Faculty

Program Director

Susan C. Wyckoff

Vice President for Academic Affairs, Colleges of Worcester Consortium, Inc.
508-754-6829 ext. 3029
swyckoff@cowc.org

Faculty

Mary-Ellen Boyle

Associate Professor of Management
Graduate School of Management

Clark University

508-793-7558
mboyle@clarku.edu

B.A., Yale University; M.B.A., Boston College; Ph.D. (Sociology), Boston College

• Research interests: business and social issues, particularly poverty; community-university partnerships; minority and ethnic entrepreneurship
• Teaching experience: graduate courses in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, European business, organizational behavior, managing change and conflict; undergraduate courses in management, social change, women and work, and the sociology of education
• Teaching awards: Beta Gamma Sigma, faculty award; Clark GSOM Student Council, best course award; Award for Excellence in Teaching, Boston College

Donald Crampton

Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Clark University, Sackler 226
508-793-7553
dcrampton@clarku.edu

B.A. (Biochemistry), Ithaca College; Ph.D. (Botany), Arizona State University; Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School

David DiBiasio

Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering
Assessment Coordinator, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
508-831-5372
dibiasio@wpi.edu

• Research Interests: engineering education research (including international education), the process of learning, and educational assessment; biological engineering
• Teaching Experience: graduate and undergraduate courses in chemical engineering; Seminar in College Teaching

Janet Fisher

Associate Professor, Academic Support Program
Suffolk University Law School
617-573-8563
jfisher@suffolk.edu

B.A., Fontbonne College; J.D., Suffolk University Law School

• Research interests: Higher education law and policy
• Teaching experience: Undergraduate courses in law, leadershp and critical thinking and writing; graduate course in Legal Issues for College Faculty; law school course in Academic Excellence

Beth W. Gale

Assistant Professor of French
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Clark University
508-421-3781
bgale@clarku.edu

B.A. University of Delaware, M.A., Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania

• Research Interests: 19th- and 20th-century French literature and culture, women and the novel, cultural studies
• Teaching experience: beginning, intermediate and advanced French language; youth in French literature, film and culture; the fairy tale
• Research interests: Foreign Language Acquisition, Educational Technology, Japanese Literature and Culture
• Teaching experience: Introductory and Intermediate Microcomputer Applications; Introduction to Japanese Culture, Women in Japanese Society

Lorraine Higgins

Associate Professor of Rhetoric
Director of Center for Communication Across the Curriculum
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
508-410-1063
ldh@wpi.edu

Ph.D., (Rhetoric) Carnegie Mellon University

• Teaching experience: courses in composition and rhetoric for over 20 years at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, and WPI
• Research and publications: writing pedagogy and the role of writing in community problem-solving

Kevin R. Kearney

Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Director of Service-Learning
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
508-373-5605
kevin.kearney@mcphs.edu

B.S., University of Notre Dame; M.Th., University of Notre Dame; Ph.D., Yale University

• Research Interests: service-learning and its educational outcomes; development of clinical in-vitro diagnostic tests
• Teaching experience: Biochemistry, Intermediary Metabolism, Nutrition, Service-Learning, Health Literacy

Matthew D. Laliberte

Associate Dean of Faculty & Curriculum; Teacher
The Hillside School
Doctoral Student - Curriculum & Instruction
Boston College
508-292-2246
matthew_laliberte@hotmail.com

B.A., University of New Hampshire; M.S., Syracuse University

• Research Interests: Social Justice, Teacher Education, Educational Policy in K-12 and Higher Education, Equity Online
• Teaching Experience: Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom, Classroom Technology Integration, Teaching Online

Sarah Michaels

Senior Research Scholar, Hiatt Center for Urban Education
Associate Professor of Education
Clark University, Education Department and Communication and Culture Program
508-793-7610
smichaels@clarku.edu

B.A., Barnard College; M.A. and Ph.D., U.C.-Berkeley

• Research interests: Language, culture and learning; classroom discourse; the intersection of talk, task and identity
• Teaching Experience: Graduate courses on Language, Culture and Education; Classroom Discourse; Ethnographic Methods; undergraduate courses on Language, Culture and Society; Introduciton to Communication and Culture

Judith E. Miller

Executive Director of Assessment, University of North Florida
j.miller@unf.edu

B.S., Cornell University; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University

• Research and teaching interests: Educational innovation; cooperative learning; team teaching; educational outcomes assessment; educational productivity
• Teaching Experience: Seminar and Practicum in College Teaching; introductory biology; microbial physiology
• Teaching Awards: Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher, Kendall/Hunt Publishers and the Society for College Science Teaching (1998); Massachusetts CASE Professor of the Year, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2002); Trustees? Award for Outstanding Teaching, WPI Board of Trustees (2004)

Lisa J. O'Connor

Adjunct Faculty, Computer Science Department
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
ljo@wpi.edu

B.S., Bridgewater State College; M.S., Florida Institute of Technology; A.B.D., Boston University

