Administration
Chris Dellarocas is Boston University’s Associate Provost for Digital Learning & Innovation and Richard C. Shipley Professor of Management at the Questrom School of Business
Chris leads the advancement of activities and strategies that enhance education at Boston University through the use of digital technologies. He collaborates with schools and colleges to ensure the alignment of digital strategies and the introduction of new technologies that further the University’s progress as a 21st century global research institution. In addition to overseeing BU’s Digital Learning Initiative (DEI), Chris works in concert with other members of senior academic leadership to provide guidance to the University’s Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), to the Educational Technology team (EdTech) and to the Office of Distance Education (ODE) through a close partnership with the Metropolitan College. Chris led BU’s involvement as part of the edX consortium, including the development of BU’s first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and facilitated campus-wide experiments in digital learning through the Digital Learning Initiative (DEI) grants program.
Linda Nulty: Finance and Operations Manager
Linda started her BU career in 2010 in Human Resources, and in 2013 joined the business office of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 2016 she joined DL&I, which was a brand new organization within the Provost’s office. As DL&I’s Finance and Operations Manager, Linda is responsible for following BU compliance on all budgeting, personnel administration, payroll, and purchasing for the department. Linda has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing with a concentration in Economics from Roger Williams University and holds a certificate in Human Resources from Quincy College.
Maureen McCarthy: Communications Manager
Maureen leads the communications strategy and implementation for the Office of Digital Learning & Innovation. Prior to joining Boston University, Maureen served as editorial director for four wellness magazines and several award-winning websites, managed email and social media campaigns, and successfully developed editorial and medical advisory boards. Maureen’s communications career also includes serving as editor, writer and content strategist for Boston Children’s Hospital. As editor, she covered pediatric medical news and proudly co-developed the “Gender Identity & Pronoun Use—A Guide for Pediatric Healthcare Professionals”. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism/Communications from Emerson College, is a member of the Boston University Women’s Guild, and volunteers for Boston Children’s Yawkey Family Inn, the hospital’s patient-family housing program.
Alexis Williams: Administrative Assistant
Alexis provides administrative support to the Digital Learning & Innovation Associate Provost, Chris Dellarocas. Alexis also works on communications for Digital Learning & Innovation. She is a recent graduate of Bard College, where she majored in Studio Arts and minored in Media Studies. Her passions for painting and digital art inspired her year-long Senior Thesis and art show, entitled Lifecasting & Ubiquitous Relationships. Alexis is an avid pursuer of accessible media. During her time at Bard she led the filming, post-production and advertising for the Experimental Humanities Media Corps. Alexis has created digital projects, designed websites, generated promotional videos and graphic design content for a number of nonprofits, and for historical societies such as the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Partnership in Hyde Park and Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
Kristen McCarthy, Administrative Coordinator
Kristen started with Digital Learning and Innovations in February 2020 and supports DL&I’s Educational Technology and Digital Initiatives’ teams. In this role, Kristen coordinates administrative tasking—helping to ensure these teams have necessary support and resources. Kristen received a Master of Learning Sciences degree at Northwestern, focusing her research on the way that portable internet technology affected a learner’s sense of knowledge ownership. Her dedication to higher education advancement brought her to Michigan to work in Academic Affairs for the University of Michigan. She supported digital learning in the Dental School and worked on admissions and recruiting for the School of Public Health before relocating to the east coast. Kristen loves reading, hiking with her dogs, and visiting the New England Aquarium.
The Center for Teaching & Learning
Deborah Breen: Director
Deborah (Deb) Breen is Boston University’s Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). As leader of the CTL team, Deb is focused on developing and expanding partnerships at BU that highlight and strengthen significant learning experiences for all students. She encourages research into learning experiences, collaborations with faculty and staff in initiatives that support teaching and learning, and opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to contribute to an understanding of BU’s learning environment.
Deb has a strong interdisciplinary background with undergraduate qualifications in humanities and applied science (specializing in paper conservation), along with an MA in Public History from Monash University, Australia, and a PhD in History from Duke University. Her interest in experiential and horizontal learning within academic writing, history, and digital humanities informs both her teaching and research.
