Speaker: Tara Devi Ashok

Dr. Tara Devi S. Ashok is presently teaching at the University of Massachusetts Boston since 2003. Her passion has been teaching and research, which she has carried out in India, Europe, and the U.S. for almost three decades. Tara’s research experience in Cancer Genetics at the Harvard School of Public Health (1997-2003), Boston, was of great importance for understanding the genetic aspects of cancer. In 1990, she was awarded a Biotechnology overseas Associateship by the Department of Biotechnology, India to carry out work on Hemoglobinopathies and Radiation Biology at the Leiden State University, The Netherlands. From 1985 – 1993, she was a faculty member in the Department of Genetics, Delhi University South Campus, India and in 1992 was appointed the Chair of the Department of Genetics. She was awarded a PhD degree in 1981, on the study of Genetics of Mental Retardation.

Today, Tara is involved in educating students about science by offering courses like Developmental biology, Biochemistry, General Biology, Biological anthropology, and Human origins. In 2011 she was awarded the “Teaching with Technology Award for Innovation & Creativity” at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Use of technology in teaching has become a second nature to her as that helps to impart knowledge in a different way, especially teaching an online course has opened another way to communicate with her students. Tara seeks to impart the knowledge she has gathered to one and all in a very simple and direct way, so that all can benefit from her learning.


Speaker: Alan Girelli

Alan Girelli earned his Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric, Graduate Studies in English, UMass Amherst, focusing on electronic rhetorics and networked communication systems. Girelli directs the Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning (CIEE), housed with the College of Advancing and Professional Studies (CAPS) at the UMass Boston. (See http://www.umb.edu/academics/caps/centers/ciee for details.)

Girelli has been involved with UMass Boston distance education programming since 1996 (before the advent of online education), and has taught online, on-ground, and blended writing and design courses at UMass Boston, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and ITT Technologies at both the undergraduate and graduate level.


Speaker: Panayota Gounari

Panayota Gounari, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she teaches since 2004. She has developed and directed the Online Program from 2005 to 2010. Her research focuses on the role of language in education, for human agency and social transformation, and the implications for multiliteracies in the context of critical pedagogy. Most recently she has been working on blended learning and multimodality. Her most recent publication is the co-edited volume Critical Pedagogy: A Reader. She has authored and co-authored numerous books, articles and book chapters that have been translated in many languages.


Speaker: Annamária Sasné Grósz

Annamaria Sas received her PhD from University of Szechenyi, Gyor, Hungary in 2011. She joined The Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Pannonia, Veszprem, Hungary in 1997. Since then she teaches lectures in field of Marketing, Market Research and Consumer Behaviour. She worked together with Professor Romar while he spent his Fullbright Scholarship in Hungary.


Speaker: Bruce Kibler

Bruce A. Kibler, PhD. currently works as Associate Professor and Management Program Director at Gannon University in Erie, PA. Dr. Kibler researches on CSR, CG, Strategy and International Business as well as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Dr. Kibler teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Strategy and undergraduate courses in International Business. Dr. Kibler previously worked at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the Cologne Business School in Cologne, Germany. Dr. Kibler actively engages in Academic Service Learning and international programs involving virtual classroom engagement as well as teaching summer programs at German Universities. Dr. Kibler attended the University of Maryland, College Park, Johns Hopkins and Matej Bel University in the Slovak Republic. Before embarking on his academic career Dr. Kibler spent almost 20 years in international business in the telecommunications and IT industries, predominantly in Europe.

Speaker: Apostolos Koutropoulos

Apostolos Koutropoulos (“AK”) is the program coordinator for the online MA program in applied linguistics and a faculty member in the instructional design program at UMass Boston. Over the last year and a half he has participated in many massive online open courses (MOOCs) and has co-authored research papers with his colleagues in the MobiMOOC Research Team (MRT). AK holds a BA in computer science, an MBA with a focus on human resources, an MS in information technology, an MEd in instructional design, and an MA in applied linguistics. His research interests include knowledge management, educational technology, linguistics, and epistemology.


Speaker: Edward Romar

Dr. Edward Romar is a senior lecturer in management and marketing at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds a PhD from the City University of New York. Prior to joining the faculty at UMB he was employed in marketing at IBM. In 2009, Dr. Romar was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. He teaches in the International Summer Semester at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea.


Speaker: Irene Yukhananov

Irene Yukhananov is a Senior Instructional Designer, E-Learning Consultant and Trainer with College of Professional and Advancing Studies (CAPS) at the University of Massachusetts Boston & an Adjunct faculty, teaching graduate level courses in Instructional Design and Multimedia.