Who Are We?
In a Word… You!
Weave was created at an institution by higher education professionals just like you. We’ve used Weave on our campuses, and we understand the unique challenges facing institutions, programs, faculty, and staff. In other words, we’ve been in your shoes.
We’re not just another software company. We’re a passionate partner, committed to helping you get the most out of your assessment and accreditation.
Our mission is to improve student learning through assessment and we do this by providing software solutions and expertise for institutional and programmatic effectiveness.
Our approach is to provide powerful software solutions that bring value, not complexity to your work. With technology costs in higher education exploding, we’re committed to providing the most user-friendly software on the market at a cost any size institution can afford.
You shouldn’t have to choose between affordability and quality – and it’s our mission to ensure that you never have to.
See why 500+ institutions use Weave to streamline their accreditation, assessment and credentialing processes and improve the assessment experience for everyone.
It’s All About the People
After 17 years of consistent leadership, our team is still comprised of practitioners from institutions. We’re a values-driven team of educators, administrators, and technologists—all dedicated to simplifying the management of institutional effectiveness.
Amy Dykens, EdD
CEO
Amy has worked in higher education for over two decades. First serving as faculty and then assistant academic dean, Dr. Dykens’ research interests include curriculum mapping, high-impact educational practices, learning assessment, and institutional effectiveness. Joining Weave in 2012, she has assisted hundreds of institutions in applying best practices to their institutional effectiveness work. As Vice President of Product, beginning in 2016, she oversaw the modernization of the Weave platform, including a focus on curriculum mapping, as she believes mapping to be the foundation of successful learning centered curriculum and assessment.
James Farrelly
President & Chief Operating Officer
A member of the leadership team since inception in 2005, James is primarily responsible for Weave’s administrative and financial aspects. James also works directly with Weave’s Chief Executive Officer in the areas of developing and executing our business strategies, member success, and growth plans.
Jennifer Gray, MSW
Senior Product Manager
As the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at a SUNY school, Jen’s valuable knowledge shapes the Weave user experience. Since joining the team in 2012 Jen has led over 150 institutions in using Weave and has turned their feedback into action through perfecting the interface and functionality of Weave.
Vag Boutsakis
Lead Product Developer, UI/UX
With over 15 years of programming and development experience, Vag is a critical part of Weave’s software. His skill for creating attractive and intuitive interface that is also powerful for institutions has helped thousands of users in their IE work. He has a knack for anticipating end user experience and creating workflows that are productive yet easy to use.
Jordan Day
Director, Community Engagement
Contributing to higher education for ten years, Jordan spent her first five years in assessment working with faculty and staff to create meaningful assessment plans and supporting the institution in best telling their story. She continues that same great work as part of the Weave team, assisting assessment and accreditation leaders from hundreds of institutions with their initiatives. Her passions include assessment, accreditation, service excellence, and community building.
Jeremy Fairley
Member Success Specialist
Jeremy has been an educator in the classroom for the past 13 years. He is well practiced in the art and science of tailoring information to fit unique individual needs. He is excited to bring his experience and knowledge of curriculum development, implementation and assessment to the Weave team. Jeremy is committed to making each user’s experience streamlined and practical. In his free time, he enjoys camping and teaching yoga to strengthen mind, body and community.
Laura Francabandera
Director, Security and Compliance
Laura is an information professional with over ten years’ experience. She advocates for web accessibility and loves helping institutions meet their compliance needs. Laura has written extensively on accessibility in higher education and loves bringing that passion to information security at Weave.
Brian Lodis
Senior UX Designer
With over 16 years in design, Brian improves the Weave experience throughout our solutions. He is involved in working with higher education professionals on how Weave can solve challenges of IE work through an intuitive interface. His creative perspective ensures that Weave users navigate through best-practice workflows flexible for any type of institution.
Terra Boston
Member Success Specialist
Terra has spent her career working in higher education. She served three years in student services at a medical sciences university. Prior to that, she worked three years in enrollment services at a small college where she was able to assist in tracking enrollment trends to evaluate and develop new practices. She is passionate about the opportunity to serve institutions in discovering ways Weave can best work for each of their unique needs.
Mike Velonakis
UX/UI Developer
Mike has a long experience in front end development in various industries. He likes to work in a methodical and consistent way, always having the best user experience in mind. His perception of the workflow of each part of the project and the attention to detail helps users maintain an excellent user experience.
