Mickie S. Rops, CAE is a widely regarded credentialing advisor. Since 1997 she has been guiding organizations in knowledge and credentialing strategy and in initiating, managing, and auditing knowledge-based and credentialing programs (certification, certificate programs and accreditation). Her primary focus is on guiding organizations through the decision-making process of which credentialing program, if any, is right for them, helping develop the strategy, policies and procedures and conceptualize the program design.
Mickie is an ANSI lead assesor for assessing compliance with the ISO/IEC 17024:2003 Conformity Assessment – General Requirements for Bodies operating Certification of Persons standard and the ANSI accreditation of personnel certification programs. She also serves as the lead subject matter expert and author for the American National Standard ASTM E2659-09 Standard Practice for Certificate Programs which is the standard against which the ANSI Certificate Accreditation Program will assess compliance. Mickie was recently awarded the 2009 Robert J. Painter Memorial Award from ASTM International and the Standards Engineering Society for "outstanding service in a given year in the field of standards" for her work on the E2659 certificate program standard.
Mickie is an active non-profit/association volunteer, currently serving on ASAE & The Center’s Professional Development Council, Society for Marketing Professional Services’ certification committee, ASTM International’s E36.30 Certificate Program subcommittee and E36.20 Credentialing Terminology subcommittee. She has authored several books, chapters, articles, and the first blog for the credentialing community (Beyond Certification), which was named by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as one of the 10 most influential blogs for the association community. Mickie wrote ASAE and the Center’s only book devoted to association knowledge, Identifying and Using a Field’s Body of Knowledge and the certification chapter in Core Competencies in Professional Development book. Her book, We Have Always Done It That Way: 101 Things about Associations We Must Change, co-authored with 4 other industry experts, created quite a buzz in the association community.
As a former association staff executive, Mickie directed several high-profile professional certification and self-assessment programs, managed a national association’s professional development efforts for over 75,000 members, and facilitated strategy sessions for national and regional associations. Mickie holds a masters’ in adult and continuing education and the Certified Association Executive credential.
