2021 Summer Institute Presenters

Dr. Yanling Sun
Dr. Yanling Sun is the Assistant Vice President of Instructional Technology and Design Service (ITDS) at Montclair State University. Her professional experience has been focusing on the academic integration of technologies as well as the assimilation of best practice of pedagogical strategies and instructional design methodologies into teaching and learning process. She strategizes and manages the instructional technology services to ensure members of the Campus Community are able to effectively integrate appropriate and enabling pedagogies and technologies into academic activities and administrative operations. With years of instructional design and technology experience and educational background in Instructional Technology, Dr. Sun initiated a social-collaborative course design model and a well-received faculty development program and leads the ITDS team to provide high quality course design services and faculty development support at Montclair State University. Dr. Sun’s research interests are on the disseminated approach of incorporation or conversion of technologies into instructional activities as well as application of sound instructional design strategies to enhance instructional and learning outcomes. She has published research articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented her professional work in a number of national and international conferences.

Dr. Emily Isaacs
Prof. Isaacs specializes in writing pedagogy, writing assessment, and writing programming in higher education. Professor Isaacs’ scholarship is focused on best practices for writing instruction and administration, the national state of writing instruction and support at U.S. four-year universities, and teaching and learning in public higher education. Recently her articles have appeared in Pedagogy, College English, Writing Program Administration, Writing Center Journal, Journal of Teaching Writing and in several book collections. In addition, she is the author of three books, including most recently, Writing at the State U (Utah State UP).

Dr. Jinxia He
Dr. He is a lead Instructional Designer at Montclair State University. Before that, she worked as an Instructional Design Technologist at Atlanta University Center. She received her Ph.D. with a specialization in Instructional System Design from the University of Central Florida. Her research interests focus on using instructional strategies in online teaching and learning, building online learning communities and team-based learning especially virtual teams, as well as incorporating emerging technologies in education.

Joe Yankus
Joe is an Instructional Designer with about 10 years of professional work experience in higher education, six of those years being exclusively in instructional design. His course design experience spans both the non-credit and credit sectors, from collaborating with industry professionals on continuing education courses and working with university faculty on credit-bearing programs. He is also an experienced trainer with demonstrated success in ideating, planning, and conducting training programs of all formats. He has previous experience at Rutgers University and Seton Hall University, and is also a part-time faculty member for the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers, where he teaches an undergraduate Public Speaking course.

Julie Dalley
Julie is Associate Director for the Office for Faculty Advancement. She holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts/Literature from Vermont College, Norwich University, Vermont, and an M.A. in English/Writing Studies from Montclair State University. Ms. Dalley is currently a doctoral candidate at Old Dominion University, where her area of study is narratology, reader communities, and popular/science fiction literature. Her research investigates the intersection of narrative reader theory and real reader experiences in reading popular, genre, and science fiction narratives. In her role as Associate Director for the OFA, Ms. Dalley conducts faculty development workshops, fosters interdisciplinary collaborations, designs and facilitates events, and performs faculty consultations that all work towards fostering teaching excellence at Montclair State, as well as encouraging evidence-based course design that engage students and creates opportunities for deeper learning. She runs the Engaged Teaching Fellows Program, is a co-investigator for the NSF-Funded project, STEM Pioneers, and collaborates with several other faculty communities to facilitate teaching excellence and increased student learning.

Becky Pataki
Becky has been in the Learning and Development industry for many years. She came to Montclair State in 2015 to develop and deliver end user training for the new PeopleSoft system, and continued to train the system community in the Workday program. Currently, she is working with faculty and staff to increase their understanding of the University supported systems, including Microsoft, Zoom, and Canvas.

Qian (Lora) Yao
Lora is an Instructional Designer within the Instructional Technology and Design Services (ITDS) group here at Montclair State University. Qian (Lora) has been working with many online programs. She also provides course design consultations for hybrid and face-to-face courses. Qian holds a MA in Public and Organizational Relations from Montclair State University.

