Since 2001, Dr. Finney has been providing outcomes assessment-related support to professionals in the Division of Student Affairs at James Madison University. Currently, she oversees the Student Affairs Assessment Support Services (SASS) team. SASS aims to enhance the assessment capacity of student affairs professionals who coordinate programs with student learning and development outcomes.  Fulfillment of this mission occurs via direct consultation, educational activities, and the dissemination of scholarly work relevant to assessment practices. Dr. Finney's work evaluating the effectiveness of university educational programming has garnered 6 national awards from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Association (NASPA). Dr. Finney has published over 90 articles and chapters (cited over 13,000 times), with graduate students co-authoring over 75% of these publications. She also contributed to the revision of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (i.e., CAS Standards). Her research involves the incorporation of program theory and implementation fidelity during the outcomes assessment process, the study of test-taking motivation and emotions during institutional accountability testing, and the application of latent variable modeling techniques to better understand the measurement of psychoeducational constructs. Her research has appeared in such journals as Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Research & Practice in Assessment, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Applied Measurement in Education, and Educational Assessment. 

• Spring 2025: Excellence in Publication Award. This national award given by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) recognizes outstanding publications related to assessment, evaluation, and research.
•  Spring 2025: Women in Measurement elected to Board of Directors. This non-profit is “dedicated to amplifying the diverse voices of all women and providing structures of support for career advancement in the educational measurement field.”
•  Spring 2025: Distinguished Service Award from the College of Health and Behavior Studies. College-wide award presented to one faculty member each year who has demonstrated depth and breadth of outstanding service at the university, regional, and national level. Fall 2024: Excellence in Equity-Centered Assessment Award from ACPA for “A Meta-Assessment Rubric to Guide Professional Development and Practice in Equitable Outcomes Assessment”. This national award recognizes outstanding equity-centered assessment praxis that improves experiences for students underserved in higher education.
•  Fall 2024: Outstanding Service Award from the Department of Graduate Psychology, James Madison University
•  Spring 2022: Madison Scholar Award from the College of Health and Behavioral Studies, James Madison University. College-wide award presented to one faculty member each year in recognition of superlative achievement in scholarship.
•  Spring 2021: Ford Faculty Award. This university-wide award is presented to one faculty member who possesses a record of excellence in research, teaching, curriculum development, professional development initiatives, and the integration of teaching and scholarship to benefit the student learning process. The faculty member’s accomplishments at JMU and in the profession is demonstrated via clear evidence of their contributions.
•  Fall 2020: Leo Doherty Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service from the Northeastern Educational Research Association given to “a long-standing member who has generously given of self, to advance NERA mission and enable it to thrive”