Staff

Dr. Felix Wao is the Founding Director of the Office of Academic Assessment at the University of Oklahoma (OU). Working collaboratively with faculty across all disciplines, he oversees and supports academic quality efforts including strategies for direct, performance-based assessment of student learning for academic programs and the core curriculum that reflect current trends and best practices in higher education. He chairs the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Learning Outcomes Assessment (PACLOA) and is a member of the Provost’s Advisory Committee on General Education (PACGEO), and Academic Program Review Committee. His current research focuses on strategies for blending assessment processes and analytics to enhance student learning at the institutional and program levels.

Dr. Wao joined OU in 2013 after serving as Founding Director of Assessment at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.  Previously, he was Associate Director of Assessment at the University of South Florida (USF) for more than 5 years where he oversaw the development and implementation of assessment of academic programs and administrative units, coordinated assessment of the general education program, and played a key role in development of a system to manage assessment of academic programs and administrative units.  He co-chaired both Academic Assessment Council and Administrative Assessment Council and was a member of Florida Board of Governor’s work group that oversaw the review of statewide assessment policies for undergraduate programs. He has taught graduate courses in Curriculum Development and Program Evaluation as well as undergraduate course in Social Science Statistics. 

Dr. Wao has published and given numerous conference presentations on various themes of learning outcomes assessment in higher education at regional, national and international assessment and research conferences including Association for Institutional Research (AIR), Assessment Institute, Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and World Journalism Education Congress.  He holds a BS in Mathematics and Religious Studies from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, MA and PhD in Higher Education Administration and Policy Studies from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.  He is a member of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Peer Review Corps and a Mentor of the HLC Assessment Academy.

Dr. Christina Smith joined the Office of Academic Assessment at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in August 2022. Previously, she worked at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) for nearly eight years, where her primary roles included working as an Academic Advisor for the College of Education and then as a Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Assessment before joining OU. Additionally, she serves as an adjunct professor and has taught classes such as General Psychology, Adolescent Psychology, Child & Adolescent Development, Theories of Learning, and Competency Motivation.

Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Oklahoma State University (OSU) with a concentration in assessment and statistical methods. Her professional research interests include incorporating different analytic techniques into institutional survey analyses in addition to exploring the predictors and outcomes of different types of student engagement. Her personal research interests involve adolescent cyberbullying and socioemotional development and behaviors in early adulthood. She has peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Journal of Adolescence, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. She has also presented at several national conferences including the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), American Psychological Association (APA), Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), and Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA).

Aaryani Chowdary Ambati is a doctoral student in Data Science and Analytics at the University of Oklahoma. She started working as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Office of Academic Assessment, OU, in May 2026. Her research interests include machine learning, human-centered visualization, statistical analysis, and data-driven decision-making.

Aaryani completed her master's in computer science from Texas Tech University and has three years of experience working as Data Analyst in the private sector. She has contributed to data analysis, reporting, and decision-support projects across professional settings. Through her doctoral studies, she hopes to contribute to research that leverages data analytics and computational methods to better understand complex problems and support informed decision-making.

Muhammad Asif is a PhD candidate in Science of Psychology, Data, and Research in Education (SPDRE) program. Muhammad has completed his Master’s in Cognitive Psychology from University of Oklahoma. He has been a Graduate Teaching Assistant for over 5 years. Along with teaching, he has been part of several different research projects in career decision making, medical decision making, educational interventions development, and academic motivation and achievement. His research interests in the current program include cognitive and social biases in educational context. Particularly, his focus is on the factors influencing assessment bias among teachers. He has also published research articles in high impact factor journals and presented his research in international research conferences like the Society of Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM).