Sarah Dahlen

Sarah Dahlen, associate librarian at CSU Monterey Bay, is recognized for her extraordinary efforts to advance students' information literacy and critical thinking skills through research, assessments and innovative services.

Dahlen led the development of CSUMB's Information Literacy Assignment Guide, Rubric and Rubric Guide, which have been used by faculty from across all programs to assess literacy skills and develop data-driven responses to improve student learning. These tools have been presented at regional and national conferences, such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and have been incorporated into the curriculum of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Assessment Leadership Academy. A recently published article documents how assessment projects coordinated by Dahlen have positively impacted faculty and their teaching. Dahlen also collaborates extensively with CSUMB's Cooperative Learning Center, providing support to professional and student tutors to help them improve student achievement in information literacy.

In 2019, Dahlen produced an infographic that showed findings from an assessment and indicated the need for additional information literacy instruction for both transfer students and native CSUMB students, which CSUMB is now implementing.

“Dahlen is keenly focused on using evidence to improve pedagogy and instructional design in order to support learning; she consistently strives to close the loop, continuously improving teaching and learning," says Frank M. Wojcik, Ph.D., library dean at CSUMB.