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Phylise Banner is an information designer currently working as an Instructional Design Project Leader for the American Public University System.
Throughout her career, she has worked closely with faculty, staff, students and IT managers to design, develop and deliver technology-based solutions across departments and disciplines. She regularly embraces opportunities to experiment with emerging technologies in order to best serve adult students at a distance, and to create communities of lifelong learners.
Along with her current acheivements in adult learning and distance education, she has over 18 years of experience in information visualization with special expertise in the visual representation of financial and economic data. Her career as an informational graphics specialist with the Federal Reserve in the 1980s allowed for early access to Internet technologies, sparking her interest in hypertext and the integration of technology into teaching and learning.
She presents regularly at regional and national technology and communication conferences on the topics of information design, experience design, creative hypertext, Web 2.0 applications, instructional design, information visualization and GIS technologies. She also teach Digital Storytelling and Information Design online for Empire State College.
Her current research focuses on the use of Web 2.0 applications to establish community and visual presence in the online classroom.
And, she's the proud owner of a 1967 Amphicar.
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Meg Benke, Sloan-C President, has been with Empire State College since 1990, currently as Vice Provost for Online and Global Programs, and connected with distance education since 1983. The Center for Distance Learning enrolls 13,000 distance learning enrollments every year. Students can do complete degrees online.
Empire State College offers many student services on the web such as the Writer’s Complex (online writing center), student ambassadors, library career site and all services such as admissions, registration, and financial aid.
Dr. Benke’s work in education has focused on the connections between work, employers and education. Dr. Benke also teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs in the areas of adult educational policy, human systems, leadership, human resource development, distance education and training and learning organizations. Dr. Benke studies outcomes for students in distance learning and the assessment of prior learning. Since coming to Empire State College, Dr. Benke has written and presented primarily in the areas of learner supports for distance learners and union/employer sponsored distance learning. She has convened a national teleconference on student services for adult students through the American College Personnel Association where she has also served as Vice President for Professional Development. Her recent efforts within the college include the development of co-sponsorship contracts with Alliance (Lucent Technologies, CWA and AT&T), Steelworkers, Ohio AFSCME, the military, and AARP to provide AS/BS degrees at a distance to technical, production, and customer service employees.
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Melissa Burgess, Ed.D., is the Founder and President of the International Center for On-Demand Education (iCODE). Melissa’s current research interests focus on both higher education and K-12 sectors, specifically focusing on instructional and aesthetic online course design, development, implementation, and assessment of various distance education platforms and tools. These platforms and tools include: (1) On-demand K-12 professional development; (2) learning management systems; (3) multi-user virtual environments; (4) collaborative media; (5) transformed social interactions and digital literacy through gaming platforms; (6) data visualization as a resource for shaping educational research; (7) and predictive analytics as a tool for assessing individual student learning. |
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Karen Vignare currently serves as a Director at MSUglobal at Michigan State University. In that role, Karen is responsible for creating online entrepreneurial businesses for extending both non-credit and credit programs at MSU. MSUglobal is responsible for helping departments at MSU integrate emerging technologies. She oversees business planning, technology planning, open educational resources, instructional design and customer service. She publishes regularly on various topics in online learning. She has an M.B.A from the University of Rochester’s William Simon School of Business and Ed. S. from Nova Southeastern University and is a doctoral candidate. |
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Originally from central New York, Dr. Russell Kitchner serves as Vice President for Regulatory and Governmental Relations at American Public University System. His career has focused on student and academic support services, institutional research, and regulatory affairs, and he has held key administrative positions at Texas Lutheran University, Delaware State University, Capella University, the State University of New York, and the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Kitchner holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the State University of New York, and earned his Ph.D from Texas A&M University.
Dr. Kitchner has given numerous conference presentations covering a wide range of issues, including higher education law, institutional research, accreditation and governance, and state and Federal governmental affairs. He has written extensively on these and other topics, and his views have been sought by and published in a variety of national publications, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, and Inside Higher Education. He has served as chair of the Board of Advisors for the Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers, and has been an active member of the American Association of Higher Education, the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration, the American Arbitration Association, the Education Law Association and the Association for Institutional Research.
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