Shortly after its founding in 2013, the Kirwan Center convened the Academic Transformation Advisory Council (ATAC) to help guide the Center’s initiatives and serve as liaisons and advocates for their institutions and the Center. Drawn from senior academic leadership, ATAC members meet each semester to generate ideas, discover points of collaboration, inform the Kirwan Center’s agenda, advance innovative programs and projects, and disseminate information back to their institutions.
Chrys Egan,
Interim Director, Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence
: Salisbury University
Dr. Chrys Egan is the Associate Dean of the Fulton School of Liberal Arts, a Professor of Communication, and the Interim Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE). She is Chair of the International Leadership Association’s (ILA) Public Leadership Community, Past-Chair of the ILA’s Women and Leadership community, Past-President of the Popular Culture Association in the South, and Past-President of the Maryland Communication Association. Dr. Egan has over 40 academic publications and 50 popular press articles on communication, leadership, and culture. She is co-editor of the book, Pathways into the Political Arena: The Perspectives of Women Global Leaders. She co-edited a special issue of Merits international journal on “Changing Realities for Women and Work.” She is co-editing an ILA book series on Transformative Women Leaders. She earned awards for President’s Diversity, Outstanding Faculty, Alumni Faculty Appreciation, Outstanding Research Mentor, Distinguished Faculty, BEACON Scholar-in-Residence, University System of Maryland Excellence in Mentoring, Maryland Top 100 Women (twice), Leadership Maryland, and Women and Leadership Outstanding Practice with Local Impact.
Christina Cestone received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, where she conducted research on faculty learning communities, instructional methods, motivation, and interprofessional education. Prior to leaving industry for higher education, she earned a Master’s degree in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University.
Her interests are in program evaluation, assessment, and curriculum and instructional development involving active learning methods. She presents her scholarly work nationally, with recent publications in Medical Science Educator; the Journal of Best Practices in Health Professions Diversity: Research, Education and Policy. Cestone is active in the American Education Research Association (AERA), Division I, Education in the Professions.
Prior to University of Maryland, Cestone spent the last eight years in medical education, recently as Associate Dean of Assessment and Evaluation for Drexel University, College of Medicine, where she was responsible for overseeing medical student assessment, and course and curriculum evaluation in an integrated medical curriculum for 1,100 medical students.
Dr. M.J. Bishop is Vice President for Integrative Learning Design at University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) where she leads the evidence-based design and development of learning experiences across disciplines, delivery modalities, and global boundaries. Prior to UMGC, she was Associate Vice Chancellor and inaugural director of the University System of Maryland’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, where she led major statewide initiatives in the areas of open educational resources, online education, comprehensive learner records, alternative credentials, and adaptive learning.
Prior to USM, Dr. Bishop was Associate Professor and Director of Lehigh University’s Teaching, Learning, and Technology Program where she led the institution’s graduate programs in instructional design and technology, taught graduate level courses, and mentored master’s and doctoral students. MJ’s research interests include understanding the psychology behind instructional media to discover their pedagogical capabilities and to devise more effective ways to design instructional technologies to enhance learning.
Dionne N. Curbeam,
Vice-President of Technology & Chief Information Officer
: Coppin State University
Dr. Dionne N. Curbeam is the Vice-President of Technology & Chief Information Officer at Coppin State University. In this role, she provides strategic leadership, vison, and direction to several units: Instructional Technology; IT Development and Training; Tier One Help Desk Support; EagleTech Center (Service Center, Open Computer Labs, IT Student Experiential Learning Program); Quality Assurance; and the campus website. Dr. Curbeam has been instrumental in spurring faculty innovation, increasing adjunct faculty’s technology usage, transforming lab spaces to improve the student experience, expanding opportunities for students to learn about campus technologies, advancing virtual reality technologies, enhancing university’s staff professional development opportunities, revamping Tier One campus support, and guiding the campus through a significant website redesign project. She has won several awards (three-time Blackboard Catalyst Award winner, Maryland Daily Record’s VIP List, Woman of Color Rising Star Award, etc.), presented at numerous conferences (EDUCAUSE, Online Learning Consortium, Blackboard, etc.), and earned multiple certifications (Quality Matters Peer Reviewer, Quality Matters Trainer, Microsoft Innovative Educator, etc.). Dr. Curbeam holds an Ed.D. from Bowie State University, M.A. degrees from Towson University and University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a B.S. degree also from Bowie. She has professional and research interests in change management, technology adoption, organizational communication, and the impact of technology for student success.
