Speaker: Kevin Corcoran

Kevin Corcoran is the Executive Director of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC), a CT Board of Regents of Higher Education entity that serves K-20, non-profit and government agency communities across North America with their collaborative, online learning needs. Corcoran joined the CTDLC in 1999 and has been responsible for developing and growing the products and services offered to support eLearning initiatives. He also runs Connecticut’s Adult Education virtual high school that supports the adult credit diploma program state-wide. Corcoran is a member of the WCET Steering Committee and currently co-chairs the WCET e-Learning Consortial CIG as well as the NENY Blackboard Users Group, and New England OER organizations.


Speaker: David Demers

David Demers is the Chief Operating Officer of The American Women’s College of Bay Path University since its inception in July, 2013. As COO, he has operational oversight for a new facility housing staff and faculty serving adult online undergraduate students and manages the development of the innovative S.O.U.L. © (Social Online Universal Learning) learning environment. Prior to that appointment, he was the Vice President for Academic and Administrative Technology at Bay Path College from 2009-2013 where he provided strategic vision and oversight of technology resources to support teaching and learning, student information systems, telecommunications and business systems. Demers has focused his career on the effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning as a research topic and helped develop and deliver online programs at the University of Hartford (1999-2001), the University of Connecticut (2001-2005) and Sacred Heart University where he served as Director of Instructional Technology and Online Learning (2005-2009).

Demers completed his B.S. and Ph.D. at the University of California at Riverside where he pursued research interests in the field of Cell and Molecular Biology.


Speaker: Eric Friedman

In his new role as Director, Eric leads a business unit of 27 staff members responsible for supporting online and digital learning initiatives (15 fully online degree programs, over a dozen online certificate programs, and numerous other projects) in the 17 schools and colleges at Boston University. In the past nine months, Eric has significantly extended the collaboration of the Office of Distance Education with BU’s Digital Learning Initiative (DLI) and other departments. Under his leadership ODE collaborated with the DLI by developing all the video material for the BUx MOOC "War for the Greater Middle East" and by designing and implementing the College of Communication project for integrating incoming Chinese graduate students. He is now busily laying the groundwork for several other new exciting high-profile projects.

As Associate Director of the department for six years, Eric helped to double the size of the department while being directly responsible for managing student and faculty support. In addition, his technical knowledge allowed him to be involved in shaping policy and developing processes for the entire operation while managing a team of twelve full-time staff whose primary responsibility was to provide student services for 3,000+ online students, plus faculty support. In addition to managing his team, Eric oversaw the hiring and training of approximately 150 online facilitators per term (six terms per year) and managed all course evaluations, including aggregating and reporting course evaluation results to academic units.

Eric holds three degrees from Boston University. He graduated from BU’s College of Liberal Arts (now College of Arts and Sciences) in 1990 with a BA in Psychology, earned his EdM in 1993 spending five months of his program in Niger, West Africa studying educational reform in a developing country, and then completed an MSW in 1995 with a focus on Human Services Management. He then went on to spend the next seven years helping to open and develop several Boston charter schools and worked for five years at WGBH where he was an integral part of launching Teachers’ Domain, an online multimedia library and suite of online professional development courses for K-12 teachers which later became the model for PBS LearningMedia.


Speaker: Elena Garofoli

Elena has more than 30 years combined experience in pedagogy, training, education, and computer/educational technology. The team she co-leads at BU has responsibility for two doctoral programs, several masters programs, the sole undergraduate degree completion program, and several professional certificate programs—all of which are offered exclusively online.
She was awarded Boston University’s 2014 Chadwick Fellowship to study the efficacy of using Google Glass to create online interactive media, and was one of six subject matter experts recently invited to participate on American Council on Education’s Alternative Credit Project.

Prior to Boston University Elena was the Academic Learning Technologist at the Suffolk University Sawyer Business School. She also owned her own independent elearning and instructional design consultancy called SparkFireLearning, and worked with colleges and universities, private industry, and non-profit organizations. During this period of time she was the Director of the Master of Arts in Teaching with Internet Technologies (MAT) for Marlboro College (VT).

She lives with her 11 year-old labradoodle Gilmore, and her 17 year-old cat, Beau, and loves dancing, playing djembe, reading, staying active, and eating well. She recently completed a stilt-walking workshop.


Speaker: Philip Lombardi

Philip Lombardi is the director of Academic Computing & Media Services for Bryant University. His area of focus is strategic planning and support for all campus computing and media technologies associated with teaching and learning. Responsibilities include oversight of campus Media Services, Classrooms/Labs, Communication Complex (HD TV Studio/Radio Station) and the Financial Market Center. Additionally, he serves as lead project manager for Bryant’s eLearning initiatives. Phil has over 20 years of technology management experience including 17yrs dedicated to higher education.