• Research Interests: Instructional Design, Multimedia, and Universal Design
• Teaching Experience: Database Design, Financial Accounting, Instructional Technology, Management Information Systems, Management of Technology, Object-Oriented Design, Social Implications of Computing, and Software Engineering

Mary M. Philbin

Instructor, Department of Medicine
Director, Faculty Development, Department of Medicine
Administrator, Community Faculty Development Center
University of Massachusetts Medical School
508-856-6533
Mary.Philbin@umassmed.edu

B.A., Harvard University; Ed.M., Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Research Interests: Teacher Identity in physician community preceptors; implementing and evaluating competency-based curriculum; identifying behavioral characteristics of empathy in physicians
• Teaching Experience: Faculty Development Fellowship; Physician, Patient and Society Course; small group facilitation in Teaching of Tomorrow faculty development series and Domestic Violence interclerkship. Study skills and 12th grade psychology

Colin Polsky

Assistant Professor of Geography
Graduate School of Geography
Clark University
508-421-3828
cpolsky@clarku.edu

B.S. and B.A., University of Texas-Austin; M.S. and PhD, Penn State University-University Park; Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University J.F.K. School of Government

• Research interests: global change vulnerability; suburbanization; spatial statistics, mixed methods social science research
• Teaching experience: undergraduate & graduate courses in environmental risks/hazards, research design, global change vulnerability, human dimensions of climate change
• Clark University Hodgkins Junior Faculty Research Award, National Research Council Committee Member, Director of Clark University's Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Undergraduate Research Program

Deborah Robertson

Associate Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
Lasry Center for Biosciences, 221
Clark University
508-793-7515
debrobertson@clarku.edu

B.A. Kalamazoo College; M.S. California State University, Long Beach; Ph.D. The University of Chicago

• Research Interests: phytoplankton physiology; global biogeochemical cycles; marine biology; molecular evolution
• Teaching Experience and Interests: undergraduate and graduate courses in biology; incorporating research opportunities into undergraduate curricula; mentoring of independent graduate and undergraduate research students; REU mentor Shoals Marine Lab
• Teaching Awards: Outstanding Teacher Award (Clark University); Hodgkins Junior Faculty Award. (Clark University)

Pamela D. Sherer

Associate Professor of Management
Providence College
401-865-2036
psherer@providence.edu

B.A., Carthage College; M.S., Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; M.B.A., Clark University; Ph.D., University of Massachusetts-Amherst

• Research interests: Corporate Universities and E-learning; Human Resource Development and Organizational Change; Workplace Diversity; Faculty Development; Pedagogy in Higher Education
• Courses recently taught: Organizational Theory; Organizaitonal Behavior; Managing Workplace Diversity; International Human Resources Management; Comparative Management; Teaching-Learning and Assessment

Thomas R. Thibodeau
Assistant Provost
New England Instititue of Technology
1-401-739-5000
tthibodeau@neit.edu

B.S. Rhode Island College; M.A. Boston University

• Teaching experience: video and multimedia production, production equipment and applications, Web page development and management, Blackboard course development and delivery, use of technology in the classroom
• Teaching interests: the development of individual faculty in the use of the varied tools available to improve student success in the college classroom
• Professional experience: 20 years in the video production industry as a videographer, editor and engineer

Alice Valentine

Lecturer, Japanese Language and Literature, Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Clark University
avalentine@clarku.edu

B.A. Florida State University; A.M. Harvard University

• Research Interests: Japanese literature and culture; foreign language pedagogy; technology and language learning
• Teaching Experience: beginning, intermediate, and advanced Japanese; classical and modern Japanese literature and culture; Gender and Japanese Society

Donald Vescio

Associate Vice President - Academic Affairs, Information Technology
Worcester State College
508-887-8796
donald.vescio@worcester.edu

B.A. SUNY-Oswego; M.A. University of New Hampshire-Durham; Ph.D. University of Rochester

• Teaching Experience: computer science, English literature and writing, web and document design, critical thinking
• Research Interests: relationship between patterns of information structures and effective online pedagogies; interstices between network topologies and postmodern and narratological critical theory; information architecture, usability assessment, and design best practices; and pedagogical applications of emerging network-based technologies
• Teaching interests: Analog and digital circuit design; communications systems; signal timing control; effective teaching
• Industrial experience: Optical communications at Bell Labs; test sets for signal timing at Tektronics

Susan C. Wyckoff

Vice President for Academic Affairs
Colleges of Worcester Consortium, Inc.
508-754-6829 ext. 3029
swyckoff@cowc.org

B.S. University of Rhode Island; M.Ed. Keene State College; Ph.D. University of New Hampshire

• Research interests: Faculty evaluation systems in higher education; student satisfaction and retention trends in higher education; collaborative faculty development
• Courses recently taught: Contemporary Trends and Issues in American Public Education; Seminar in College Teaching; Learner-Centered Assessment; Education Law; Practicum