About the Authors
Christy Allen is the Assistant Director for Discovery Services at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Her career has focused on digital librarianship with an emphasis on digital collections and website design. Christy and Andrea Wright, Furman’s Science and Outreach Librarian, cooperatively lead Furman’s scholarly communications program including support for open educational resources (OER).
Nicole Allen is Director of Open Education for SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to make open the default in research and education. Nicole is an internationally recognized advocate and thought leader in the Open Education movement, who has worked tirelessly to expand access and affordability of education in the digital age since her own days as a college student. Over the last decade, Nicole has given hundreds of talks and trainings in more than a dozen countries on Open Education, education policy, and grassroots organizing. Based in Washington, D.C., Nicole’s portfolio at SPARC includes a robust state and federal policy program, a broad librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for OER librarians. Learn more at www.sparcopen.org.
Jean Amaral (MLIS, MA), an assistant professor and open knowledge librarian at Borough of Manhattan Community College, partners with faculty across disciplines to create active and engaging learning experiences for students. Her focus in the classroom is on student-centered teaching and authentic assessment. Amaral also works with faculty developing research projects in the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is currently engaged in several studies, including ones that address student and faculty information needs and seeking, use of OER, future libraries, student technology use, and servant leadership.
Dr. Alesha Baker is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership department at Northeastern State University where she has worked in the Library Media and Information Technology program for the past two years. Alesha has written and presented on topics such as teacher professional development, but her main area of interest is OER. She has written and presented on using OER in both secondary and PK–12 environments examining both teacher and student perceptions and outcomes.
Chelle Batchelor is the Director of Access Services at the University of Washington Libraries. She has been involved in many activities related to OER over the past several years, including co-chairing the UW Libraries OER Steering Committee, attending the Open Textbook Network Summer Institute, securing grant funding for two Rebus Community open textbook projects, and co-leading the effort to create the Pacific Northwest OER Directory. Chelle is particularly interested in supporting faculty who want to create or adapt new open textbooks, and is excited about the potential of OER to change the landscape of higher education.
Sarah Beaubien is the Head of Collections & Scholarly Communications in the Grand Valley State University Libraries. She holds a Master of Library Science from Indiana University. She provides leadership and strategic oversight for the GVSU Libraries’ collections and scholarly communications programs.
Geneen E. Clinkscales serves as the Systems Librarian at Johnson C. Smith University. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Hampton University and a Master of Library Science from Wayne State University. Prior to this position, she served as a Media Specialist for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. In her role, she facilitates students’ discovery of information, stimulates inquiry, and provides support for integration of information sources toward the development of critical perspectives. Her goal with OER is to increase academic freedom for faculty and improve student success while saving students money.
William Cross is the Director of the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center at NC State University where he provides guidance and support for author rights, fair use, managing scholarly identity, and open pedagogy. Will’s research focuses on ways that library expertise can be used to drive change in the scholarly communication life cycle. He currently serves as co-Principal Investigator on two Institute of Museum and Library Services planning grants focused on developing OER for teaching scholarly communication and on the development of an “Open Textbook Toolkit” that leverages library publishing services to support open pedagogy.
Rebel Cummings-Sauls is the director for the Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship at Kansas State University. She holds a Master of Library Information Science from Florida State University. She leads the center’s initiatives that maximize the creation, dissemination, preservation, and impact of digital scholarship produced at the university.
Kirsten N. Dean is a librarian at Clemson University, where she teaches information literacy and advocates for open education. She holds a degree in writing studies from the University of Illinois and is currently working on her Master of Library Information Science at the University of Alabama. Kirsten is particularly interested in exploring questions related to disciplinarity, transfer, and the library’s role in teaching and learning.
Carolyn Ellis, assistant dean for organizational effectiveness and strategy, oversees the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries’ project portfolio, strategic planning life cycle, and the direction of the web, communications, and user experience areas. She has over 15 years of experience in user-centered design, project management, change communications, and process improvement while working in libraries, information technology, and economic development organizations. Carolyn holds a Master of Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity University.