Speaker: Patricia McDonnell

Patti has more than 30 years of experience in support services. The team she co-leads at BU is responsible for two doctoral programs, several masters programs, the sole undergraduate degree completion program, and several professional certificate programs—all of which are offered exclusively online.

During her tenure at Boston University Patti has seen the Office of Distance Education grow from a staff of 10 to its full complement of 27 professionals that it is today. She is one of four senior staff guiding faculty and student support services.


Speaker: R.J. McGivney

R.J. McGivney is the Assistant Provost and Dean of University Programs at the University of Hartford, in this role he is responsible for all online programming, summer sessions, winter session, degree completion programs, as well as many other non-credit units. He is solely responsible for the creation of the University of Hartford Online initiative. He earned his bachelors degree in political science and masters degree in educational administration from the University of Hartford. He completed his doctorate degree in Educational Policy at the University of Massachusetss Amhert. His dissertation title is, “Factors that Affect Adult Student Persistence in Online Courses”.


Speaker: Chris Moore

Chris has worked for the past 13 years 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 works with other groups on campus, such as the Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership, the University Libraries, academic schools and departments, striving toward cohesive and facile mechanisms for innovation and support for online teaching and learning. Chris manages a team of Instructional Developers who provides instructional technology support and consultation to the faculty, conducts technology workshops, and facilitates the Online Course Development programs. Chris is a founding member of UAlbany’s Online Teaching and Learning Steering Committee.


Speaker: Dan Newman

Dan Newman began his career in higher education in the residence halls at Simmons College and Endicott College before moving to Suffolk University as an academic coach and online learning consultant in the Center for Learning and Academic Success. He is an avid gamer and purveyor of joy in teaching.


Speaker: Jay Rozgonyi

Jay Rozgonyi is the Director of Academic Computing at Fairfield University as well as an instructor in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions there. He holds an undergraduate degree in Media Studies as well as master's degrees in Library & Information Science and History. For more than 20 years, Jay has held a variety of IT and educational technology positions, largely focusing on bringing innovative technology practices to the classroom to support teaching and learning. Jay’s work has also included extensive training, documentation creation, and faculty & administration collaborations. He is a frequent NERCOMP presenter who has also consulted with individual colleges in the development of academic technology and mobile learning initiatives, and is currently co-chairing an effort at Fairfield to redesign all classrooms to meet the needs of 21st century learners.


Speaker: Robert Shea, Ph.D.

Bob Shea currently holds the positions of Assistant Vice President for Teaching & Learning and Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning at Bryant University. Prior to his appointment at Bryant in February, 2011, he worked with faculty at the University of Rhode Island to increase student learning and success. He served the University in two capacities: 1) as the Director of the Office of Student Learning, Outcomes Assessment, and Accreditation, and 2) as the Assistant Director of the Instructional Development Program.

Before his tenure at URI, Bob held the position of Dean of the First Year Experience at Pine Manor College (PMC) and also served as the Director of Faculty and Leadership Curriculum Development at PMC's Center for Inclusive Leadership and Social Responsibility. At that institution Bob was, in addition, an Associate Professor of Sociology.

Bob has a strong background in faculty development, assessment, service-learning, community-based research, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). In 2012 he was selected as a Teagle Assessment Scholar.


Speaker: Amber Vaill

Amber Vaill brings over fifteen years of experience as an educator and over ten years experience in online education to her role as Instructional Designer at Becker College. She has served in various roles in online education in the K-12, higher education, and corporate training environments. Her areas of expertise include designing and facilitating online faculty development programs, creating online student orientations, and developing and teaching online courses. From 2007-2013, Dr. Vaill established and managed online learning course development and support operations at Bay Path College and is currently working with colleagues at Becker College to develop and implement online programs, training and support services for online students and faculty.

Dr. Vaill earned her Ph.D. in Education with an e-Learning specialization from Northcentral University. She also holds an M.Ed. in History Education from Westfield State University and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instructional Technology from Framingham State University.


Speaker: Lorelle Wilson

Jean Wilson is Director of the Faculty Center for Learning Development at the University of Hartford, an organization that works with and assists faculty with the incorporation of instructional technology and new teaching methods into their established curriculum. As part of this charge, the center offers training and support for online faculty. Previous to that, she worked as an Instructional Designer at the Department of Instructional Development and Support at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where she helped with the initial deployment and adoption of Blackboard. At the University of Massachusetts, where she attended graduate school, she developed and implemented a student cable TV station using constructivist learning principles. She was also appointed adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts' School of Education, where she taught courses in educational technology and documentary filmmaking. More recently, she has been teaching Instructional Design courses at the University of Hartford.