Jean Otsuki: Associate Director
As Associate Director, Jean Otsuki helps faculty and graduate student instructors to grow as teachers. She offers one-on-one consultations, facilitates workshops, and fosters learning communities. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale University and has taught literature and writing at the college and high school levels.
Christopher (Chris) Greene: Administrative Coordinator
Chris Greene is an Administrative Coordinator at the Center for Teaching & Learning. He manages all Hub Events, administers all stipends and grants for the center, manages the center’s budget, and works with the team on various projects. Chris serves his community in both academic and public contexts through teaching, research, creative writing and educative/therapeutic projects. His vocation involves public philosophy and theology, working to reframe ancient and contemporary wisdom to empower and liberate the everyday person spiritually, physically, and mentally.
Chris holds a M.Div in Theological Studies with a concentration in Religion and the Academy from Boston University and a B.S. in Psychology from UMass Amherst.
Educational Technology
Ernie Perez: Director of Educational Technology
Ernie Perez serves as the Director of Educational Technology for Digital Learning & Innovation for Boston University, where he plays a leading role in the visioning, management, selection, and deployment of enterprise-level educational technology services. He leads and oversees several teams including educational technologists, platform administrators, and instructional designers in the educational technology organization.
Ernie holds a M.S. in Adult, Occupational and Continuing Education and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Kansas State University.
Amod Lele: Lead Educational Technologist
Amod Lele helps faculty navigate a wide array of technologies for use in their classes and professional life. He leads and manages a team of educational technologists and has been a part of BU’s Educational Technology team for more than eight years. Amod is interested in the use and promotion of open educational resources (OER) in higher education. He holds a PhD from Harvard University in religious studies and has almost ten years of college and university teaching experience. He regularly teaches a course on Indian philosophy in the CAS philosophy department. As a lifelong learner, Amod also earned an M.S. degree in Computer Science from Metropolitan College in 2016. In his spare time, he publishes scholarly articles on Buddhist ethics and writes a biweekly updated blog on cross-cultural philosophy.
Chihsun Chiu: Educational Technologist
Chihsun Chiu (錡熏邱 Pinyin: qí xūn qiū), helps faculty get the best results out of the Learning Management System, Blackboard Learn. Her specialization includes the LMS, but also instructional design, and all other technologies that touch the LMS. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology with a Minor in Instructional Design from the University of Kansas, a Master of Arts degree in Digital Storytelling Media from Ball State University, and a B.A. in Radio, Television and Film from Shih Hsin University in Taipei, Taiwan. Chihsun’s doctoral dissertation elaborated on designing online instruction for students with learning disabilities and other struggling learners.
Damon M. Carlson: Educational Technologist
Damon advises faculty on the use of audience response systems, lecture capture, and other classroom technologies. He is an AVIXA Certified Technology Specialist (2013) and supports faculty with his expertise. Damon earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems from Salem State University (Salem, MA) and an M.Ed. degree from the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development at Boston University.
Damon is currently enrolled in a Graduate Certificate program at Umass-Boston with a concentration in Instructional Design.
Maria Afzal: Educational Technologist
Maria advises and assists faculty on pedagogic and technical issues. She offers training and support on a variety of platforms such as Digication, Turnitin Feedback Studio, Adobe’s Creative Cloud and others. She is also an experienced graphic designer who teaches advanced design strategies and software in the College of Communication at BU.
Prior to coming to Boston University, Maria worked as an Educational Technologist and online Course Designer at UMass Amherst. Maria holds a B.S (Hons) in Computer Science, MFA in Multimedia Arts and a M.Ed in Learning Technologies from UMass Amherst.
David DeCamp: Educational Technologist
Dave advises and assists faculty on a variety of platforms for classroom use, with a focus on NVivo, BU Learning Blocks (BULB), Open Educational Resources, Google Suite for Education, MediaKron, and other public-facing platforms for creating and displaying educational content online. Dave also has experience in digital exhibit building, text encoding, and pedagogical applications of open-source mapping technologies. Dave earned his MA and PhD in World History from Northeastern University. While at Northeastern he worked with the library’s Digital Scholarship Group to support using digital platforms for teaching and research. He received his BA in History from Davidson College and taught World History at Northeastern University and Emmanuel College.
