Innovation Studio

Luke Bennett, Clemson University

Luke is a Lecturer at Clemson University’s College of Education. He has been teaching fully online and blended for the last decade and has a strong background in course development and online education.  Along with his teaching role, he enjoys helping those who work in the online/blended space reach their full potential as educators. His research areas include management and pedagogy within emerging learning spaces. He is driven to make the online, blended, and f2f spaces settings where teaching and learning is maximized for both instructor and student. In his spare time, you will find Luke hanging out with his family, running, cycling, or playing the guitar.

Talya Drescher, California State University, Channel Islands 

Dr. Talya Drescher is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at California State University, Channel Islands.  She has over a decade of experience as a K-12 special educator in Los Angeles area public schools and a decade devoted to teaching future special education teachers in pre-service programs.  Her areas of research include co-teaching in pre-service programs and the use of mixed reality simulation in post-secondary education.

Daniel Lynds, Davidson College

Daniel Lynds is an Instructional Designer with a Bachelor of Fine Art and a Masters in Education Technology. Daniel collaborates with people on making their work as impactful and open as possible. His work centers around digital storytelling, social network analysis, open education, and cultural theory. As an editor at Hybrid Pedagogy, a critical journal/community/conversation/study, Daniel finds himself constantly engaged with scholarship from international voices focused on the connectedness of learning, teaching, and technology in culture. This work feeds his interests in collaboratively building sense making in the humanities and beyond. He believes in people and their ability to critically examine their paths in the ever complex landscape of knowledge abundance. Daniel is also an interdisciplinary artist and general noise maker. Many of his creations can be found at daniellynds.com.

Adam Nemeroff, Dartmouth College – Co-lead

Adam works as a Learning Designer at Dartmouth College. He works across a variety of innovative projects with faculty and campus partners in the areas of educational technologies, course redesigns, experiential learning projects, and issues of accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom. Adam is a co-host of Teach with Care (also on your podcast app of choice), a collaborative podcast on issues of inclusivity in teaching and learning.

Kristi O’Neil-Gonzalez, CSU Channel Islands

Kristi is the Instructional Technologist- Accessibility Lead and FIT Studio Coordinator on the Teaching & Learning Innovations team at California State University, Channel Islands. She has worked in higher education for the past 7 years and in addition to campus responsibilities, she earned her M.A. in Learning Technologies at Pepperdine University.

She is a passionate advocate of accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to meet the needs of a diverse campus community.  Her local efforts include supporting and guiding faculty as they explore teaching and learning with and through technology, including the development of a week-long facilitated “workout” around accessibility. The 5 Day Accessibility Workout is available in Canvas Commons and includes a digital badge. To engage and contribute to a broader community, Kristi actively participates in and presents at Accessing Higher Ground (AHG), CSUN Assistive Technology Conferences, and OLC Innovate.

Sundi Richard, Davidson College, Co-Lead

Sundi works to create an innovative and supportive environment to promote student and faculty digital dexterity and advance thoughtful integration of technologies in teaching, learning, and scholarship at Davidson College. Interested in empowering students to be active citizens in their online and offline worlds, Sundi explores digital identity, networking, and online interaction. She is part of an ongoing conversation in higher education about digital citizenship #digciz.

Madeline (Maddie) Shellgren, Michigan State, Escape Room Lead

Maddie the one with the batman and dinosaur tattoos. Starting this year as a second-year 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. Though her work takes her across multiple units and spaces on campus, she currently (and primarily) serves as a Program Director for the Graduate School supporting Teaching Assistant Professional Development. 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 Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, you can find her working as a Simulated Patient for the College of Human Medicine, deeply engaged in DIY home renovations, or eating cannoli at Roma Bakery.

Makena Schultz, Michigan State

Makena is a Ph.D. Candidate in Michigan State University’s Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Program. In fact, Makena is a Spartan-lifer. She moved to East Lansing in 2008 to be an undergraduate in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and continued on to finish her Masters of Science in the same college. After her M.S., Makena left the mitten-state for the west coast to work in consumer-market research at a winery in Napa Valley. Despite a love for wine-country, the Great Lakes called Makena home, and she started her career as a state-wide youth Leadership and Civic Engagement Educator with MSU Extension where she started MSUE’s Photovoice project and facilitator training program. Across all her education and work experiences, a passion for learning and community have been a constant for Makena – leading her to her current doctoral work and engagement at OLC Innovate!

Daniel Trego, Michigan State University

Daniel is an Educational Media Design Specialist at Michigan State University. His areas of expertise are in video and audio production and web design. His background is originally in Applied Hispanic Linguistics and it was his work in curriculum design and Spanish instruction that eventually brought him to full time work in Educational Technology. He works with faculty to design effective media for teaching and learning and is passionate about storytelling and helping others create and cultivate their digital presence. Currently, he is working with Apple to help lead one of the first university iOS design lab programs in the country. His teaching and mentoring within the program is focused on the intersection of design thinking and Swift programing.