Consultant Mickie Rops of Westfield, Ind., is the recipient of the 2009 Robert J. Painter Award from ASTM International and the Standards Engineering Society. 

The Robert J. Painter Award is presented annually to individuals who contribute the most outstanding service to standards development in a given year.  Rops was recognized for her exceptional work in advancing standardization efforts in the area of personnel certificate programs.

A member of ASTM International since 2006, Rops is an active member of Committee E36 on Laboratory and Inspection Agency Accreditation.  She played a significant role in the development of ASTM E2659, Standard Practice for Certificate Programs, which provides guidance to certificate issuers on how to develop a quality certificate program and how to determine the quality of a program. The standard was recently adopted by the American National Standards Institute as the basis for its Certificate Accreditation Program for organizations that issue education and training certificates to U.S. workers.

A highly regarded advisor to both associations and credentialing agencies, Rops was an association staff executive before founding Mickie Rops Consulting Inc. in 1997.  As president and principal consultant, she regularly guides organizations in credentialing strategy and in the initiation, management and audit of knowledge-based and credentialing programs. 

In addition to ASTM International, Rops is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership, the National Organization for Competency Assurance and the American Society for Training and Development.  

The author of the first blog for the credentialing community, Rops has written several chapters, books and articles on the subject of credentialing and association management.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Indiana University and a master’s degree in adult education from National-Louis University.

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