Department of Adult, Career and Higher Education

     Dr. Jan M. Ignash

     Associate Professor, Higher Education

    Office:  EDU 151G

    Phone: (813) 974-1575

    Fax:    (813) 974-3366

    E-mail: ignash@coedu.usf.edu

Background   

Dr. Jan Ignash received her Ph.D. in higher education at UCLA in 1994. She also holds two degrees from Michigan State University: an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and a B.A. in secondary education in French and English.

Before arriving at USF in Fall 1999, Dr. Ignash was Assistant Director of Academic Affairs with the Illinois Board of Higher Education, where she served as the agency's point person for community college programs and policies. She also conducted research to support the state's strategic planning efforts and coordinated Illinois' public university annual baccalaureate follow-up survey. Her other state level experience includes several years with a Michigan Department of Education project. In addition to her state level experience, Dr. Ignash was also a research assistant with the Center for the Study of Community Colleges and publications coordinator at the ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges. She has taught for over 20 years at all levels of education, including 5 years overseas with Indiana University's program in Malaysia and SUNY-Buffalo's program in Jakarta. She began her career in education as a high school teacher.

Research

Dr. Ignash's research interests are in transfer and articulation, college curriculum, and state-level governance of colleges and universities. Her most recent publications include a Spring 2003 volume of New Directions for Community Colleges on the community college role in teacher education, a volume of the Journal of Applied Research in the Community College on transfer and articulation (Spring 2005), and a (Spring 2007) volume entitled The Scholarly Contributions of Arthur M. Cohen: A Special Edition of the Community College Review.   Her current research efforts include 2 projects funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education: a 4-year Urban Transfer Research Network (UTRN) investigating transfer and articulation in urban areas and a 1-year project to improve support programs for community college transfer student, Improving Practitioner Knowledge to Increase Transfer (IPKIT).  In 2003, she completed a survey of state-level policies for occupational program transferability.

Teaching

•  The Community College EDH 6081

•  Curriculum Development in Higher Education EDH 7225

•  Governing Colleges and Universities EDH 7633

•  Higher Education Capstone Seminar EDH 7935

•  Special Topics: Transfer and Articulation EDG 7931

Service 

Dr. Ignash has served as President of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges), on the editorial board of The Community College Review, on evaluation teams for the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities, and as a member of the National Teacher Preparation Accountability and Evaluation Task Force of the American Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities. She is currently the Book Review Co-Editor of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

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