For more than 35 years, Beth Doll has been one of the Buros Center for Testing’s most trusted contributors. Since her first review appeared in the 10th Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) in 1989, she has authored reviews for 12 MMY volumes, doubling the threshold required to be named a distinguished reviewer, an achievement so rare it inspired the Buros Center to affectionately refer to her as a “double distinguished reviewer."
Doll’s leadership in the field extends far beyond test reviewing. She spent more than three decades as a professor in educational psychology and served in key administrative roles, including acting dean and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has shaped the discipline of educational psychology through her service on editorial boards for the “International Journal of School and Educational Psychology” and “Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.” Doll's impact has been recognized nationally through honors such as the Legends Award, Presidential Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and the Jack Bardon Distinguished Service Award and Nadine Lambert Lifetime Achievement Award from American Psychological Association Division 16 (APA Division 16).
Doll has remained unwaveringly committed to her students and to the reviewing process throughout her long career, including regularly inviting graduate students to review with her. It was fitting that her final MMY review once again involved mentoring. When Buros invited her on a tight timeline to review the massive, fully digital, Woodcock-Johnson V, she accepted. She also opened the door for doctoral students Amanda Barrett and Kyle Bizal to join her as coauthors. Both arrived with background knowledge as Buros graduate assistants, giving them experience fact-checking reviews and navigating test materials. Still, stepping into the reviewer role was eye-opening.
“It felt completely different to be on the other side of the process,” Barrett said.
Bizal agreed, noting that watching how Doll evaluated the test stretched his thinking.
What both students valued most was Doll’s insistence that an exceptional review must consider people as well as the psychometrics. She encouraged them to think critically about feasibility, accessibility and the realities of school-based practice. Barrett described how Doll helped them to see beyond the manual, while Bizal reflected that their conversations challenged him to think deeply about the kinds of decisions the measure could reliably support. Through her mentorship, they experienced firsthand the thoughtful, practitioner-centered approach that has made Doll’s reviews so trusted for decades.
The most telling part of this collaboration is its ripple effect. Both Barrett and Bizal plan to serve as MMY reviewers in the future, inspired directly by Doll’s example. And in characteristic humility, she shared that she could not have done it without the students.
As Doll steps toward retirement, her legacy shines brightly—not only in her contributions to 12 MMY volumes and her long list of honors, but in the emerging scholars who will carry her commitment to excellence forward.
College of Education and Human Sciences
Educational Psychology
