JAMES T. AUSTIN (Jim) earned his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Virginia Tech in 1987, then completed a Postdoctoral Traineeship in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (1987-89). 

He served as a visiting faculty member at the University of Illinois during his postdoctoral traineeship, and at New York University (1990-91), and served on the Psychology faculty at The Ohio State University from 1991-1997.  In 1997, he moved to the Center on Education and Training for Employment (as a Research Specialist 2) in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University.  Promoted to his current position of Senior Research Specialist in 2005, and currently serving as Program Lead of CETE Assessment Services, he manages a 10-person unit engaged in a range of testing-assessment projects.  These projects focus on measurement of occupational-technical knowledge and skill; most involve developing and maintaining testing-assessment systems for educational and business client organizations, including the Ohio Department of Education, associations involved in personnel certification, and business firms.  Consulting with certificate and certification programs seeking voluntary accreditation (under ISO-17024 or the National Commission on Certifying Agencies) is a second line of business.  Research interests include statistical and methodological topics as well as testing and job performance measurement – increasingly related to competency models.  Dr. Austin has over 3,200 ISI citations (and 9,500+ Google Scholar citations) to his publications, which include articles in Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Career-Technical Education, and a chapter in the Annual Review of Psychology.  Two articles have been cited by more than 2400 sources. He developed and has presented over 40 iterations of a workshop on principles and practices of basic test construction since 2004, including customized versions of the workshop for international clients (Canada, Malaysia, Singapore).  Off work, Jim likes to travel internationally, dine well, watch European soccer, shop at farmer’s markets, and enjoy a mix of reggae and blues music.