Jorgelina Abbate-Vaughn is an assistant professor for the Curriculum & Instruction department. She’s currently completing a Fulbright Scholars award in Santo Domingo researching teacher education policy and its impact on curriculum development for teacher preparation at the university level. Her research interests center on urban teacher education, issues in urban schools, and educational policy as it affects diverse populations. In her professional development endeavors Dr. Abbate-Vaughn has experimented with wikis and online course delivery to reach wider populations. She’s the proud mother of a 2-year old who has her own wiki http://libertaduna.pbwiki.com  

Anne Scrivener Agee is the Vice Provost for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for the University of Massachusetts Boston (www.umb.edu) where she is responsible for the IT infrastructure and services supporting teaching, learning and research as well as business processes at the University.

She was previously the Chief Information Officer for the Connecticut State University System with responsibility for systemwide communications and computing services including planning, system standards, and specialized technical assistance as well as coordination of information technology activities at the four universities and the CSU System Office.

Before coming to Connecticut, she was the Executive Director of the Division of Instructional and Technology Support Services (DoIT) and the Deputy Chief Information Officer at George Mason University in Fairfax VA.

Dr. Agee is a fellow of the Frye Institute for Leadership in Information Technology and a member of the EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee.  She has published and presented in many venues on technology support issues and on leadership and planning strategies for information technology. 

Dell is focused on a complete range of solutions that helps education customers reach their goals - technology, services, perspectives, resources and information that address all the needs of professors, researchers, students and administrators alike.

Mary Brady is the Director of Professional Development for the Center for Social Development and Education, and part time lecturer in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Her professional interests are in the use of technology to support learning and assessment, and in social interactions within inclusive K-12 environments. Her recently developed Social Skills Tools for Teachers will be available in 2 weeks at: www.csde.umb .  Currently she is Project Director of an academic technology grant, a collaborative effort to pilot program-wide assessments "housed" within an electronic portfolio within C&I this coming year.

Daniel Carchidi is Publication Director at MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu) where he is responsible for the overall timeliness and quality of the OpenCourseWare publication, which includes over 1800 courses from MIT’s 33 academic departments.

Dr. Jie Chen is a senior statistician at Office of Graduate Studies at UMASS/Boston. She provides statistical support for faculty members, staff and graduate students. She teaches workshops of using SPSS and SAS and also teaches statistical courses for many departments for both graduate and under graduate students.  Her current research interests focus on applied probability, spatial statistics, multiple scan statistics, and longitudinal data analysis.

Christian DeTorres is a graduating senior, majoring in History. Shortly after transferring to UMass Boston, he was tricked into becoming the production manager for The Mass Media, and as a reward for his hard work, he was pressed into becoming Editor-in-Chief. Before life at the Harbor Campus, he spent five years as technology specialist for the Massachusetts Assistive Technology Partnership Center at Children’s Hospital, designed presentations for Mars mission proposals, dabbled as a paralegal, did time with a Boston e-commerce firm, and was the speaker for his graduating class at Quincy College.He likes data reuse, open access, storytelling, and kittens.

Arthur Eisenkraft is the Distinguished Professor of Science Education and Senior Research Fellow at University of Massachusetts Boston.  He is past president of the National Science Teachers Association. He served on the content committee and helped write the National Science Education Standards of the National Research Council and has served on other NRC committees related to How People Learn, Assessing Technological Literary and Investigations into High School Laboratories.  He is project director of the NSF-supported Active Physics Curriculum Project that is introducing physics instruction for the first time to all students and leading a similar effort with Active Chemistry. 

Eisenkraft has received numerous awards recognizing his teaching and related work and is a fellow of the AAAS.   One of his current grants is focused on researching the efficacy of a second generation model of distance learning for professional development.

Dr. Varghese P. George is an Assistant Professor at the College of Management in the University of Massachusetts Boston.  He has two Masters Degrees, in Management and Nuclear Engineering, and a Ph.D. degree in management from MIT.  Dr. George's principal area of research is the management of technological innovation.  He strives to balance in his teaching personal mentoring of his students and use of technologies helpful for learning.

