Dr. Deb Adair is the Chief Executive Officer of Quality Matters (QM), a global organization with a widely adopted quality assurance framework and capacity building resources for online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. QM certifies or recognizes quality at the course, program, and institutional levels in online education and currently serves over 1,300 institutions across education sectors in more than 40 countries in support of its mission to improve online and digital education. Under Dr. Adair’s leadership, Quality Matters has helped focus the education community on the practical application of quality standards to online and blended courses and programs and has worked to improve student outcomes through a focus on continuous quality improvement. Dr. Adair has more than 30 years of experience in higher education, in faculty and administration, as well as non-profit leadership. She has served QM in a leadership role since 2007.

Dr. Adair received an A.A. degree from Broward Community College, a B.S. degree from Boston University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of the first class of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Education and an alumna of the HERS Leadership Institute. Her acknowledgments include citations from state and local governments for her work on literacy and women’s issues, the Broward College Alumni Merit Award, and the Nofflet Williams Award for service to the distance learning community. Most recently, she was recognized as a 2023 OLC Fellows Award winner.  

Dr. Adair currently serves as the Immediate President of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE). She has served on advisory bodies for the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies, the National University Technology Network, the President Forum, and Credential Engine. She has authored and interviewed broadly as an expert in quality assurance for online learning.