2014 ELC Presenters

Linda L. Baer, PhD

i4 Solutions

Linda Baer has served over 30 years in numerous executive level positions in higher education including senior program officer in postsecondary success for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs in the Minnesota State College and University System, and senior vice president and interim president at Bemidji State University. She recently served as the interim vice president for academic affairs at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her ongoing focus is to inspire leaders to improve student success and transform institutions for the future. Baer presents nationally and internationally on academic innovations, educational transformation, alliances and partnerships, the campus of the future, shared leadership and building capacity in analytics. Recent publications have been on smart change, shared leadership, innovations in higher education, transforming in an age of disruptive change, and analytics as a tool to improve student success.

Victor A. Benassi, PhD

University of New Hampshire

Victor A. Benassi is professor of psychology and faculty director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of New Hampshire. He is an APA fellow and served as the 2013 Div. 2 president (Society for the Teaching of Psychology, STP). He is principal investigator of two Davis Educational Foundation grants — The Cognition Toolbox: Implementing Cognitive Principles and Assessing Student Learning and Teaching and Learning with Multimedia. With William Buskist, he is co‐editor of "Effective College and University Teaching: Strategies and Tactics for the New Professoriate" (2012). With Catherine Overson and Chris Hakala, he is co-editor of "Applying the Science of Learning in Education: Infusing Psychological Science into the Curriculum" (STP, 2014). In 2003, Benassi received the American Psychological Foundation’s Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology award. His current research focuses on the application of science of learning principles to teaching and learning in college and university courses.

Jim Diaz-Granados, PhD

American Psychological Association

Jim Diaz-Granados, PhD, is executive director for education at the American Psychological Association. He joined APA in September 2014 after serving as chair and professor of psychology, neuroscience, and biomedical studies in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University. He received his PhD in psychology (behavioral neuroscience concentration) from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to Baylor, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research focused on the developmental, behavioral and neurochemical aspects of alcohol abuse and addiction. He worked with animal models of fetal alcohol syndrome, adolescent alcohol abuse, and most recently, of aging. His work has been funded by the NIH and the Department of Defense. He is past president of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology and a member of the Commission on Accreditation where he served as chair of the Research Work Group and panel review co-chair.

Joseph Evans, PhD

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Joe Evans, PhD, is a professor at the Monroe–Meyer Institute and in the department of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He received his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1974 and has been the director of the department of psychology at MMI since 1986. Evans is also associate clinical director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska. Evans is the recipient of over $14 million in grants and contracts and currently administers two HRSA-funded grant projects providing internship training for doctoral psychology students. One major recipient has been the HRSA Graduate Psychology Education program, in its 11th year of funding for Nebraska interns. He is an active clinician, dealing with children, adolescents and families. For the past 12 years he has been involved in the integration of behavioral health services into primary care practices in Nebraska, with training programs now being disseminated to other states including Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania. For integrating behavioral health care, Evans was awarded the American Psychological Foundation’s $50,000 Cummings Psyche award in 2008.

Sue Frantz, MA

Highline College

At Highline College near Seattle, Sue Frantz is in her third decade in the college classroom. Throughout her career she has been an early adopter of new technologies in which she saw pedagogical potential. She created the first Web page for her students in 1995. By the mid '90s, she was presenting on (then) cutting-edge technologies such as using email discussion groups to foster student engagement and interaction. In 2009 she founded her blog, Technology for Academics, which drew 55,000 unique visitors in 2013. The blog features both new tech tools and tips for using not-so-new tools more effectively. She currently serves as vice president for resources for Div. 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and as chair of APA’s membership board. In 2013 she was the inaugural recipient of the APA award for Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at a Two-Year College or Campus.

Catherine L. Grus, PhD

American Psychological Association

Grus is the deputy executive director for education at the American Psychological Association and has been on the staff of the APA since 2005. Grus received her PhD in clinical psychology from Nova University in 1993. She completed her doctoral internship at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At APA she works to advance policies and practices that promote high-quality education and training at the doctoral, postdoctoral and post-licensure levels. Areas of focus for Grus include the development of models and tools for competency assessment in professional psychology, supervision and primary care psychology practice.

Ladonna Lewis, PhD

Glendale Community College

Ladonna Lewis, PhD, has been a psychology professor teaching undergraduate students since 1996, and has been teaching online since 2007. While teaching both online and face-to-face classes, Lewis’ online classes are designed to give students the same personal touch her face-to-face students receive. She is a Quality Matters master reviewer, and also does online class reviews for her college’s Gold Star program. Lewis teaches Introduction to Psychology (both online and face-to-face), Black Psychology (online), Introduction to Statistics (face to face), and Research Methods (face to face) . Lewis received her PhD in experimental psychology with an emphasis in social psychology from The University of Oklahoma, and is currently the assistant chairperson for the psychology department at Glendale Community College in Arizona.

