Welcome to the Technology Test Kitchen

Angela Gibson
TTK Chair, TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Dr. Angela M. Gibson serves as Professor at American Public University System within the General Education department. She also teaches as an adjunct Lecturer in the Higher Education Administration Leadership doctoral certificate program and masters of Adult Education program at Texas A&M University – Kingsville. Additionally, she serves as faculty for the Online Learning Consortium teaching in the Online Teaching Certificate Program, facilitating workshops, and serving as a mentor to professional educators.

Dr. Gibson received a Masters of Arts in Human Performance Systems, with a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design, from Marymount University and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, with concentrations in Adult Education and Community College Education, from Texas A&M University – Kingsville.  She has been published in various peer reviewed journals, presents at national and international conferences, and serves on the 2017 Online Learning Conference Steering Committee and is Chair of the Technology Test Kitchen.

Additionally, Dr. Gibson is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and volunteers as an informal STEM educator creating learning opportunities at schools and with community organizations as well as providing social media outreach for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). She is a recipient of the Online Learning Consortium 2014 Effective Practice Award.

Kate Sonka
TTK Co-Chair, TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Kate Sonka is the Assistant Director of Academic Technology at the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. Ms. Sonka holds a Master’s degree in Bilingual/Bicultural Education and a TESOL certificate from DePaul University. Her areas of scholarly interest include second language acquisition and the role of language in identity development. She has taught a variety of courses including first year writing for non-native English speakers, and a general education requirement course on language acquisition as part of a study abroad to Chengdu, China.

Ms. Sonka has been working in higher education academic technology for 5 years, and is especially interested in how technology and experiential learning intersect through both accessibility, and study abroad/away programs. She is the founder and director of the Accessible Learning Conference at Michigan State University, now in its third year.

George Bradford
Chef

George R. Bradford, PhD, has worked in the intersection of people, technology, teaching, and learning beginning in the late 1970’s from the first ever micro-computer labs teaching mathematics and programming to his current position of director, instructional design and development at Keck Graduate Institute, part of the Claremont Colleges Consortium in Southern California. In between, George has taught computer English to the Swedish Airforce, English to a variety of adult schools in Sweden, served as a technical marketing specialist to Swedish Telecom in European and international projects, coordinated technical projects with Apple Computer Sweden, co-programmed a multimedia authoring tool for language teachers at San Diego State University, co-designed an award winning multimedia training system for first responders of an MCI, consulted with many Fortune 100-500 businesses in the USA (and a couple Fortune 10s) regarding face-to-face / train-the-trainer, e-learning, and online performance support systems, run a computer services business, worked as an instructional designer and faculty developer at the University of Central Florida, University of South Australia, University of West Georgia, and Keck Graduate Institute, and served as a faculty member, dissertation committees member, and on many institutional technology committees. He has published some, but lately he is looking for new inspiration to collaborate and innovate in science education.  

George completed his bachelor of arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Business and Economics, a post graduate certificate at San Diego State University in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as Second/Foreign Language, a master of arts at San Diego State in Educational Technology, and a doctorate at University of Central Florida in Instructional Technology. George has served and supported the OLC since the Sloan-C days and is currently a member of the steering committee. He is a champion of technology-enhanced learning and believes that blended learning really took off with the Gutenberg Press, but that now with networked learning, he suggests we can do so much more.

Dawn Coder
Chef

Dawn Coder is the Director for Academic Advising & Student Disability Services (AA&SDS) for the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), World Campus. She has ten years’ experience in the field of continuing higher education and online learning in both public and private institutions, five years’ experience in Human Resources for a private non-profit company and twelve years’ experience in a leadership role. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Penn State and a master’s degree from Penn State in Adult Education.

Arifa Garman
Chef

Dr. Arifa Garman, born in the Middle East, educated in Canada and United States, is now the Director of E-Learning and Testing at Gulf Coast State College (GCSC), Florida. Her graduate degrees range in topics from multicultural education, to educational leadership and policy studies and finally her doctorate is in instructional technology specializing in distance education. Her responsibilities at GCSC range from faculty professional development to (full and part-time faculty) to creating solutions to existing challenges and anticipating and meeting the needs of faculty and maintaining and growing the online programs at the College.

Arifa Garman has a doctorate degree from The University of West Florida (UWF) in Curriculum and Instruction, Instructional Design, specializing in Distance Education. She has worked with The Defense Language Institute, University of West Florida and University of South Florida as an instructional designer. She is a certified facilitator with Quality Matters and Online Learning Institute (OLC). She is a Certified Online Instructor from UWF as well. She teaches Arabic online with the University of West Florida for many years and was part of the Language and Culture Institute program with sister city in Malaga, Spain

She is always involved in continuing education, taking classes and workshops like Advanced Certificate for Online Teaching (OLC), STARTALK 2015 Technology as the Core of Standards-Based Arabic Instruction (CSU, Bakersfield), Creating Multimedia Introduction, and Creating Effective Assessment (OLC).  She regularly attends workshops and seminars at Magna Publication, such as The Flipped Approach to a Learner-Centered Class, Supporting Your Online Faculty, and Course Design Strategies to Enhance Critical Thinking. She shares all the information learned in these workshops/seminars with faculty who teaches in the traditional Face-to-Face or online. She has been serving on the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) as the primary for over 5 years. She now serves as the Chair for Quality Work group for online course design and facilitation with FLVC. She has been invited to serve on the “Implementation Committee” for the Board of Governors’ Strategic Plan for Online education, the Quality of online courses/programs.