Jessica K. Clark,
Associate Provost & Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs
: Salisbury University
Dr. Jessica Kennett Clark is Associate Provost & Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs and an associate professor in Biological Sciences at Salisbury University. Jessica earned her doctorate in Neurobiology from Florida State University in 2009, and in 2014 completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Virginia. From there, Jessica joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Salisbury University, where she has taught undergraduate courses in anatomy and physiology, vertebrate physiology, and neurobiology. Her teaching expands beyond the classroom into her research lab where she has mentored numerous students, resulting in their authorship in publications, presentations, awards, and fellowships. In 2019, she was awarded SU’s Outstanding Research Mentor award for her dedication to her students’ success. Previously, Jessica co-directed the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creativity, where she had the opportunity to help promote undergraduate research as a high-impact practice, and helped build a diverse peer-ambassador program to promote inclusion in this important realm of the undergraduate experience. Jessica is also a co-PI on a National Science Foundation grant aimed at increasing diversity in the professoriate across the USM, and out of that, helped build a mentoring program at Salisbury to facilitate the retention and success of incoming faculty.
Dr. Matthew Crosston is Director of Academic Transformation at Bowie State University. Dr. Crosston is an acclaimed author and international educator who consults with governments, media organizations, and academic institutions on a range of issues covering education innovation, change leadership, peace mediation, human rights conflicts, resource dilemmas, intelligence, and cyber. He serves as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Israel and on the Advisory Board of the influential International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. Additionally, he is Senior Advisor for the Research Institute for European and American Studies in Athens, Greece, Senior Fellow at the China Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research in Nanjing, China, Executive Vice Chairman of ModernDiplomacy.eu, and was the first American invited to conduct a political analysis blog for the Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow, Russia. He also advised and helped develop four new doctoral programs at St. Johns University, the American Military University, and North Carolina State University, in Homeland Security Management, Global Security, Strategic Intelligence, and International Security, respectively. He has published top-tier research that has impacted real world decision-making in the U.S. and beyond. Overall, he has over 150 articles, analytical editorials, and commissioned opinion pieces that have been translated into Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Hebrew, Spanish, Turkish, Farsi, Greek, and Uzbek. He has held professorial/administrative leadership appointments at Clemson University, the Virginia Military Institute, Bellevue University, and the American Military University, launching new degree programs at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels (residential, hybrid, and online modalities), facilitating new faculty development initiatives, and fostering student scholarship to external publication. Dr. Crosston has a B.A. from Colgate University, M.A. from the University of London, Ph.D. from Brown University, and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto.
Michael Eismeier,
Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology/CIO
: University System of Maryland
Michael Eismeier is Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and CIO for the University System of Maryland. He has nearly 10 years of direct higher education experience. In his current role, Michael helps to facilitate coordinated IT strategy across the System and collaborates with System institutions to implement the strategy. Prior to coming to higher education, Michael spent 15 years leading technology implementations, mostly in geographic information systems, in local, state and federal government. He also served nearly five years as Director of Strategic Planning, Major Project Oversight and IT Procurement Oversight for State of Maryland Department of IT. Michael is a product of USM, graduating with a BS from Salisbury (State) University in 1994.
Rose Jackson-Speiser is the Research and Data Coordinator for the Universities at Shady Grove. Jackson-Speiser acts as project lead for the USG Digital Badging effort. Additionally, she coordinates and analyzes USG wide assessments and many executive office programs including Student Research Day and a Policy Repository. Jackson-Speiser is also engaged in leadership programming across USG. Jackson-Speiser received her M.A. in higher education administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Kerrie L. Kephart,
Interim Director, Faculty Development Center
: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dr. Kerrie Kephart is Interim Director of the Faculty Development Center, supporting faculty to innovate in their teaching and investigate issues of teaching and learning in their classrooms and disciplines. Her interests in faculty development include the scholarship of teaching and learning, pedagogies of reflection such as journaling and portfolio development, active learning and inquiry-based pedagogies, writing across the curriculum/in the disciplines, and discourses of teaching and learning. She holds a doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a specialization in advanced academic literacy development. Prior to joining the FDC staff, she was Director of the Engineering Communication Program at the University of Washington, Seattle, and prior to that, she was Assistant Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at the University of Texas at El Paso. In her previous positions, she conducted research studies in innovative teaching methods in the STEM fields and presented a workshop series in writing across the curriculum for faculty across all disciplines. She has also taught a variety of courses in language and literacy development, including academic writing for educators, writing the scientific article, technical communication, English as a second language pedagogy, principles of bilingual education, and discourse analysis.
Mary Lang is the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief of Staff at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG). USG is a University System of Maryland (USM) regional higher education center; a partnership of nine, public degree-granting institutions that gathers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs from across the state to one campus in Montgomery County. From the time she joined USG in 2005, as the Director of Planning/Chief of Staff, she has been responsible for creating and implementing strategic plans for current operations and growth plans for USG that incorporate developing and nurturing critical relationships with academic partners, community organizations and the USG Board of Advisors and the businesses and organizations they represent. USG has become nationally recognized for its innovation academic/instructional model, one that is predicated on effective partnering among USM institutions, area community colleges and K-12, and regional employers. In her role, Lang’s focus has been to support and expand pathways to affordable, innovative, high-quality public higher education that meet the distinctive needs of the region and are designed to support workforce and economic development in the state. Lang chairs USG’s Committee for Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Education Strategies and is the primary professional support for the USG Board of Advisors, USG’s Academic and Programs Advisory Committee, and the Shady Grove Governing Council. She is also a member of the Workforce Investment Board for Montgomery County. Lang earned an MBA from George Mason University and a BA in Economics from the College of William and Mary.
