-based higher education, alternative credentials and credit for prior learning, Booth was the founding executive director of The Quality Assurance Commons for Higher and Postsecondary Education from 2016-2018, and vice president for educational programming at WASC Senior College and University Commission from 2013-2016. She most recently served as vice president of educational programs and engagement with the National Council of State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). 

“All the things I’ve been working on throughout my career are coming together with this initiative,” said Booth. “I have always been most passionate about assuring quality, relevance and support for all learners, and to now be involved in engaging so many experts in this work – it is truly an exciting moment for me personally, and an important step for all of us to be taking together.” 

Meet Others Involved  

Booth joins the HLC team responsible for overall planning, strategy and operation of the Credential Lab.  Besides Booth, the HLC team includes Gellman-Danley, Director of Business Development and Procurement Eva Sitek and Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer Karen Solomon.  

Meanwhile, Credential Lab’s new Leadership Advisory Board is expected to begin charting the initiative’s course at its first meeting in December. Members from across the country represent higher education, leading credential and data related organizations, industries and workforce development organizations, states, and associations and include:    

Daniel Abebe – Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Governance, University of Chicago; HLC Board Member   

Jo Alice Blondin – President, Clark State College; HLC Board Chair  

Naomi Boyer – Senior Vice President of Digital Transformation, Education Design Lab  

Scott Cheney – CEO, Credential Engine  

Kristi Clouse – Senior Managing Director of Talent, JobsOhio  

Don Elliman – Chancellor, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; HLC Board Member  

Rufus Glasper – President and CEO, League for Innovation in the Community College  

Jake Hirsch-Allen – North America Workforce Development and Higher Education System Lead, LinkedIn  

Morgean Hirt – Director of Credentialing, Association for Talent Development 

Justin Lonon – President, Dallas College  

Sukhwant Jhaj – Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Student Achievement, Arizona State University  

Mautra Staley Jones – President, Oklahoma City Community College  

Laura Pedrick – Executive Director, UWM Online, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee  

Chris Rasmussen – Senior Director of Academic Pathways and Innovation, Colorado Department of Higher Education  

Kevin Reilly – President Emeritus and Regent Professor, University of Wisconsin System; Senior Fellow, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges  

Geoffrey Roche – Director, Workforce Development, Education & Workforce Solutions, Siemens Healthineers  

Matt Sigelman – President, The Burning Glass Institute 

Roy Swift – Executive Director, Workcred  

Sarah Szurpicki – Director of the Office of Sixty by 30, Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity   

Holly Zanville – Co-Lead, Credential As You Go; Research Professor and Co-Director of the Program on Skills, Credentials & Workforce Policy, George Washington University  

Where We Go From Here 

Next steps for HLC’s Credential Lab will be co-designing a framework for quality assurance standards, with a pilot expected to debut in 2024. Support for colleges and universities in their efforts to launch credential programs and partnerships also is on the agenda.  

“We are at a time when employability and alternative credentials are becoming a focus,” said Gellman-Danley. “This is a national effort to inject quality assurance, innovation and agility into the process and we are building a community of experts from across sectors, industries, and disciplines to help us lead the way.” 

For more information, visit HLC's Credential Lab 

Questions about HLC’s Credential Lab? Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..