She also serves on several committees as a volunteer, such as Life-Management-Center (Board Members and Chair for one year), Take Stock in Children and the Muslim-Jewish inter-faith women group.

On a creative side, Dr. Garman is an artist, specializing in Islamic Art on porcelain and a fashion designer graduated from a Canadian College. Her art shows ranged from small local art shows to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary Alberta, Canada.

Michael Griffith
TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Michael Griffith, MS is the Director of Instructional and Learning Technologies at the University of Arizona’s College of Education. As an instructional designer and lead technologist for the College, he works with faculty to improve student engagement and outcomes for online and telepresent courses by designing and building out modular learning spaces and researching and adopting technologies to reduce the engagement gap for distance students in resident courses. Mike has taught undergraduate courses in Web development and Human Computer Interaction for the UA and loves taking a day each month to facilitate the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) club at his kids’ school.

Laurie Hillstock
Chef

Dr. Laurie G. Hillstock has been a faculty member and administrator in higher education for over 15 years. Most of her experiences have been in the distance learning arena, focusing on strategic planning, technology research and integration, academic integrity, faculty and curriculum development, and student success. In addition, she has taught a number of credit bearing courses in the online, hybrid, and web-enhanced learning environments. She has also administered and/or taught with a variety of LMS systems including Blackboard.

She is a member of the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) faculty at Penn State. In addition to her duties as Board Clerk, Dr. Hillstock is actively involved with OLC, serving as a content developer, workshop facilitator and mentor. More specifically, she is the developer and facilitator for the Leadership in Online Learning Mastery Series, Instructional Design Mastery Series and the Advanced Online Teaching Certificate program. She is also a mentor for the basic OLC Teaching Certificate program as well as a content developer and/or workshop facilitator for other OLC workshops. In addition, she is a member of the OLC Effective Practice Awards Selection Committee.

Dr. Hillstock holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership (Higher Education) and M.A. in Human Resource Development from Clemson University. She also holds a B.A. in English (minor: Computer Science) from Converse College.

Kathleen Ives
Chef

Kathleen S. Ives, D.M. has worked in online technology for over 20 years and is currently the Online Learning Consortium’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director where she oversees the organization’s strategic direction. Additionally, she serves as faculty for the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (sponsored by Penn State and OLC), and serves on the EdSurge Advisory Group, the Executive Strategic Council for IMS Global Learning Consortium and on the Leadership Advisory Board for the Center for Learning Innovations & Customized Knowledge Solutions (CLICKS). Formerly, Dr. Ives oversaw all forms of alternative instruction at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, MA (distance learning, accelerated programming). She serves as adjunct faculty for graduate and undergraduate business programs at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Dr. Ives began her career at CBS and helped to develop the service that evolved into Prodigy. She then spent fourteen years designing and implementing consumer online information services, first at AT&T and then at Verizon where she spearheaded the development of the nation’s first online Yellow Pages product, now called superpages.com. Dr. Ives has degrees in communication, communication management, and organizational leadership from the University of California at Davis, the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication, and the University of Phoenix-Online, respectively.

Taylor Kendal
Master Chef

Taylor Kendal is an educator, designer, skeptic, improviser, and modern techno-philosopher. His work as an instructional designer and educator with the Library of Congress, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver has led him to a lifelong love for imaginative innovation, daring design, and critical contemplation. He holds a BS in Technical Communications and an MA in Information Learning Technologies from CU Denver. Taylor has 15 years of experience related to project management, leadership development, digital and social media, instructional design, and systemic hacking of higher ed.

Taylor is currently focused on bridging the cultures of entrepreneurship and higher education, infusing agility into bureaucracies, providing bullshit-free organizational solutions and leadership, designing awesome LX/UX, reframing the education technology conversation…oh, and a side of improvisational theater.

Jessica Knott
Master Chef

Jess is the Learning Design Manager for IT Services Teaching and Learning Technology at Michigan State University. She guides a team that helps faculty, staff, and academic programs effectively integrate technology into their teaching and research through consultations, demonstrations, workshops, and hands-on development. She lives in Lansing with her pretty amazing partner Ryan and two rescued pit bulls, and has spent more perfectly good hours playing Fallout 4 than she’s comfortable admitting in polite company.

