8/20/2026

Dear Campus Community,

I am pleased to announce that the University of Puget Sound will welcome Kristen Handley as director for institutional research and assessment, effective today, Aug. 20, 2026. Handley brings 15 years of higher education experience to Puget Sound, specializing in institutional effectiveness, accreditation support, strategic planning, external reporting, and data governance. She will start her role remotely before relocating to the area, beginning in person the week of Sept. 14.

Handley joins Puget Sound from the University of Alaska Southeast, where she served as director of institutional effectiveness. In this role, she provided leadership for strategic planning and administrative decision-making, co-led the university's accreditation committee, and spearheaded a system-wide data warehouse modernization and data governance initiative. 

Handley holds an M.S. in Applied Psychology with a concentration in Evaluation Research and Health Promotion from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and a B.A. in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento. For more information about her expertise, please visit the university's news and stories webpage.

In her new role, Handley will focus on leading institutional data strategy, supporting university accreditation efforts, overseeing external compliance and benchmark reporting, and fostering collaborative data governance across campus.

Handley was chosen through a highly competitive national search. The search committee includes:

  • Gareth Barkin, sociology and anthropology professor, and dean of Operations & Technology — chair
  • Michael Pastore, registrar
  • Francisco Chavez, chief information officer
  • Debbie Chee, senior associate dean of students 
  • Rianna Miramontez, institutional research analyst

Handley is relocating to the region with her husband, Greg, and their two young children, Hunter and Henry. They are excited to put down roots in Tacoma, explore the area, and discover new local hiking trails.

The Office of Institutional Research supports institutional management, planning, and decision-making by providing reports about Puget Sound’s students, faculty and staff, instructional activities, and finances. The office’s responsibilities include developing and reporting assessment studies on students’ college experiences and educational outcomes, producing strategic indicators for Puget Sound and its comparison institutions, maintaining Sound Reports, providing internal reporting on admission, financial aid, and tracking student demographics, instructional workload, retention, and graduation statistics.

Please join me in welcoming Handley to the Puget Sound community. 

Sincerely,

Andrew Kerkhoff | Provost