Dr. Gonsalves has worked extensively with the Boston Public Schools, mostly on the districts efforts to improve the literacy skills of high school students.  This work has been at the policy and the school level.  At the policy level, Dr. Gonsalves served on the Superintendent Search Committee, the Work Group for School Quality, a BPS Task Force to determine and recommend quality indicators for Boston Public Schools and The Student Assignment Task Force where she worked with a group of citizens from Boston to conduct an assessment of the public’s opinions around student assignment and make recommendations to the Boston School Committee.   At the school level, Dr. Gonsalves has conducted numerous professional development workshops for various BPS high schools.  Most recently, she works extensively with the Dorchester Education Complex (formerly Dorchester High School) teachers, staff and students to facilitate student entry into college and to prepare urban teachers through the Teach Next Year Program.  She does similar work at the John D. O’Bryant High School and the Hyde Park Education Complex.  She has also worked with the district and at least seven city schools, including, Dorchester High School, the Boston Community Leadership Academy, and the Jeremiah Burke High School, on analyzing student scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and then working with teachers to align the curriculum to student strengths on the exam.  Last, Dr. Gonsalves has written numerous evaluations for the BPS on the district’s implementation of the Reader’s Workshop model for improving high school literacy.   

George Hart is Associate University Librarian at Healey Library, focusing on reference, outreach, instruction and assessment initiatives.  George graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1986 with a major in history. He earned his Masters in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University in 1987.  George also earned his MBA at Babson College.  George has been with the Healey Library since 2002 in a series of roles incorporating special projects, outreach and events, library instruction, technology adoption, faculty liaison and general management.

Valerie Claire Haven is an Access Technology Specialist with the Institute for Community Inclusion.  She specializes in making distance learning accessible for students and faculty with disabilities.  Valerie is currently teaching two on-line courses.  One on Visual Impairments and the other on Universal Design for Learning.

Frank Herron is the acting director of the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston, where he also teaches courses in communications studies and political science. Also, he was an editor and reporter at a daily newspaper for nearly 20 years and is the chief editor of the New England Ethnic Newswire (www.ethnicnewz.org <http://www.ethnicnewz.org> ).

Mary Hopper, Ph.D. is the Director of the UMass Boston Instructional Design Program. She is dedicated to the research and development of compelling and effective ways of representing knowledge in emerging digital media environments. Her current focus is on designing extremely powerful and engaging virtual learning experiences by combining traditional instruction design with bodies of design theory and practice from a variety of other disciplines such as business and museum studies. Prior to joining UMass, Boston, she served as an Assistant Professor at Lesley University in their national Technology in Education program. Dr. Hopper has also served as a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT where she served as Managing Editor of Media in Transition project, the flagship of their new Comparative Media Studies M.A. program. Dr. Hopper has a Ph.D. in Educational Computing and Instructional Design (1993), M.S. in Educational Psychology with specializations in Educational Evaluation and Measurement (1989), and a B.A. in English, Education and Psychology (1985) from Purdue University.

Dr. Janna Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate College of Education.  She teaches Computers, Technology, and Education and has incorporated some principles of video games into the structure of her class.  She has presented her research on this at several conferences including the CIT conference, the Lilly conference, AERA, and, of course, this one.  She has played and completed most of the videogames in the MYST series but don’t tell any tenured professors in her department because they think she has been busy at home writing articles.  She plays some non-computer games as well, including football. Previously, she taught high school English in Atlanta, Georgia when paper portfolios were all the rage.  Currently, she is co-PI of an academic technology grant, a collaborative effort to pilot program-wide assessments "housed" within an electronic portfolio within C&I this coming year.

Cynthia Jahn is the Director of the Subject Tutoring Program in Academic Support Programs, and her work includes projects involving the implementation of technology in administrative tutoring program development and student learning.   Her interests include studying ways to use technology and online strategies for the enhancement and promotion of academic learning outside the classroom.  Currently, she is participating in an academic technology grant on providing online tutoring to students enrolled in Hispanic Studies courses.

