Eckerd College Chem Professor Leads National Exam Committee

Lisa Bonner, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry at Eckerd College, is co-chairing a committee developing an organic chemistry exam for the American Chemical Society (ACS). The exam will be administered to students nationwide.

Bonner works with the ACS Exams Institute, which externally accredits Eckerd’s chemistry and biochemistry degrees. This is her third time contributing to the development of these exams. The ACS invited her to co-chair the Organic Chemistry Committee for the current cycle.

“I’ve been writing exam questions since I was teaching in grad school,” Bonner said. “It’s just something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little kid.” Bonner’s involvement with the ACS began years ago after she connected with Jeffrey Raker, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry at the University of South Florida. Raker, now an ACS associate, facilitated Bonner's entry into committee work.

Developing national exams typically takes two to three years. Committees establish workflows and divide question creation responsibilities. A trial exam then goes to students for performance and difficulty data. Bonner noted an exam she worked on in 2023 was trialed at Eckerd. The current exam she is co-chairing will be finalized in 2028.

Bonner collaborates with Animesh Aditya, Ph.D., a chemistry professor at Kennesaw State University. Bonner and Aditya attended graduate school together at Purdue University and have known each other for 22 years. Bonner humorously described their collaboration as sibling-like bickering.

Her committee colleagues represent diverse institutions nationwide, from large universities to smaller colleges. Bonner finds value in observing varied teaching approaches and materials. “The rewarding thing is meeting people and learning more about how you teach, from how other people teach,” Bonner stated. The final exam, bearing committee members' names, will appear in classrooms across the country, including Eckerd’s, where students will recognize their professor’s name on the test packet.