Biography

Lisa Macaruso has pedagogical expertise spanning 20 years of teaching in classrooms from kindergarten all the way through college! As a part-time URI instructor she has taught UCS 160 – Success in Higher Education, EDC 203 – Mental Health First Aid, and URI 101 – Planning for Academic Success. She co-founded START URI, a full-year leadership and community-building transition enhancement program, designed to foster identity-focused community, promote academic achievement, professional readiness, and provide authentic, respectful, student-driven social experiences for autistic individuals.

As the Assistant Director of URI’s ATC, she led the department through the National Collegiate Testing Association (NCTA) testing center certification process, becoming the first and only RI post-secondary institution with an NCTA certified Academic Testing Center.

The NCTA awarded Lisa a mini- grant to develop comprehensive professional development for faculty regarding disability, access, and inclusion. She was also awarded the URI Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Award for Staff Excellence by the

Multicultural Student Success Center. Lisa was a nominee for the Carnegie Project for Educational Doctorate (CPED) Dissertation in Practice of the Year Award.

Lisa entered higher education as a first-generation college student at CCRI with a Pell Grant and a bus pass. She now has the opportunity to work with faculty and staff dedicated to providing students with an equitable, accessible, and just learning experience. 

She says, “Education is empowerment. I redefine success everyday – there is no one way to achieve your goals other than to persist. The rules change, the goal post moves, sometimes you have to choose between childcare and class or between books and gas money. And, it may seem that everyone else has it all figured out. Seek the truth, use resources, ask for help, and treat yourself with the same compassion you would give to someone you love.”

Primary Responsibilities 

• Advance teaching and learning outcomes by offering professional proctoring services that promote honesty, integrity, and equity and providing accessible and inclusive assessment opportunities for students, faculty, and academic departments at the University of Rhode Island
• Continuously assess policies, protocols, and practices while adhering to the professional standards and guidelines of the National College Testing Association (NCTA) and maintaining testing center certification with the NCTA.
• Oversee the professional development and scaffolding of a team of proctors who maintain a commitment to integrity excellence by operating in a diligent manner to promote honesty, integrity, and fairness in all procedures under the guidelines of equal opportunity, affirmative action, and the ADA, as well as other local, state, and federal regulations. While also protecting the integrity of the test by following appropriate exam handling and storage procedures and by ensuring vigilant proctoring.
• Lead the ATC in our commitment to intentional engagement in social justice, equity, and inclusion within the test processes and approaches and seek to dismantle systemic barriers within the Academic Testing Center that may disproportionately impact underrepresented students, staff, and faculty. Model, at all times, that neurodiversity and disability will be embraced as natural human variations that are vital to a dynamic community.
• Serve, along with a group of esteemed national certified instructors, as a Mental Health First Aid certification facilitator for URI faculty and staff