Speaker: Billie Franchini

Billie Franchini currently serves as Interim Director of the Institute for Teaching, Learning and Academic Leadership (ITLAL) at the University at Albany-SUNY. In her eight years of work in ITLAL, her efforts in teaching development have focused on fostering student engagement, teaching writing, integrating technology in teaching, and building and sustaining effective active learning practices including Team-Based Learning (TBL). In addition, she has also worked with faculty and graduate students in broader career development, including documentation of teaching and professional practice; building leadership skills; and productively integrating research, teaching, and service. She has published on TBL and frequently presents on TBL, critical thinking, teaching writing, and other topics related to effective teaching practice. Dr. Franchini holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Georgia.


Speaker: Teddy Hristov

Teddy is the senior instructional designer in the Academic Technology and Innovation Group at Emmanuel College, Boston. She works closely with faculty to support the development and management of quality on campus, blended and online courses based on assessed needs and pedagogical best practices. She conducts faculty workshops and training programs and facilitates faculty communities and development.

Upon her start at Emmanuel College in early 2014 she became involved with the Blended Learning Initiative. She provided pedagogical consultation to faculty, implemented instructional strategies in course design, and utilized various educational technologies. 

Previously she collaborated on projects that foster excellence in learning and teaching while studying at UMASS Boston and later at the Boston University Distance Education Office where she worked as an instructional designer developing online courses and programs.

Teddy Hristov has a M.Ed. in Instructional Design and a B.A. in Graphic Design. She resides in Boston with her family.


Speaker: Chris Moore

Chris has worked at UAlbany and elsewhere to promote effective and innovative online teaching and learning through faculty development, instructional design, course development, and IT service management. Chris serves as program manager and team leader for UAlbany's Blackboard support team, coordinating efforts of technical administration and client-support professionals alike. Situated within the campus’ Information Technology Services division, Chris collaborates with others on his campus, such as the Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership, the University Libraries, academic schools, departments, and the faculty, striving toward cohesive and facile mechanisms for innovation and support for online and blended teaching and learning. Chris manages a team of Instructional Developers who provide instructional technology support and consultation to the faculty, conducts technology workshops, and facilitates the Online Course Development programs.


Speaker: David O'Steen

David has created and managed many instructional and collaborative projects at Wellesley College. Currently he promotes and supports blended learning projects throughout the college, as well as some new cross-institution courses. Among his previous endeavors, he was co-creator and -manager for 10 years of an innovative and highly successful summer student internship to develop instructional projects with faculty. David hired and intensively trained the student interns in design, technical, and management skills, then matched them in teams with faculty to produce useful multimedia or web-based instructional materials for course or research use throughout the disciplines. David was a key member of the Sakai selection, implementation and support team where he taught hundreds of faculty to make the best use of Sakai, and was the project manager for our college-wide Google Apps for Education implementation which includes an innovative use of Google Sites for many LMS tasks. Most recently, he has been planning, designing, developing, managing, and supporting Wellesley's MOOCs on the edX platform, as well as an innovative language course offered in both exclusively online and blended formats.