Jessica Stansbury,
Director of Teaching and Learning Excellence in the Center for Excellence of Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT)
: The University of Baltimore
Dr. Jessica A. Stansbury is the Director of Teaching and Learning Excellence in the Center for Excellence of Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT). She holds a doctorate in Instructional Technology and a Masters in Experimental Psychology from Towson University. Prior to coming to University of Baltimore, she worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital as an assessment’s specialist, later transitioning to Johns Hopkins University working on substance abuse research. Over the past 15 years, she has served Towson University in various roles including full time faculty in the Psychology Department, adjunct faculty for the Instructional Technology Master’s Program, the Psychology Department’s Virtual Learning Consultant, and Program Director for Psychology Program at Towson University Northeastern Maryland. In her role as faculty, she created and directed the first psychology research Teaching and Gaming Lab (TAG Lab) at Towson University. She has a passion for the scholarship of teaching and learning and has had multiple research presentations, research publications, media appearances and invited presentations regarding her work with video gaming in higher education. She has developed several professional growth workshops in innovative pedagogy and her research focus includes innovative teaching methods, perceptions about teaching and learning and emerging technologies.
Jack Suess is the Vice President of Information Technology at UMBC. The Vice President of Information Technology is the university's Chief Information Officer (CIO). As Vice President, he provides university leadership for information technology at UMBC and serves on the executive leadership team of the university. He is responsible for providing information technology services in support of teaching and scholarship, research computing, and administrative support. Reporting directly to the President, he is responsible for strategic planning and implementation, coordination, budget, personnel, and policy related to information technology at UMBC.
Suess is an alum of UMBC and has worked there since 1981. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Operations Analysis. Throughout the years, he has taught a number of courses at UMBC, including Computer Organization and Assembly Programming, Unix System Administration, and Computers and Society. He has led UMBC information technology since 1997 and was appointed UMBC CIO in 2000. During his tenure, UMBC has been recognized as a leader in the use of information technology.
Since February 2012, Becky Verzinski has served as the Assistant Vice President for Assessment at Bowie State University (BSU) where she is responsible for the assessment of academic programs, program reviews, and the assessment of the General Education Program (GEP). She is BSU's principal investigator for the Maryland Higher Education Commission’s (MHEC) One Step Away Grant (OSA) Initiative that helps near-completer students to graduate. Since 2013, she has graduated 19 students under the OSA initiative. Previously, she was responsible for the assessment of the GEP at Morgan State University from 2008-2012. From 1998-2008, Verzinski served as an assistant director in the student affairs division at Towson University. She has 20 years of experience in higher education and also teaches graduate courses in organizational communications at Bowie State.
While in Maryland, she has been active in many professional organizations. From 2009-2011, she served as the treasurer for the Women in Maryland Higher Education Executive (WIMHE) Board. As part of the Mid-Atlantic College and University Housing Officers (MACUHO) executive board, she served as treasurer (2007-2008) and also as the 2003 co-chair for the annual professional conference held in Baltimore.
Verzinski was awarded the University System of Maryland Women’s Forum Professional Development Grant (2008) and also the Distinguished Alumni Award (2008) from the Department of Student Affairs in Higher Education at IUP. Additionally, she was given the 2007 Outstanding Research Award by the College Student Educators International (ACPA) for her dissertation research on Impacting College Students’ Attitudes toward Mental Illness.
She earned her doctorate degree in Urban Educational Leadership from Morgan State University, her master’s degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and her bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Public Relations also from IUP. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and daughter.
Patricia Westerman,
Assistant Provost, Faculty Academic Center of Excellence at Towson
: Towson University
Dr. Patricia Westerman joined the Towson University community in June 2019 as the inaugural Assistant Provost for the Faculty Academic Center of Excellence and as a tenured professor in the Psychology Department. Before starting at Towson University, she served in a number of academic, administrative, and leadership roles, while teaching for 22 years at Bowie State University (BSU). She served as Director of the BSU Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, as co-Chair of the BSU Middle States Self-Study Steering Committee, and as BSU Faculty Senate Chair. Most recently, she served as Chair of the Council of University System Faculty (CUSF) for the University System of Maryland. Westerman conducts research on innovation in higher education teaching and learning, as well as higher education leadership and mentoring.