Qiyuan Li: Data Modeler and Developer
Qiyuan is an Educational Technology data modeler and developer with Boston University’s Office of Digital Learning & Innovation. She serves as a data architect responsible for the integration of data from varied data sources, including learning management systems (Blackboard and edX), student information system, and other institutional applications to produce reports and dashboards in support of the data-informed decision making process. Qiyuan received her Ph.D. degree in Learning, Design and Technology with a minor in Statistics at the Pennsylvania State University. She focused on the application of machine learning methods to evaluate the interaction of MOOC learners in her dissertation, then developed it into a learning analytics dashboard that supports online teaching and learning activities. Qiyuan also has a master degree in Psychology and a bachelor in Engineering, so she is also interested in teaching and learning in mental health and S.T.E.M. domains.
Educational Platform Administration
Harry Lawrence: Manager, Educational Platform Administration
Harry is the Manager of the Educational Platform Administration group for Educational Technology. His background working with the LMS and lecture capture spans many years, having previously served as Senior Platform Administrator within Educational Technology, as a Client Support Specialist in the IT Help Center and also in Information Technology and Academic Technology at Simmons College. Harry is knowledgeable in many other educational technologies and supports faculty and the front-line Client Support Specialists in the IT Help Center when deep expertise is required. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Siena College and a Master of Science degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College.
Wendell Seale: Senior Platform Administrator, Video Streaming
Wendell serves in the role of Platform Administrator for the streaming video platform for instructional video. Wendell has more than a decade of a track record of proven leadership in Video and Audio Production in higher education. Besides his expertise in the AV area Wendell has many years of experience with a plethora of instructional technologies, which he gained during his career at Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While his primary job designation is on the technical side Wendell is also an experienced and well-rounded educational technologist. Wendell’s academic credentials include a Bachelor of Science in New Media from Emerson College and a Master of Education in Instructional Technology from Cambridge College.
Jennifer MacLeod: Platform Administrator
Jennifer joined the Educational Technology team in June 2018, after the merger of Boston University and Wheelock College. She brings 20 years of experience with a broad spectrum of learning technologies and distance education to her position. Jennifer is the Platform Administrator for BU’s Blackboard and Echo360. Prior to serving at Wheelock College, Jennifer worked for the Colleges of the Fenway, Texas A&M University at Galveston (where she earned the Vice President Meritorious Service Distinguished Staff Award), and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Monty Kaplan: Platform Administrator
Monty’s focus is platform administration for the Questrom online MBA and the efficient delivery of our MicroMasters and other courses offered on edX.
Prior to coming to Boston University, Monty worked as an Instructional Technologist at Emerson College. During his time in Higher Education he has supported technologies such as Blackboard, ePortfolio, and WordPress.
Kevin Wiles: Platform Administrator
Kevin is a Platform Administrator for the educational assessment and evaluation platforms. Before joining DL&I, he was the administrator for Summer Term responsible for managing their website and multiple databases for faculty, student, and course information, as well as course assessments. Kevin’s background with Boston University originates as an undergraduate student earning a degree in French. Later returning to BU as an employee, he earned a certificate in Computer Science from Metropolitan College and gained nearly a decade of combined work experience at BU. Kevin is currently enrolled in the Ed.M. program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.
Digital Initiatives
Romy Ruukel: Director
Romy leads the Digital Initiatives group, comprising of the Digital Education Incubator and the Instructional Production Services team. She joined BU after program managing at edX, a global e-learning and MOOC platform. She has MA degrees in human development & psychology (Harvard University) and humanities & leadership (New College of California) and a BA in English Language and Literature (Whitman College). Throughout her career, Romy’s work and research have focused on sociology of education, universal design for learning, and 20th-century social movements.