Ann Musgrove
TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Ann is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Florida Atlantic University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate course online and F2F. She embraces the philosophy of pedagogy before technology. She has a Certification in Online Learning from the Online Learning Consortium and develops and facilitates workshops including Multimodal Design, Exploring Interactive Videos Tools, New to Online – Introduction to Online Tools, and Converting your Course Content. Dr. Ann Musgrove enjoys working with faculty and administrative teams to create, administer and deliver meaningful and flexible learning environments. She develops and creates curriculum for faculty transitioning to online and blended courses. Ann has developed 2 courses that have been nationally recognized by Quality Matters (QM). She has extensive QM experience serving as an Institution Representative, Active Peer Reviewer in Higher Education, K-12, and Continuing Education, and is an online facilitator for the QM foundation course “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric”. annmusgrove.com

Jennifer Paloma Rafferty
TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Jennifer (Paloma) Rafferty is currently Director of the Institute for Professional Development at The Online Learning Consortium (OLC).  She provides leadership in researching, managing, and evaluating a full range of professional development solutions for multiple audiences within the OLC Institute.

Previously Jennifer was Associate Director of Instructional Design at Quinnipiac University Online where she provided faculty development for fully online degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels in the Schools of Nursing and Health Sciences.  During her time at Quinnipiac University, Jennifer was responsible for spearheading the development of the first online medical Spanish course at the University. She has presented both nationally and internationally on the topic of online foreign language instruction and self-regulated learning.

Jennifer’s education includes a Masters of Education in Instructional Design from UMASS Boston, a Masters of Arts in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an undergraduate degree in Romance Languages from Mount Holyoke College.

Jillian Powers
TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Dr. Jillian Powers is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in the College of Education in the department of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Powers teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in instructional technology and design for educators and business trainers. Her research focuses on teachers’ adoption and integration of technology into classroom practices and ways in which technology shapes the teaching and learning process. Dr. Powers earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Instructional Technology from FAU in May 2014. She has previously worked as an Instructional Designer at the Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education at Palm Beach State College and as a computer teacher in various PreK-8 schools. In these roles, she has designed and facilitated numerous technology trainings for in-service educators.

Mary Rotundo
Master Chef

Mary Rotundo joined FAU’s Center for eLearning in November 2015 as an Instructional Designer. Mary holds a Master of Arts degree in Online Education from Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD) Colombia and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern Languages from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela. She’s currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature at FAU’s College of Arts and Letters.

Before joining FAU, Mary was an English as a Second Language instructor for more than 15 years. She co-wrote the Online English as a Second Language Program for UNAD Colombia. Mary has also been learning manager and instructional designer for several private firms, where she coordinated the design of learning solutions as well as the deployment of communication and follow-up strategies.

Mary is a born educator. She believes that being an instructional designer is being an educator all over again.

Stephanie Russell
Chef

Stephanie Russell is the Associate Director of Academic Affairs within the Program, Planning and Management unit of World Campus at the Pennsylvania State University. Stephanie has worked at Penn State for nearly twenty years. The first fifteen years were spent as a faculty member, and the last five years in management within Outreach. Stephanie has three degrees from the Penn State: Associate of Science in Physical Therapy Assistance, Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Services Education and Master of Science in Workforce Education and Development.

Maddie (Madeline) Shellgren
Master Chef

Madeline (Maddie) Shellgren is the one with the batman and dinosaur tattoos. Starting this year as a PhD student in Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, Maddie spent the last six years at Michigan State as a PhD student in Linguistics. She devotes a lot of time to thinking about professional identities within higher education, inclusion, equity, and accessibility, language and identity, pedagogy, educational technology, and a bunch of other things. That said, Maddie also spends a lot of time trying to figure out which local stores sell the best donuts (extensive research and data collection still underway) and which parks provide the best dog-walking experiences. When not teaching, being a grad student, or working for either the College of Arts and Letters, the Graduate School, or the Writing Center, you can find her coaching with the MSU Varsity Rowing team, working as a Simulated Patient for the College of Human Medicine, or eating cannolis at Roma Bakery.

Mindy Sloan
Chef

Mindy Sloan is Associate Vice President, Student Success with Bridgepoint  Education.  Dr. Sloan supports the Library, Writing Center, and Tutoring  Services for Ashford University and University of the Rockies.   Mindy earned her doctorate in school psychology from the University of Kentucky, and worked as a school psychologist in Eastern  Kentucky, the California Youth Authority, and school districts in Northern California.  She has many years of experience as a faculty member and academic administrator seeking to find educational solutions for all learners.

Shereene Twum-Barimah
TTK Committee Member and Master Chef

Shereene Twum-Barimah is an Educational Technology Specialist in the Office of Information Technology at St. George’s University (SGU) on the beautiful Caribbean island of Grenada.

She has over 10 years of experience in the area of training and supporting faculty and staff in their use of instructional technologies and serves as lead Functional Course Management System Administrator.

Shereene is very passionate about the use of technology in teaching and learning. This led her to co-create the Teaching with Technology series of faculty development workshops in 2012 to introduce mobile learning to SGU, which has since evolved and expanded each year, to various technologies and teaching strategies. Most recently, she chaired SGU’s first ever Tech Day in March 2017 which exposed faculty to innovative use of emerging technologies such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality, 3D technologies etc., in education.

Shereene is an aspiring mindfulness practitioner, avid doodler and sketch note-taker and finds ultimate joy in her adorable and lively daughter.