Melora Sundt

Dr. Melora Sundt is a professor of Clinical Education who is currently serving a two year term as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In that capacity, Sundt collaborates with colleagues at CDER to develop leadership and organizational development training and help CDER become a model for blending learning within federal agencies.  While at CDER, Sundt continues to teach, advise doctoral students and build courses in Rossier’s EdD for Organizational Change.

Prior to working with CDER, Sundt served Rossier for fifteen years in a variety of administrative leadership roles. Most recently, she served as Executive Vice Dean, overseeing the degree programs, admissions and student services, and through the Associate Dean supervises program directors. Sundt specializes in the areas of online learning and instruction, creativity and innovation in higher education, diversity issues, and violence prevention on college campuses. In 2015, Sundt was awarded the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest honor conferred by the University for outstanding teaching.

Sundt chaired the design teams that created the MAT@USC program and the Global Executive EdD. Sundt also teaches in the master’s, MAT, Global Executive EdD and on-campus EdD programs. She recently concluded a 10 year, US Dept of Justice-funded campus violence prevention program, and has conducted evaluations of nationally and internationally based educational partnerships and programs for federal agencies and foundations such as the Corporation for National Service, USAID, FIPSE, NEH and the Kauffman Foundation.

Prior to coming to Rossier, Sundt was a research associate at RAND, and an Associate Dean of Students at UCLA. She has taught at UCLA, Miami University, and Kaplan. She received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA, her Master of Arts in Human Development and Family Relations from the University of Connecticut and her Bachelors in Psychology from Amherst College.

• Ferrario, K., Hyde, C., Martinez, B., Sundt, M. (2013). An honest account of the humbling experience of learning to teach online. In Teaching and Learning in the Digital World: Possibilities and Challenges. Learning Landscapes, 3, 85-96.