Prior to the Academy, Pam served as the director of research at the Consortium on Financing Higher Education and the assistant provost for institutional research and assessment at Wellesley College. She also spent eight years as non-partisan staff for the North Carolina state legislature determining the effectiveness and efficiency of state-funded programs. Her experience in higher education spans the range of institution types—research universities, regional public universities, private and public liberal arts institutions, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges. She holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, a MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a BA in psychology from Johnson C. Smith University.