Daniel Stratthaus
Daniel is the Lead Instructional Technologist of the Instructional Technology and Design Services team. He has 20 years of experience in Information Technology which includes roles as Systems Engineer, Team Lead and previous experience with systems administration, data migrations, various data integrations, development and technology training. Daniel has been with MSU IT for 11 years holding various positions. He is currently the primary administrator of Canvas, all of its integrations, as well as the other systems that the ITDS group manage. He works closely with the Instructional Designers and other groups within IT to ensure the learning management system, in addition to the instructional technology we support, helps deliver the best learning experience possible to the campus community.  Daniel is a technology enthusiast and an advocate for anyone who wants to incorporate any kind of technology especially for learning.

Patrick Scioscia
Patrick is a Lead Instructional Designer within the Instructional Technology and Design Services (ITDS) group here at Montclair State University. His responsibilities include instructional design, implementing emerging technologies, LMS management, etc. In addition to his role in ITDS, he is also an instructor in the First-Year Writing department. Patrick earned his MA in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University.

Dr. Danné E. Davis
Dr. Davis earned her Ph.D. from Boston College. With a concentration in curriculum and instruction, she is an associate professor of elementary education in MSU’s Teaching and Learning department. Dr. Davis has published and presented various papers about diversity in teacher education. Currently, she is under contract with Cognella Publishing to write Disrupting Social Studies: Stories and Strategies for Classrooms. An LGBTQ+ ally, she conducts research and workshops on the integration of LGBTQ children’s literature in elementary contexts. Dr. Davis is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Association for Multicultural Education 2011 G. Pritchy Smith Multicultural Educator of the Year, 2012 Distinguished Faculty awardee for Excellence in Teacher Preparation from the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and the NJ Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and 2013 Faculty/Staff LGBTQ Ally of the Year. Dr. Davis is a creative who embraces life long learning.

Dr. Elaine Gerber
Dr. Gerber is a medical anthropologist and disability studies scholar, and a former president of the Society for Disability Studies.  Prior to joining the MSU faculty, she served for five years as the Senior Research Associate for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and taught in the graduate program in Disability Studies at the City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles and her B.A. from the University of Michigan. Her work examines the intersection between culture and the body.There are theoretical contributions and practical applications to her work.

Dr. Kate E. Temoney
Dr. Temoney is a former Assistant Dean of Students and currently an Assistant Professor of Religion. She holds master’s degrees from The College of William & Mary and Florida State University and a PhD in Religion from Florida State University. Trained as a comparative religious ethicist, her publications assess the intersections of religion with warfare, genocide, peace building, and theory of history. She has 21 years of teaching experience that includes two- and four-year institutions, predominately white and historically black universities, face-to-face and online courses, introductory and upper-level courses, and non-traditional and traditional-aged students. Dr. Temoney is a 2019 Northwestern Holocaust Education Foundation Fellow, 2019-2020 Montclair State University Engaged Teaching Fellow, and 2021 United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum Faculty Seminar Awardee. A selection of her courses include Religious Ethics, Religions of the World, the Holocaust, Religion and Human Rights, and Multicultural Film.

Dr. Yanick Joseph
Dr. Joseph, RN, MPA, MSN, Ed. D is an experienced leader in healthcare management with 30+ years in health care management, and over 12 years in nursing education. Her perspective of teaching is grounded in the constructivist framework of learning, the classroom dynamics she employs permit dialogue, self- direction, and inquiry which foster a higher degree of student engagement. She embraces instructional technology that can be used to authenticate the promotion of scholarship. Dr. Joseph teaches in the School of Nursing in the graduate and undergraduate department. Her area of research is in implicit bias in student nurses and her passion is in experiential learning and simulation. Dr. Joseph’s signature strengths include: a vibrant, collaborative, ethical leader with exceptional communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to engage and mentor students and high-performance teams. Her clinical expertise lies in the introduction of nursing care principles and health assessment, women’s health, leadership, policy, team building/ coaching/ mentoring, and innovative customer relationship management.

Pam Fallivene
Pam is a Lead Technology Trainer in the Instructional Technology and Design Services group and has been at Montclair State University for 22 years feeding her passion for teaching and helping others to improve their skills. She supports the campus community on Canvas as well as other teaching and learning technologies.

