Mickie Rops
Leading Learning Faculty

Since 1997 Mickie S. Rops has been helping organizations make the right credentialing decisions. Much of her consulting work is in conducting program audits against credentialing industry standards and guiding organizations to achieve accreditation through the American Nationals Standards Institute (for certification, certificate programs, and standards development). She also educates organizations on credentialing options and guides them in deciding which credentialing program, if any, is the right fit for the challenges they face.

Mickie is a dedicated volunteer and leader for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), ASTM International, and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Mickie is an ANSI lead assessor for assessing compliance with the ISO/IEC 17024:2012 General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification of Persons standard and the ANSI accreditation of personnel certification programs. She serves as the lead technical advisor for ASTM International on the American National Standard ASTM E2659-09 Standard Practice for Certificate Programs. which is the standard against which the ANSI Certificate Accreditation Program assesses compliance.  She also serves as the lead trainer on ASTM E2659 for the ANSI workshop preparing applicants for certificate program accreditation. Mickie was awarded the Robert J. Painter Memorial Award from ASTM International for “outstanding service in a given year in the field of standards” for her leadership on the ASTM E2659 standard. She is currently leading the 2015 revision of the standard for ASTM. She also serves as an auditor for ANSI’s accreditation of American National Standards Developers.

Mickie’s blog, Beyond Certification (www.msrops.com), was the first blog for the credentialing community and was named by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as one of the 10 most influential blogs for the association community. She wrote Identifying and Using a Field’s Body of Knowledge, ASAE & The Center’s only book devoted to association knowledge, and the credentialing chapter in the book Core Competencies in Professional Development, which is on ASAE’s Authoritative Literature List. She has also published Considering Certification? Your Guide to Making the Decision and Certification Simplified:  A Primer for Volunteer Leaders and Staff of Personnel Certification Programs.

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 master’s in adult and continuing education and the Certified Association Executive credential.

Mickie’s first-hand experience as a credentialing staff executive, applicant, and board member combined with almost two decades of consulting with credentialing agencies of all sizes and across industry segments ensure real-world advice that can take your organization and credentialing programs to the next level.