Diana Marian: Senior Project Manager
Diana joined the Digital Education Incubator team after coordinating several projects within the Open Society Foundations network. She has managed innovative literacy initiatives, including adult education programs and the development of an online tool guiding legal comprehension. She holds a Master’s degree in International Education Policy from Harvard Graduate of School of Education, where she focused on education initiatives for 21st-century demands and strategic management of education non-profits. At the Incubator, Diana works with faculty, staff, and other stakeholders to facilitate the development of new Incubator projects and guide their implementation using an Agile PM approach centered on design thinking.
Diane Carroll: Project Manager
Prior to joining Boston University, Diane managed product education projects at a large healthcare software company. With a focus on user experience, she led teams in designing and delivering scalable solutions that aligned to established learning principles and technologies. In addition to program and project management, Diane’s professional interests and experience include instructional design, process improvement, and change management. She holds a Master’s degree (Technical and Professional Writing) from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) from the University of Virginia. Diane is an ESOL tutor with the Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts.
Nancy Bartlett: Manager, Instructional Production Services
Nancy leads the Instructional Production Services team in the design and development of digital courses for the Online MBA program as well as specialized projects from across Boston University. Nancy has more than 25 years in leading and facilitating the development of instructional and professional development materials across modalities including classroom and online, most recently at Harvard Business School Online. With a focus on broadening access to quality education, Nancy seeks to create and implement learning design and development processes and structures that enable the execution of innovative and effective teaching at scale. Nancy earned her MBA from the Questrom School of Business.
Robert (Bob) Heim: Senior Instructional Multimedia Producer
Bob has been shooting and editing video for 25 years. After graduating from UMass Boston, he started his video career at a Boston television station editing movies for content. Over the years, some of the organizations he has worked for include the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots; shooting two World Series and four Super Bowls.
David Charpentier: Senior Instructional Multimedia Producer
David is an experienced media producer and editor. After graduating from UNC’s School of Architecture, David grew into a career of media production and design, which he later amped up with an MFA in Film and Media Production from Boston University’s College of Communication. Before joining the Digital Learning & Innovation team, David worked freelance in New York, shooting digital media, writing and producing theatrical films and television shows, and directing and editing a wide range of commercials, lifestyle videos and educational media. As a media producer and technologist at DL&I, David is interested in crafting inclusive, interactive education experiences that use a combination of traditional lectures, collaborative online environments, and the ever-expanding world of digital media.
Irene Su: Educational Media Producer
Irene joins the Digital Learning & Innovation team with a background in digital media making and teaching, as well as a passion for exploring how media can be used to enhance education. Her work has been shown internationally in places like the United States Institute of Peace, TED Talks, VICE, and IranWire. She has taught courses and workshops at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Riverzedge Arts. Irene graduated from the Film/Animation/Video department at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2014, Irene also completed the Fletcher Summer Institute on the Study of Nonviolent Resistance at Tufts University, focusing on how storytelling and video can be used for social change.
Joshua Mackler: Digital Learning Designer
With a rich background in multimedia, Josh facilitates the pre and post-production phases of digital learning projects for faculty. He joins Instructional Production Services after 7 years of creating countless interactive training modules for multinational corporations, universities, and museums. He is passionate about utilizing cutting-edge technologies to increase learner engagement and outreach. Josh graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in New Media from SUNY Purchase College, focusing on video production and interactive programming.
Irena Fayngold: Digital Learning Designer
Irena Fayngold joins DLI’s Instructional Production Services with 20 years of experience in educational digital content creation. She has collaborated with faculty on professional studies and higher education online course design at Babson College, Brandeis University, Simmons University, Hebrew College, Tufts University, and Harvard Business Publishing. Her formative years were spent at WGBH, developing cutting-edge educational media and contributing to the design and development of the PBS platform, www.pbslearningmedia.org. Also a documentary filmmaker, her 2005 film Hineini was accepted at 50 film festivals worldwide and its accompanying educational curriculum was featured at over 300 community screenings. Irena’s passion is to drive educational innovation in support of learner experience and pedagogical goals.