John Jessoe is the Director of the Distance Learning Video Production Center.  John and his department oversee the design and installation of all AV Installations on campus including the Technology Enhanced Classrooms. John has over 25 years of experience in Video Production and in supporting technology based instruction. His department also provides multimedia support for UMB’s CCDE On-line Courses and technical support for all ITV class offerings. John is currently the principal investigator for a Strategic Initiative Grant concerning the use of classroom capture systems to enhance student learning.

“Apostolos Koutropoulos (also known as “A.K.”) is the current coordinator for the Healey Library’s (Computer) Applications Training. The Application’s training office provides training for Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access), but also offers training and consultation for Macintosh and “Web 2.0” applications.  A.K. is an alumnus of UMass Boston having received a BA in Computer Science (2003), an MBA (2006) and an MS in Information Technology (2007). He is currently studying Instructional Design and Linguistics to enhance his effectiveness as the Application Training Coordinator for the Library. A.K. has been at UMass Boston for close to ten years.”

Ellie Kutz is a professor emirita of English and is currently serving as the IT faculty liaison while continuing to teach some English courses online, including a graduate course in Teaching English with Technology.  Her research focuses on discourse and literacy, and she recently created a wiki to support a literacy exchange between primary teachers at schools she's been working with in California and India.

Adugna Lemi is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics. He has been teaching economics courses such as international trade, economic development, and international political economy both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has been involved in teaching similar graduate courses and advising graduate students at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.  His current research interests focus on international trade and poverty as well as R&D offshoring by U.S. Multinational Corporations. 

Andrea Leverentz is an assistant professor in the sociology department and teaches courses on crime and criminal justice. 

She has been using Vista in her courses as a way to communicate and share information with her students. 

Lisa Link is a web designer with Web Services. She earned a BA in Fine Arts from Harvard University and an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder. A former Lecturer in Media Arts, Lisa continues to exhibit her art nationally and is currently working on a cyberart collaboration with professor Io Palmer, Washington State University, Pullman, WA.

For decades, Apple has helped schools enrich teaching and learning, simplify technology, and inspire students to achieve more.

Laurie Marks has been teaching Freshman English and gen-ed courses at UMB for twelve years, and for seven years has been using course websites and electronic resources instead of handouts and textbooks.  Inspired by last year’s educational technology conference, she began using wikis this academic year, and hopes next year to do something interesting on Second Life.

John is a graduating senior at UMass, majoring in Digital Design, who will be pursuing a graduate degree in Instructional Design here next semester. He has worked as a student consultant in the Media Center for the past three years focusing on many areas multimedia and graphic design.

Eileen McMahon, Ed. M. Senior Instructional Designer. Works closely with faculty to integrate technology into the curriculum, and create strong pedagogically sound applications of technology. Her areas of interest in include Educational Mash-ups, open educational resource, and collaborative pedagogies.

Apurva Mehta is the I.T. Director for Client Services & Educational Technologies and formerly the Head of Library Systems at UMass Boston.  Apurva and his department oversee the IT Service Desk, the desktop operations, the computer labs, the instructional technology center, the media center and the Blackboard learning management system.  Some of the more recent accomplishments are the implementation of centralized ticketing system, the growth of the learning management system, the replacement of over 300 computers each year, the pay-for-print system.   Some of the new and exciting up-coming services that Educational Technology hopes to offer are: iTunes U, Blog & WIKI service, an ePortolfio system, and a  centralized training portal for the university .  Apurva has been with the university for over 15 years.

Ray is currently a member of the LMS Team where he designs, develops, and delivers face-to-face and online training on educational technologies. Ray has been active in the IT field for over 34 years with experience in managing educational technology facilities and programs, teaching (10 years as adjunct in the GCOE Instructional Design Program), program development and administration (co-founded with Bob Risse the Teaching with Technology Program in 1997). Ray retired from full time service in 2004 and now works part time.

Susan Mraz, Language Coordinator
M.A. (Foreign Languages: Spanish & ESL), West Virginia University.
Areas of Special Interest: Teaching Methodologies and Technology in the Language Classroom.

Theresa is LMS Administrator for State Funded Courses. She also serves as a web developer and trainer and enjoys learning and implementing new technologies to support the university community. Some projects she has been involved in include the Blackboard Vista/PeopleSoft Middleware Integration Project and LMS Course Section Request application. She is currently working on the UMB Training Portal project and will be developing new Office 2007 workshops to be presented this summer.

