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. 

Sushant Bhosale is a master’s student in the Department of Computer Science.

Xu Guo Chan teaches Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages.  She has been involved in a grant-funded project to introduce Web 2.0 Tools to high school language teachers.

Bob Chen is a Professor in the Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences department.  Since 1993, he has enjoyed teaching graduate science students, undergraduate general education students, and K-12 science teachers.  He is the PI of the Watershed-Integrated Sciences Partnership with Boston and Milton Public Schools and co-PI of the Boston Science Partnership.  His research involves coastal ocean observations and land-ocean interactions.  His interests in education include teaching large classes, promoting environmental literacy, and supporting the STEM > pipeline for all students.

Timothy Lee Chuvala, a music major, assists Prof. Patterson in creating a space in Second Life devoted to music.

Nan Cormier, assistant vice chancellor of university advancement, oversees the university’s UMass Boston Fund, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Stewardship (keeping donors in touch with the impact of their gifts) and advancement marketing and communications. She has worked in the advancement field for 25 years at institutions such as Harvard, Boston College, and the Museum of Science. Recently, in collaboration with IT colleagues, she has worked to harness the internet to strengthen the university’s case for philanthropic support. This work has included creating YouTube.Umass Boston and developing a new web sites for the department, the university’s annual Advancement Report, and the Urban Scholars program 25th anniversary. Her chief colleague in these endeavors has been IT web designer, Lisa Link.

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.

Dr. DeGennaro’s dissertation work focused on how technology-mediated activities in a cross-community partnership empowered youth to have a voice in the organization of their learning. Donna’s current research interests center on youth technology practices and interactions in informal learning environments.  The research draws on theories from cultural sociology to examine the interrelationship between culture, history, and social interactions and how they inform emergent learning designs.   

Wei Ding has been an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston since September 2008. She received her M.Sc. degree in Software Engineering from the George Mason University in 2000 and her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Houston in 2008. Her main research interests include Data Mining, computational Semantics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and with applications to astronomy, geosciences, and environmental sciences. Her research work has been funded by NASA and NSF. She has 7-year teaching experience in Computer Science and 8-year industrial working experience in banking, software development, and web technology.

Jessica Downa is an Educational Technology Media Specialist in the Media Center.

Ken Elkind, the Assistive Technology Specialist, working for the Educational Technology department of IT, promotes computer technology for the individuals with disabilities for the University.  He has worked for 10 years educating and training individuals with disabilities in using assistive technology.  He is a former employee of Kurzweil Educational System, an assistive technology company, providing reading and learning strategies for individuals with visual impairment and learning disabilities. He completed a Masters degree in Special Education at the University of Oregon emphasizing on Secondary and Transition education.  He is a member of the International Dyslexia Society and the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD.)

Pacey Foster is Assistant Professor of  Management.  He is the recent recipient of a UMass Technology Grant to study the use of the reference and social-networking tool, Delicious for students’ collaborative research

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.

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.

Dr. Janna Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate College of Education.  She teaches Computers, Technology, and Education and has just started using digital story telling in her classes.  She has presented her research on other uses of technology at several conferences including the CIT conference, the Lilly conference, AERA, and, of course, this one.  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. Previously, she taught high school English in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kate Kiss teaches online courses in the Department of Applied Linguistics.  Her areas of interest are literacy pedagogy and development (especially writing), professional/personal/cultural identity development, foreign language pedagogy and systems theory, phenomenology, literacy and artistic thinking

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. 

Lisa Link is a web designer at UMass Boston.  She has taught digital media at UMass Boston, the Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University and worked as a consultant for faculty transitioning their courses into online teaching environments. She specializes in interdisciplinary, collaborative work and for several years managed the media lab at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a national role model for Community Development Corporations located in Pittsburgh, PA. Ms. Link is an actively exhibiting artist with a recent piece in FILE: Electronic Language International Festival in Rio de Janeiro

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 implementationof 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.

Michael Milburn has taught in the Psychology Department at UMass/Boston for over 30 years.  Over this time, he has taught a variety of courses in psychology, statistics, and research methods, using both traditional and online course formats.  In recognition of his extensive use of instructional technology, he was selected to be one of the University’s first E-Fellows, and in 1998 he was awarded the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

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.

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. 

David Patterson, Professor of Music in the Performing Arts Department at UMB, developed Universe of Music and has been offering the popular online course year-round since 2001.

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".

Marietta Schwartz has been in the chemistry department at UMB for 21 years, and has always been an early adopter of all sorts of technology. In fact, her UMB blog (http://blogs.umb.edu/mariettaschwartz/) focuses on instructional technology. She uses iClickers, recorded lectures, document cameras, Blackboard, OWL, Xythos, and Adobe Presenter to name a few, and is always keeping an eye out for something new with which to experiment.

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.

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.

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.

David Weisman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at University of Massachusetts Boston, focusing in synthetic, systems, and computational biology.  Prior to studying molecular biology, David had a long career in computer science, and has merged these two passions in his teaching and research.

Brian White is an Associate Professor in the Biology department. He was a co-recipient of the 2008 Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

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.

Gary Zabel holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Boston University. He has been teaching in the Philosophy Department of the University of Massachusetts at Boston since 1989. He is the editor of Art and Society: Lectures and Essays by William Morris (Boston: George's Hill, 1993) and wrote the introduction to All Things Connected: Native American Creations (Providence: Roger Williams Museum of Natural History, 1995). He is also the author of several articles on the philosophy of music including "Adorno on Music: A Reconsideration"  (London: Musical Times, 1989); "Ernst Bloch and the Utopian Dimension in Music"  (London: Musical Times, 1990), "Nietzsche and Wagner: On the Threshold of the Twentieth Century" (London: Musical Times, 1990), and "Escaping the Dark Time: The Problem of Political Music in Eisler and WeilL" (Shanghai: Yinyue YIishu, Journal of the Shanghai Academy of Music, 1993). He has been a photographer since his early teens, occasionally selling his work to book publishers and private collectors, and has been involved in Second Life as a photographer and installation artist for a little over one year as the avatar, Georg Janick. His virtual installation, Saturn's Elegy, was exhibited at Rinascimento Virtuale at the Festival of Creativity in Florence, Italy in October, 2008, and is published in the catalogue for that exhibition, Rinascimento Virtuale: L'Arte in Second Life e nei Virtual Worlds. He is the founder and owner of the four Caerleon sims, and the founder and director of Virtual Art Initiative (virtual-art-initiative.org), an Associate Member of the nonprofit corporation, Media Working Group, Inc