Speaker: Venessa Aller

Vanessa Aller is a trilingual Instructional Designer with more than 7-years experience designing and delivering training programs in the business, academic and NGO fields. She has conducted instructor-led courses in technical training, facilitated distance learning programs using tools like WebEx, and worked on major course redesigns for the Graduate and Executive Education divisions at Babson College. Vanessa has experience designing and developing eLearning using Articulate, Lectora and Captivate, and currently uses Blackboard for blended learning programs at Babson College.


Speaker: Jeremy Anderson

Jeremy Anderson is the Manager of Academic Computing at American International College. In this role he provides leadership in the areas of academic technology, technology-mediated pedagogy, and online and blended learning. He is responsible for the implementation and support of the learning management and assessment management systems; standardization and continuous improvement of classroom technology; and administration of campus media services.


Speaker: Kelly Dempsey

Kelly Dempsey is an instructional technologist in the Academic Technology Innovation Center at Babson College. Kelly’s primary role at Babson is to research emerging technologies and sift through the many to find the few that will support the teaching and learning process in a meaningful way. She is a Blackboard Administrator at Babson, manages their "Innovation Pipeline,” coordinates faculty development, and is deeply involved in collaborating with faculty to develop digital learning environments. Kelly has been with Babson since May 2015 and was formerly with Skidmore College for 13 years. She is a former fifth grade teacher and technologist supporting K-12 technology integration. Kelly holds a BA degree from Norwich University, Vermont in English and Elementary Education and an M.Ed from Columbia University.


Speaker: Shannon Graham-Cornell

Shannon Graham-Cornell is a Customer Success Advocate with Blackboard. In that role, she assists schools in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts by working to help ensure their success with Blackboard products and services. Shannon spent 23 years in higher education prior to joining the Blackboard team. Her experiences include such responsibilities as curriculum design, management of online product development teams, management of institutional partner relationships, online classroom design, LMS administration, faculty training in online delivery, and college-level classroom instruction. Shannon earned a M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a M.A. in English and a B.A. in English and History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Shannon’s specific interest and areas of expertise include operations, project management, and program/course design and development.


Speaker: Kyle Stephanie Kraus

Kyle Stephanie Kraus is an Instructional Designer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Division of Continuing & Professional Education. As the coordinator of training, Kyle assists instructors in the transition to teaching online, course construction and learning to the Learning Management System, Blackboard Learn. She facilitates in-person workshops, conducts webinars and facilitates online courses for new online instructors. Kyle received a BA in Planned Studies - Student Development from Ithaca College, and graduated from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2008 with an M.Ed. in Educational Technology. She has worked at the university for the past 16 years in administrative and student support services. Kyle's interests and passions lie in non-traditional learning environments, adult learning theory, and in the adaptation of communication theory from in-person to asynchronous and synchronous online learning environments.


Speaker: Tristan Plummer

Tristan’s experience with Bb comes from the system administration side of our products. For the past several years, he functioned as a system administrator for two different higher education institutions (Lord Fairfax Community College, and Shenandoah University). As a system administrator, he was not only tasked with maintaining the integrity of their Blackboard environments, but also training users of all roles (faculty, students, administrators, and staff) in how to be successful and creative with Bb Inc.’s products. To round out Tristan’s compliment of skills, he was an English teacher in Shanghai, China, a technology blogger, a web master for a retail store, and he is a licensed private pilot.

Tristan holds a B.A. in Philosophy from West Virginia University. He recently got admitted into James Madison University’ M.eD with a concentration in instructional technology. His research interests include accessibility in online education platforms, accessibility to educational technology for low income and rural learners, and supplementing traditional education with open and accessible educational resources.


Speaker: Allison Rocheleau

Allison Rocheleau is the Faculty and Student Training Associate in eLearning at UMass Amherst. She received her Master's Degree in Educational Technology from UMass Amherst in 2015, and received her Bachelor’s Degree in English, with a Certificate in Professional Writing and Technical Communication, from UMass Amherst in 2012. Allison facilitates the online training courses for new instructors, develops training materials and documentation, and works with new instructors in developing their courses.


Speaker: David Rosenbaum

David Rosenbaum is Senior Solutions Engineer for North American Higher Education, specializing in Data Warehouseing and Analytics. David has been with Blackboard (formerly WebCT) for fifteen years, working in the higher education and professional education teams extensively. David has worked multiple roles over that time, in teaching and learning and Blackboard Analytics areas.

With more than thirty years of software industry experience, David joined WebCT in August 2000 as Director of Product Management, after twelve years at Lotus Development Corporation (an IBM Company), where he served in a variety of positions, including strategic alliance manager, group product manager for Domino enterprise integration, software development manager and software engineer.

David holds a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College (Wellesley, MA), and a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT).


Speaker: Kaitlin Walsh

Dr. Kaitlin Walsh is the Instructional Designer/Technologist at American International College. She provides pedagogical and technology support to faculty developing and teaching online, blended, and traditional courses. Prior to this, she has worked in Instructional Design and Educational Technology at Charter Oak State College, the University of Hartford, and the University of Connecticut's A.J. Pappanikou Center for Developmental Disabilities. Elsewhere in higher education, Kaitlin has been an adjunct instructor at AIC, the University of Hartford and Manchester Community College. She has also served as a Junior Dean at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University in England, where she earned her doctorate in Spanish.