Weave Knowledge Center Experts
Dr. Stephen Biscotte, PhD
Director of General Education,
Virginia Tech
Dr. Biscotte has devoted much of his professional research to general education. He has given various presentations as well as facilitated workshops on innovative structures, university reform efforts, and program evaluation both locally and nationally. Prior to his role at Virginia Tech, for 10 years he taught high school courses in anatomy and physiology, biology, and physical science.
Dr. Joseph D. Levy, EdD
AVP of Accreditation and Quality Improvement,
Excelsior University
Experienced with multiple institutional types’ assessment efforts, Dr. Joseph D. Levy is a member of the Student Affairs Assessment Leaders (SAAL) Board of Directors, leads the Applying and Leading Assessment in Student Affairs open course, and is an endorsed speaker for the National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA). Joe earned a BA in English from Baldwin-Wallace College, an MS in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Colorado State University, and his Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from National Louis University.
Anthony Marziliano, MS
Director for Academic Assessment, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences,
St. John’s University
With 10+ years of higher education assessment experience, Anthony manages all assessment workflow and leads in scholarship and publishing efforts. His research includes higher education assessment, qualitative methods for improved student learning, goal achievement and outcomes, and quantitative statistical analysis of student learning.
Dr. Kristen McIntyre, PhD
Professor | Provost’s Faculty Associate in Assessment
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Kristen A. McIntyre (Ph.D., North Dakota State University) is a full professor in the Department of Applied Communication at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and serves as the Provost’s Faculty Associate in Assessment. She directs the ACOM 1300: Introduction to Communication program as well as the UA-Little Rock Communication Skills Center.
Dr. Tisha Paredes, PhD
Dr. Paredes started in 2005 as a graduate assistant in the IE office and has held several positions there. In her former role, she worked closely with faculty and staff in creating assessment plans and reports as well as monitoring SACSCOC standards for the institution. Tisha is an experienced presenter, consultant, and author.
Linda Suskie
Linda Suskie is an internationally recognized consultant, writer, speaker, and educator on a broad variety of higher education assessment and accreditation topics. Her books include Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide, one of the best-selling books on assessment in higher education, and Five Dimensions of Quality: A Common Sense Guide to Accreditation and Accountability.
Linda worked seven years as a vice president at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Her higher education experience includes work in assessment, institutional research, strategic planning, and quality management.
Linda has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in assessment, educational research methods, writing, statistics, and developmental mathematics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in quantitative studies from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in educational measurement and statistics from the University of Iowa.
Tancy Vandecar-Burdin
Director, Social Science Research Center,
Old Dominion University
Dr. Tancy Vandecar-Burdin is the Director of the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Old Dominion University. She as more than 20 years of experience with survey research (to include phone, mail, and web surveys) as well as conducting focus groups and interviews. She works with faculty and other research partners to support their research and data collection needs and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the SSRC’s operations, as well as serving as project manager or principal investigator for most of the SSRC’s projects. Dr. Vandecar-Burdin also serves as the chair of the ODU Institutional Review Board and is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the American Evaluation Association (AEA), and the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations (AASRO).
Our History
Continuous improvement is in our DNA. It’s who we are.
Since our founding in 2006, Weave has been committed to the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. Over the years, we have continued to evolve our solutions and capabilities.
WEAVEonline
WEAVEonline was born on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. A team of dedicated assessment professionals decided to develop a Web-based technology solution to solve the difficult challenges in academic assessment.
Performance Cloud / Academic Effect
Weave began the design and development of a comprehensive institutional platform. That framework was released at the Weave Connections Assessment Conference held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.
Weave
We combined the best of both worlds and returned to our roots and the name Weave. After more than a decade and 500+ members, Weave is currently offering its fourth generation of software applications designed by a team of educational professionals with years of on-campus experiences.
Our Collaborative Community
We understand that software alone isn’t enough to improve outcomes. Our goal is to bring people together both within their existing communities and as part of a larger Weave community. This extended community is comprised of assessment and planning professionals from colleges and universities from around the world who share best practices, tips, and advice with each other.
We’re fortunate to work in a field where the users of our software share their ideas with us. It enables us to continuously improve our tools for everyone. As members of the Weave team, our job is to preserve this culture of feedback to help us better serve our family of Weave users.