As part of expanding staff capacity through the ECMC Foundation grant, Interstate Passport is pleased to welcome a new staff member, Dr. Sarah Leibrandt, Ph.D., as Program Manager. Dr. Leibrandt has served as a senior research analyst at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education for the past seven years and has over 15 years of experience working in secondary and postsecondary education. Her responsibilities at WICHE have included helping state agencies share education and workforce data with each other through the Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange as a way to provide better information to students and their families. She most recently led WICHE’s adult learner initiative, Recognizing Learning in the 21st Century, a large-scale research study and landscape analysis of the scaling of prior learning assessment policies and practices. Prior to joining WICHE, Dr. Leibrandt worked for the Colorado Department of Education and Red Rocks Community College. She earned a B.A. in Spanish from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Sarah began her role as Interstate Passport Program Manager on December 16, 2020. She will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Interstate Passport and for helping institutions report data on Passports awarded.