Sandy Greenberg: Don’t call her a legend

By Dennis Furlan | The Registrar

Sandy Greenberg has been in the field of regulation for 35 years, almost all of it working out of New York. Some call her a legend for her long-time advocacy and expertise in the field, but she’s very reluctant to accept such a characterization. She says, “I think that’s way over the top. My primary focus has always been that regulation should be done right.”

Some might even call her a legend for her long-time advocacy and expertise in the field, but she’s very reluctant to accept such a characterization.

Indeed, when asked about her broader views on regulation, Greenberg is quick to spell out the approach everyone should have in the field. She says, “It should be truly about public protection and the prevention of harm to the public, as opposed to any other self-serving purpose. And that should be applicable all over the world, the raison d’être for regulations.

Knowing her stuff

Greenberg is currently co-editor of the CLEAR Exam Review, which covers licensing examination issues for the Council on Licensure, Enforcement & Regulation (CLEAR), an organization promoting international regulatory excellence. She also serves as vice president of credentialing advisory services for ACT, a non-profit in the education and workplace sector, where she consults organizations that offer licenses, certifications and assessment-based certificates.

Although Greenberg works out of New York, the organization has a diverse client base that reflects the nature of international regulations, certifications and credentialling. Greenberg explains: “Regulations are often established on a national basis but, of course, you have those at the state and provincial levels, and you have some professions, such as psychology, where you have large federations that preside over Canada and the United States.”

Greenberg adds, “And, of course, you have some organizations that don’t necessarily regulate, but offer credentials that are offered worldwide.”

Regulators can adapt

She is quick to stress the adaptable and diverse natural of the field. She says, “When the pandemic first hit, regulatory work essentially ground to a halt. But then it changed to accommodate the circumstances by quickly going virtual. Now, some of those processes will probably remain virtual, and some of them might go back to how they were before, but regulators can adapt, and I think that’s very important.”

One of the ways that Greenberg would like to see regulators and those in the field of credentials and certification adapt further is to transition away from traditional measures of expertise and use more accurate measures to identify qualification.

She says, “For example, I think using a metric such as hours worked has severe limitations on identifying the most qualified people in a profession. I know that using more operational indicators of qualifications can be a challenge to even identify, and may also involve greater investment of time and resources, but I think we’d get better at hiring people at all levels if we went in this direction.”

It’s just a small bit of advice from someone who might know what she’s talking about in the field of regulations.