Abigail Hunte
Abigail is a Senior Technology Trainer in Instructional Technology and Design Services, a Division of Information Technology at Montclair State University. Abigail has over 15 years of experience providing technical training for adult learners in Corporate and Higher Education environments. As a lifelong learner with a diverse background in technology training and support, instructional design, online learning, web development/compliance, and communications, she enjoys helping people reach their learning goals and building confidence in their abilities.

Dr. Dawn Soufleris
Dr. Soufleris serves as Vice President for Student Development and Campus Life and brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in student affairs. She earned a doctorate in Sociology from the University at Buffalo and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Binghamton University. She has conducted research on how homeschooled students make the transition to a residential college experience, and she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Sociology, Women and Gender Studies, American Culture and Criminal Justice, including seminars on sexual violence and on professional leadership. She served as vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at La Salle University, and also as the institution’s deputy Title IX coordinator. Before joining La Salle, Soufleris spent 25 years at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she rose to the position of associate vice president for Student Affairs.

Dr. Jaclyn Friedman-Lombardo
Dr. Friedman-Lombardo is a clinical psychologist and Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Montclair State University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Rhode in School Psychology. Dr. Lombardo started working at CAPS in 1999 and became the Director of the department in 2003. Under her leadership, CAPS staff and services have significantly expanded and the department has been accredited by the International Association of Counseling Services since 2008. Dr. Lombardo’s professional interests include crisis intervention, consultation, group psychotherapy, supervision/training, multicultural issues and working with the LGBTQIA+ community..

Dr. David Hood
Dr. Hood is Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and the founding Dean of University College at Montclair State University. His career has spanned two decades at various levels of K-12 and higher education, both as a faculty member and as a member of the administration at institutions including Elizabeth City State University, Virginia Union University, Central Michigan University, and North Carolina Central University. At Montclair State Dr. Hood he has broad responsibility for the development and implementation of policies and practices that assure the University’s delivery of high quality undergraduate education and students’ successful and timely completion of degrees. He is leading general education reform and oversees undergraduate initiatives including academic advising, the first-year experience, and the Honors Program. He is the co-Project Directors for a $2.2 million Title III-funded initiative, Advising 2025, and has secured funding for TRIO and Title III projects at his former institutions. He earned his doctorate in Administration and Supervision with a concentration in Higher Education from Tennessee State University.

Joaly Garcia
Since 2004, Professor Garcia, M.A. ET, has worked in higher education. She is currently a professor at the Spanish and Latino Studies Department at Montclair State University. She also worked with special projects as an instructional designer with prominent Canadian companies in the areas of corporate training. Her research interests lie in the area of languages and technological educational strategies. Her understanding and experience of learning a new language is her passion, and the reason she has successfully blended technological strategies with engaging techniques. Her cultural approach to teaching enables students to acquire language skills in a manner that keeps them interested and motivated.

Rose Lamela
Rosi has been the Multimedia Specialist for Instructional Technology and Design Services at Montclair State University, since 2017. She has been involved in video, multimedia and photography for the last decade after receiving her BA in Broadcasting from MSU. She previously worked as a Video Specialist and Photographer in the Marketing and Communications Department for Berkeley College, and in the University Communications and Marketing Department at Montclair State. One of her key efforts is producing all video content for the Online MBA program and ITDS. Rosi contributes video and photography to a wide range of venues, including SXSW and other national events.

Chris Petrillo
Chris is an Instructional Designer with ITDS and an MSU alumni of the class of 2016 (BS in Biological Science). In addition to his regular course design, LMS support, and training duties, he enjoys finding creative ways to engage students with multimedia projects using free programs or tools such as iMovie and Anchor.fm.

Terry Steckowich
Terry is an Instructional Technology Specialist in ITDS. He assists both faculty and students with Canvas and other software and campus technologies.  Terry also conducts training classes on Canvas and other campus technologies and enjoys making everyone feel at ease and confident in using them to promote online learning. He received his BA in Communications/Media Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill and previously worked there as well as Columbia Law School. 

Keith Adams
Keith is an Instructional Designer in the Instructional Technology and Design Services (ITDS) group at Montclair State University. Having been an Associate Professor at Rowan University for 10 years, Keith primarily works with faculty on course design, from a pedagogical approach. In addition to this role, Keith manages the ITDS website and teaches Photography in the College of Art. He holds an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts hand and MA in Arts and Humanities Education from New York University.