ABERDEEN, S.D. – Dr. Brenda J. Mammenga is the new director of Institutional Research and Assessment at Northern State University.

Mammenga began Jan. 17 at NSU. Her office is responsible for providing consistently accurate information to the university’s policy- and decision-makers. This also requires educating data recipients on possible uses of and trends in the information.

Mammenga earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from South Dakota State University, and her Ph.D. in mathematics from North Dakota State University.

From 2013 to 2016, Mammenga worked in the decision support department at Dakotacare, creating analytics, maintaining data, identifying trends and explaining quantitative concepts.

Prior to that, she was an associate professor of mathematics at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. There, Mammenga taught courses to both math majors and non-majors, as well as performing advising and research tasks.

At NSU, Mammenga hopes to use her work and educational background to benefit students.

“I hope to use my advanced mathematical background and my recent experience with data analysis to contribute to incremental improvements of student learning at NSU,” she said.

Mammenga and her husband, Tim, live on her childhood family farm south of Bristol with their three children: Tate (10), Chloe (7) and Ian (3).

About Northern State University

Northern State University is a regional university that offers outstanding academics and exceptional extracurricular activities at an affordable price on a safe, welcoming campus. To learn more about NSU, visit northern.edu/admissions.