David Francis is Dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Education at Fleming College in Peterborough, Ontario. This school is responsible for providing flexible delivery options for post-secondary programs, customized training for industry, and online programs. David holds a doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Saskatchewan, and focuses his research on areas of efficiency and effectiveness in higher education
Emily Frank is the Coordinator of Scholarship and Open Access for Louisiana State University Libraries. She leads the library’s affordable course materials projects, including an e-textbook initiative focused on aligning licensed ebooks with courses and the OER program. She coordinates local projects under the Affordable Learning LOUISiana initiative spearheaded by LOUIS, the statewide library consortium.
Teri Gallaway, Associate Commissioner of LOUIS, serves in the capacity of Executive Director for the statewide consortium as well as the project lead for the Affordable Learning LOUISiana initiative. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Higher Education Administration from Louisiana State University and her research explores the opportunities and outcomes of OER programs and their institutional impacts.
Arthur G. Green teaches geospatial science and environmental geography as a faculty member at Okanagan College in British Columbia, Canada. He is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia and a former BCcampus Open Education Faculty Fellow and Hewlett Foundation Open Education Research Fellow. His research on property rights issues in Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America has been featured in several international conferences including the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). His current research program examines textbook costs, develops open education practices for geography, and creates virtual reality OERs for environmental education.
Sarah Hare (formerly Crissinger) is currently the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Indiana University, where she works on several open and library publishing initiatives. Sarah’s research focuses on scholarly communication outreach to undergraduate students and OER. Prior to joining IU Libraries in 2017, Sarah served as Information Literacy Librarian at Davidson College, where she created open access programming and led two OER initiatives.
John Hilton III is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University. He is the author or co-author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications. He has a variety of research interests including the processes of learning and teaching and the effect of OER. He has published in several journals including Educational Researcher, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, Educational Technology Research and Development, and The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. John and his wife Lani have six children; his favorite hobby is learning Chinese.
Cinthya Ippoliti is the Associate Dean for Research and Learning Services at Oklahoma State University where she has administrative leadership for graduate and undergraduate library services, reference and information services, liaison efforts with teaching and research faculty, and assessment of library services. Previously, she was Head of Teaching and Learning Services at the University of Maryland where she was in charge of the spaces, services, and programming offered by the Terrapin Learning Commons in addition to coordinating the libraries’ first-year instruction program. Cinthya has written and presented on topics such as digital badges, assessing emerging technologies both in and out of the classroom, and developing technology partnerships.
DeeAnn Ivie, Open Education Coordinator, leads the Adopt a Free Textbook grant program and facilitates outreach to partners in support of the initiative. DeeAnn also provides research and teaching support for social sciences faculty, and tailors library sessions and tutorials for classes, integrating active learning, group work, and flipped instruction. DeeAnn earned her Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas.
Dr. Rajiv S. Jhangiani is a Special Advisor to the Provost on Open Education and a Psychology Instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, Canada, where he conducts research in open education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He also serves as an Associate Editor of Psychology Learning and Teaching and an Ambassador for the Center for Open Science. His most recent book is Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science (Ubiquity Press, 2017, CC-BY). You can find him online at @thatpsychprof or thatpsychprof.com.
Michael LaMagna is an Associate Professor, Reference Librarian serving as library liaison to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics division, and Information Literacy Program and Library Services Coordinator at Delaware County Community College. Michael serves as the chair of the Alt Text Committee with the charge of integrating OER content into courses across the college. His research interests include OER adoption, digital badges, and synchronous online instruction. Michael received his EdD in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University, Master of Library Science from St. John’s University, Master of Arts in History from Villanova University, and Bachelor of Arts in History from Susquehanna University.
Anne Langley is the Dean, University of Connecticut Library. Throughout her career she has held a variety of library positions at Penn State University, Princeton, Duke, NC State University, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a master’s degree in library science from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Georgia State University. She has worked on a variety of open access and scholarly communication projects, including serving in leadership roles for the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions and is an avid supporter of all things open.
Jonathan Lashley serves as Senior Instructional Technologist at Boise State University, where he also teaches for the first-year writing program. He is a PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Clemson University and his dissertation research focuses on the role that instructor values and training play in decisions about open textbook adoption. Named one of the first OER Research Fellows for the Open Education Group, Jonathan was recently awarded a Designing with OER Fellowship for his work as an instructional designer.
