Denice Ward Hood, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) at the University of Illinois. Dr. Hood is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Illinois -Urbana-Champaign. 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, and 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 & 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 Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Arizona State University.