Yvonne Ng is the External Outreach Manager at MIT OpenCourseWare and supports outreach and sustainability initiatives.  She also manages the Mirror Site Program, which offers free copies of the MIT OpenCourseWare website to educational organizations encountering significant challenges to internet accessibility, inadequate internet infrastructure, or prohibitive internet costs.

Cheryl Nixon is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of English.  Her research interests focus on the eighteenth century, a time when the new "technology' of  cheap print gave rise to new forms of writing such as the novel;  new internet-based writing seems to parallel this earlier development.  Following Professor Malcolm Smuts' lead, she is helping to develop an interdisciplinary website that will map the literary and political culture of early modern London;  the website will be used in a team-taught graduate course.

Daniel Ortiz is the University Librarian of the University of Massachusetts Boston campus.  Daniel graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus with a BA in Liberal Arts in 1975 and a MSLS in 1984. He earned his Doctor of Arts in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in 1994.  Daniel has been with the Healey Library in different capacities starting with Science Librarian, Associate Director, Interim Director, University Librarian.  He has extensive previous experience at the University of Puerto Rico as Assistant Director of the Science Library, Assistant Reference Librarian, and as the Collection Development Officer for the Library System of the Rio Piedras campus.  He is a strong proponent of revisiting library services under the light of the user of the 21st century.  His focus for the last sever years at Healey Library has been to develop new cutting edge services guided by a strong customer service philosophy for which the library is known for. 

Louise Penner is an assistant professor of English.  She teaches courses on Victorian literature and medical humanities and is currently completing a book about Florence Nightingale and Victorian literature, medical and social reform. She participated in the CIT seminar on Teaching with Technology and  she has been using wikis for student projects and presentations in several of her courses. 

Anthony P.  Petruzzi is Director of Writing Assessment at University of Massachusetts, Boston. In 1999, he researched philosophical hermeneutics at the Università degli Studi di Torino on a J. William Fulbright Scholarship. Recent research includes an essay that uses philosophical hermeneutics to analyze rhetoric, technology, science, and assessment. He currently teaches an online class in Critical Reading and Writing, and has been working on developing writing tutoring in interdisciplinary contexts for online or off-campus students.

Kathleen Polley RN MS is the Director of the Online RN-BS Program and the Accelerated Option Baccalaureate in Nursing delivered in the blended model at the University of Massachusetts Boston.   Ms Polley is a Co-PI for the University of Massachusetts Boston 650K Alfred P. Sloan Grant “Expanding Access: Taking a Local Approach to Online and Blended Programs” which has increased enrollment from 75 students /yr to 250 students per year over 18 months.  She also is the principle investigator for a Balfour Foundation Grant researching the barriers to online learning for diverse students, “The Balfour Scholars Program”, which has enrolled 25 students from racial and ethnically diverse backgrounds to consider barriers to success of diverse students to Online Learning.  Her current research is looking at the learning effectiveness of Online and Blended programs.  

Stephen Ribisi, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Graduate College of Education and a member of the Center of Science and Math in Context (COSMIC). Prior to joining the faculty of UMB, Steve was first a research biologist and a frequent volunteer in urban public school classrooms (K-8) and then a teacher educator at a science museum in San Francisco, CA. His research interests include the interplay of science and language in the elementary school classroom and the role of inquiry-based pedagogy in increasing children’s understanding of science content, science processes, and the nature of science. Steve is co-PI of an academic technology grant, a collaborative effort to pilot program-wide assessments through the use of electronic portfolios within the Department of Curriculum & Instruction this coming academic year.

Joanne Riley serves as Associate Unversity Librarian for Digital Library Services, focusing on developing online tools and resources for UMass Boston faculty and students, especially in the Web 2.0 arena.  She has strong connections to the Graduate College of Education, directing the Massachusetts Studies Project co-sponsored by the Institute for Learning and Teaching and the Healey Library, and also teaches the online graduate level course "Internet Applications for Educators".

