Dr. Karen Fung is the Manager of Psychometrics at the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada. She has extensive experience as a psychometrician in large-scale educational assessments and high-stakes licensing and certification examinations. Her expertise covers many aspects of assessment, including item and test development, automatic item generation, linking and equating, computer-based testing, and survey development.
Karen’s educational background includes an Honours Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Psychology from the University of Toronto; coursework and a practicum in Autism and Behavioural Science at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (Seneca Polytechnic); a Master of Education (MEd) degree in Measurement and Evaluation from the University of Saskatchewan; and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Measurement, Evaluation, and Data Science from the University of Alberta.
Her nearly 20-year professional career has taken her across three Canadian provinces and into a wide range of roles. Early in her career, she worked as a Neurofeedback Consultant with the ADD Centre in Toronto, where she provided individualized training to clients of all ages with attention-deficit and related disorders, helping them enhance their academic, relaxation, and time-management skills.
In Saskatchewan, Karen served as a Research Secretary with the Saskatchewan Health Organization Research and Evaluation (SHORE) and as a Research Assistant in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Saskatchewan. She later held the position of Research Assistant with the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families, a collaborative initiative between the University of Alberta and community agencies and organizations in the Edmonton, Alberta area. Over a three-year period, she worked at the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation at the University of Alberta, where she served as a Research Assistant, Statistical and Research Methodological Consultant, and Teaching Assistant.
These early professional experiences and academic training equipped Karen with a solid foundation for transitioning into her career in measurement. She spent more than three years as a Psychometrician with the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) in Toronto, the organization responsible for designing and administering provincial student assessments in Ontario. For nearly four years, she served as the Psychometrician with the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), the organization involved in the design, implementation, and analysis of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP), as well as international assessment programs such as PISA, PIRLS, and TIMSS in collaboration with all Canadian provinces and territories. For the past six years, Karen has been the Manager of Psychometrics and Lead Psychometrician at the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC), the national certification body for the profession of pharmacy in Canada.
In addition to her current role with PEBC, Karen has served as a Sessional Instructor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, where she taught a course on the Fundamentals of Measurement. Concurrently, Karen is actively involved in educational research, particularly in applying statistical methods and machine learning models to examine factors that contribute to student performance to support learning.
Dr. Fung reflects on the evolution and implementation of online, digital assessments and highlights several benefits, including administrative flexibility, enhanced accessibility and student engagement, and cost efficiencies. She also acknowledges potential challenges, such as unstable Internet connections and increased stress for some students. Many of the advantages of online assessment are evidenced in EQAO’s assessments, which utilize Vretta’s platform.
Karen takes pride in her application of stringent psychometric principles to ensure assessments are valid, reliable, and fair for all test-takers and provide data that is both meaningful and useful to stakeholders. She also derives great satisfaction in teaching and mentoring students, as well as conducting educational and assessment research. Karen is actively engaged in professional service within the educational research and assessment communities. She currently serves as the Executive Officer and Communications Officer (interim) for the Canadian Educational Researchers’ Association (CERA). She is also a member of the Examination Resources and Advisory Committee at the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR) and supports the committee as a journal reviewer for the CLEAR Journal of Professional Regulations. Away from the office, Karen enjoys taking baking and chocolate-making courses and maintaining an active lifestyle. Please feel free to connect with Karen at: karen.fung.ok@gmail.com.
RMJ ASSESSMENT 