Trudy W. Banta is vice chancellor for panning and institutional improvement at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is a widely acknowledged leader in the field of assessment. Banta is the coauthor or editor of several books on assessment, including Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, and Improving Assessment in Higher Education (Jossey-Bass, 1999). She is also the editor of the Jossey-Bass bimonthly Assessment Update.