Peter Shmiro is a Web Developer and Photographer in Web Services of IT. He provides photographs of campus events and students in their daily time at the university. Produces slideshows of students images commencement, sports activities, events and classroom/lab settings during each semester. Was in one of the original UMass Boston classes at the Downtown 100 Arlington St. Campus. Graduated with a BA in History and Art from Boston State College. Has photographs on Flickr and the Boston.com web sites.

Marietta Schwartz is an associate professor of Chemistry, and has been interested in instructional technology for many years. She was first contacted by the MIT Open CourseWare project two years ago, and has shepherded the UMB Open CourseWare project to its current state, with the able technical assistance of Eileen McMahon in IT. She continues to spread the news about Open CourseWare while teaching the large organic chemistry class and developing her own Open CourseWare materials.

Mark Schlesinger is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at UMB. He is currently on leave to the President’s Office, where he serves as Associate Vice President in the Office of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and International Relation. Mark runs several programs aimed at enhancing teaching and learning with electronic technology – or without. He has been a faculty member UMB since 1977, starting in the College of Professional Studies (now Management), and he has held administrative positions as a department Chair, Associate Dean, and Assistant Chancellor. He took over the Communication Studies Program in 1996 and expanded its offerings particularly in the direction of media studies and information technology’s relationship to human communication. His teaching and research have focused on problem solving behaviors, the interesection of technology and learning, and the development of general education.

Jeremy Seiferth works for the Reference Department at the Healey Library. He is currently working to find and implement new tools to help the faculty and students of UMB access information easily and quickly.

Gene Shwalb is an Instructional Designer for the Division of CCDE at UMass Boston. He supports online faculty using BLS Vista, Wimba Classroom and Voice, and Adobe Presenter (Breeze). Gene is also an adjunct instructor at UMass Boston, teaching graduate courses in Instructional Design and Technology. He has degrees from UMass Boston (M.Ed), Boston University (MBA), and Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.Mus). Gene is also a professional musician.

Mary Simone is the Media Center Manager at UMASS Boston, assisting faculty and students with  the integration of multi-media   to support learning and teaching.  She is also  Lecturer for  Hispanic Studies and the Graduate School of Education for both face to face and on-line courses.   Her special interests are in the research and application of technology to second language acquisition.   Currently, she is the project manager   of an academic technology grant  to deliver  on-line tutoring  for at risk students enrolled in   UMB Nursing and Hispanic Studies courses.http://omega.www.umb.edu/~onlinetutorweb/index.html
She recently received an academic technology grant to fund to support K12 teachers of Spanish and Chinese  in Boston area public schools  in the how to integrate e Web 2.0 tools into their curriculum.

Malcolm Smuts is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and North American Chair of the Society for Court Studies.  His publications include Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987; paperback edition, 1998), Culture and Power in England 1585-1685 (Palgrave/Macmillan, 1998), and numerous articles on the political and culture history of early modern England.  He is currently working on a book about the significance of religious war in early modern English political culture and (with Cheryl Nixon and Adam Zucker) a website entitled “Politics, Literary Culture and Theatrical Media in London, 1625-1725”.  The website for Malcolm Smuts’s Court Studies project can be found at www.courtstudies.org and The Historical London website developed by Malcolm Smuts and Cheryl Nixon can be found at www.london.umb.edu .

Ninian Stein is the Associate Director of Environmental Studies and a Lecturer in Environmental Earth and Ocean Sciences.  She received her PhD in 2007 from Brown University and holds masters degrees in archaeology and environmental science from Harvard and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences.  Her research focuses on New England environments on the eve of Contact with Europeans and during the Industrial Revolution.  She teaches Historic Environments among other classes and always attempts to teach with the latest technology as well as get her students outdoors to rethink the spaces around them. 

Irene Yukhananov is an Instructional Designer at UMass Boston. She supports faculty in web-enhanced courses using Blackboard Vista and other online educational tools. Irene also works with faculty and students training them on how to use various Web 2.0 technologies including GPS and Google Apps, to enhance teaching and learning. Her special interests include geo photography, mapping of urban spaces, and place-based digital storytelling. She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Geography and Environmental Studies. In addition to her passion for learning and education, Irene is a talented graphic designer.