Alexander Ross, ScD

Health Resources and Services Administration

Alexander Ross, ScD, is a senior advisor on behavioral health and public health policy in the Bureau of Health Workforce at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to focusing on behavioral health workforce programs, he supports HRSA bureaus and offices fostering the integration of behavioral health and primary care. Ross’ work has included an emphasis on financing issues regarding behavioral health/primary care services and assuring that an appropriately trained health care workforce is available to meet the nation’s needs. In addition to his current work, Ross has held positions at HRSA in the Office of Planning and Evaluation, the Bureau of HIV/AIDS, and the Office of Public Health Practice. Ross has a doctor of science degree in health policy from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Bruce Rybarczyk, PhD, ABPP

Virginia Commonwealth University

Bruce Rybarczyk received his PhD in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1988 after interning at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. He was at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for 18 years, serving as the director of clinical training for the psychology internship program and tenured sssociate professor in the medical school, prior to returning to VCU in 2006. He worked primarily in rehabilitation psychology while at Rush, earning his ABPP in that area, and also was the principal investigator for an NIH study testing the efficacy of CBT for insomnia that is comorbid chronic medical illness. At VCU, Rybarczyk has been the director of training for the clinical psychology program for the past seven years and directs the behavioral medicine track in the program. He also has an appointment in the department of psychiatry. Current grant funding and research is focused on training doctoral students in integrated primary care psychology and testing brief interventions within this setting, including CBT for insomnia. He is an American Psychological Association fellow and has over 75 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and books.  

Anastasia Salter, PhD

University of Central Florida

Anastasia Salter is an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Central Florida. She has two books forthcoming in 2014: "What is Your Quest? From Adventure Games to Interactive Books" from the University of Iowa Press and, co-authored with John Murray, "Flash: Building the Interactive Web" from MIT Press. Her research focuses on positioning games and digital narratives as media artifacts with consequences for learning, social engagement and participatory culture. She writes for ProfHacker, a blog on technology and pedagogy hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, and is currently chair of the North American Simulation and Gaming Association and a member of the THATCamp Council.

Cathy Sandeen, PhD

American Council on Education

Cathy Sandeen, PhD is currently vice president for education attainment and innovation at the American Council on Education, the nation’s largest and most visible association representing all sectors of higher education. She oversees ACE’s efforts to increase postsecondary educational attainment, capitalizing on her expertise in technology and higher education innovation, nontraditional students, prior learning assessment, alternative credentials and massive open online courses (MOOCs). She also oversees ACE’s Center for Education Attainment and Innovation, including major grant programs, the ACE credit recommendation service, veterans’ programs and development of new initiatives. She has over 22 years of leadership experience at three University of California campuses. From 2006 to 2012, she served as dean of UCLA Extension at the University of California Los Angeles. Serving over 50,000 students per year, UCLA Extension is one of the nation’s largest programs serving nontraditional students with a variety of innovative programs. A prolific writer and speaker, Sandeen has published and presented widely on various aspects of educational innovation and nontraditional students and has received major grants. She earned a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and an MBA degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She was an American Council on Education (ACE) fellow in 2010-11.

Karen Studwell, JD

American Psychological Association

Karen Studwell, J.D., is the associate executive director of government relations for the Education Directorate. Prior to joining the Education Directorate, she worked for 12 years in the APA Science Directorate as a senior legislative and federal affairs officer. She leads APA’s federal advocacy agenda for graduate psychology education and training, focusing primarily on expanding federal support for programs within the Health Resources and Services Administration.  An experienced appropriations lobbyist, she came to APA after representing voluntary health agencies and medical societies on a variety of health policy goals, including improving access to clinical trials, and expanding stem cell research and increasing federal investments in health research. She has been recognized for her work by both APA, receiving the APA Employee Service Award in 2004, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, which honored her with the Distinguished Service on Behalf of Social-Personality Psychology Award.

A. Jordan Wright, PhD

Empire State College, SUNY

A. Jordan Wright is the head of the human development department at Empire State College, State University of New York, where he is also the academic coordinator for undergraduate psychology at the Center for Distance Learning.  In this role he oversees the curriculum and online course offerings in psychology, as well as the instructors who teach psychology courses online.  Wright received his PhD from Columbia University and his masters in psychology in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He is currently the chair of APA's continuing education committee.