Karen Watts Barton

Dr. Karen Watts Barton '92, M.S. '93 (special education), was named vice president of assessment operations at ETS, described on its website as "the world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization."

Barton heads assessment operations and leads a team of professionals in re-envisioning the design and implementation of ETS assessments, psychometrics, and scoring and reporting. She began her journey into psychometrics when, as a special education teacher, she became dissatisfied with the utility and truth in the assessments of her students.

She went on to serve as a research scientist, psychometrician and assessment designer. Most recently, Barton led the solutions and innovations team at Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA).

Her bachelor's degree from Longwood is in psychology. Her Ph.D. in educational research is from the University of South Carolina.