Personal Blurb
John Marvin Kalb became Director of Institutional Research at Southern Methodist University October 1, 2003. Prior to this, he was Director of Institutional Research at Florida State University from 1984 to 2003. He began employment at FSU in 1973 in the Budget Office, which transmogrified into the Budget and Analysis Department a few years later when Institutional Research (whatever that was) infiltrated into Budget Office activities. His career gradually took the path into Institutional Research along the way as he became yet another IR professional stumbling into the field and not living to regret it (yet). Most recently, his career has taken another turn into the area of "institutional effectiveness" and the beloved SACS reaccreditation activities.
A native of
Missouri, he earned the BA and MA
degrees in History from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and the
PhD in History from Florida State University
in Tallahassee. He was selected for membership in Phi Alpha
Theta, the history honorary society, at FSU. Along the way, putting the years of
studying history to use, he has taught Western
Civilization, American Civilization, and American History at
Military service in the
U. S. Army began with fun-filled basic
training at Fort Leonard Wood,
Missouri, followed by the equally enjoyable AIT and Artillery OCS at Fort Sill,
Oklahoma. After OCS, he attended Sergeant Missile School also at Fort Sill.
His first assignment was to a Sergeant Missile battalion in Schwaebisch-Gmund, Germany, but the U S
Army, in its infinite wisdom, decided he would go instead to a eight-inch gun
battalion. The Army got this one right! It was, fortunately, in a much more desirable location. He served
the rest of the two year obligation as an artillery officer in the Federal Republic of Germany in Neu Ulm and Augsburg.
Professional affiliations
include the Association for Institutional
Research [AIR], the Southern Association for
Institutional Research [SAIR], the Texas
Association for Institutional Research [TAIR], and the Higher Education Data Service [HEDS] from
2003-2009.
Professional activities
have included being SAIR Board Member, Nominating Committee Member, Vice
President and Program Chair (Hot Springs, 1997), President, and Past President; Treasurer and Chair
of the Southern University Group Data Exchange; AIR Nominating Committee
Member; Local Arrangements Chair for the 2001 SAIR Conference in Panama City
Beach, Florida, and the SAIR 2009 Conference in
Addison, Texas; Local Arrangements Co-Chair for the AIR 2003 Forum in Tampa; and, TAIR
Nominating Committee member.
Other activities have
included being the Pronouncer for the North Florida Regional Spelling Bee from
1982-1997, serving in various positions, e.g., “Ultimate Umpire”, Moderator and Steering Committee member for
the Big Bend High School Brain Bowl contests 1982-2003. He played the
cornet in Marching MIzzou the year the famous "floating Tiger" formation was
introduced and was a member of the
John and his wife,
Eileen, live in the Lake Highlands area of
Dallas. They have two adult daughters,
one living in the Denver, Colorado, area (with her husband and the first
grand-daughter) and one in Tampa, Florida;
there is also a
Siberian cat
named Caspian who thinks he runs the house
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it...