Credential Forum Presenters
Nelson C. Baker, Dean, Professional Education & Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technolog
Nelson C. Baker, Ph.D., is the dean of Professional Education at the Georgia Institute of Technology and professor in the university’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As dean, Dr. Baker leads a multifaceted operation including the Global Learning Center, Georgia Tech-Savannah, the Language Institute, and Georgia Tech’s extensive professional education programs in STEM- and business-related subjects. Dr. Baker also oversees educational outreach programs and serves as the interface between Georgia Tech’s professional education activities and the industries, corporations, government agencies and professional societies that benefit from them. Under Dr. Baker’s leadership, Georgia Tech Professional Education has steadily expanded, now serving more than 36,000 learners worldwide and 2,600 organizations each year. Dr. Baker’s award-winning work on the impact of technology on engineering students’ learning has generated projects such as multilingual web-based intelligent simulations for problem solving, among others. Leading Dr. Baker’s list of honors is the W.M. Keck Foundation Award for Engineering Teaching Excellence. He has been named an ENR Educator for Construction’s Next Generation as well as an NSF National Young Investigator. He is also the recipient of the Best Paper Award from the ASCE Journal of Computing. Within Georgia Tech, he has received the Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology Award and the W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award. Currently, Dr. Baker serves as the Secretary General of the International Association of Continuing Engineering Education (IACEE) and is also the President of the University Professional Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). He is the Past-Chair of the Georgia Board of Regents Administrative Committee on Public Service and Continuing Education, and he is an active member of ASEE and ASCE. Dr. Baker graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1980 with a B.C.E. in Civil Engineering. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985 and 1989 respectively.
Angel Burgos, Executive Director of MBA Programs, Chapman Graduate School of Business, Florida International University
Angel Burgos is Executive Director of MBA Programs for the Chapman Graduate School of Business at Florida International University (FIU). In this capacity he directs all business activities and operations for eight MBA programs and over 1,200 graduate students. Prior to joining FIU, he managed graduate programs for the George Mason University, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University. From 1996-1998, Burgos served as a Jacob Javits Congressional Fellow for Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), where he researched and analyzed social and economic policy issues. He was awarded the Senator Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and served as a Fulbright Scholar in the U.S.-Germany International Education Administrators Program. Angel is a graduate of the Leadership Florida Cornerstone Program, Class 36. Angel is a graduate of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs with a master’s degree in public administration. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Hunter College and a certificate in higher education administration from George Mason University. Angel is thrilled to live in South Florida and is actively involved with a number of nonprofit organizations in the region. Angel currently serves on the Board of Directors for Lambda Legal, Funding Arts Broward, and on the Gold Coast Regional Council for Leadership Florida.
Brian Cameron, Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University
Brian Cameron is the Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs in the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University and is the Founding Director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Dr. Cameron is also the Founding President of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) and designed and implemented the first online Enterprise Architecture master’s program in the world. He has worked with a wide portfolio of companies on a variety of consulting engagements ranging from large systems integration projects to enterprise architecture planning and design. Dr. Cameron was awarded the NPA Career Achievement Award in 2011 for efforts related to the founding of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, the building of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, and associated service to the enterprise architecture profession. In his current role as Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs, Dr. Cameron is leading the design and implementation of a new portfolio of online and resident professional master’s programs and graduate certificates. Professional master’s programs include inter-college collaborations with several Penn State colleges (Liberal Arts, Education, IST, Engineering, Health and Human Development, and others). Part of this portfolio consists of the redesign and launch of the inter-campus online MBA program. Dr. Cameron is leading a marketing strategy and branding initiative to better position the evolving portfolio of professional graduate programs in the increasingly competitive marketplace. He has reorganized the current MBA program office structure to create a professional graduate education programs office to provide shared services to all programs. Shared services include recruiting/marketing, admissions, advising, student organizations, diversity, mentoring, tutoring, career services, employer relations, and alumni services and relations as well as reorganized financial reporting and management associated with professional graduate programs. Dr. Cameron is successfully leading and managing significant change in a multi-campus, multi-college environment. He led the formation of new faculty and departmental governance structures for professional graduate education and was appointed by the Provost to the Transforming Education Task Force for the Future of Online Learning and World Campus. Dr. Cameron was selected to attend the Big 10 Academic Alliance’s Academic Leadership Program and is currently exploring new pedagogical approaches for online and hybrid graduate professional education and faculty development.
Bridget Cram, Assistant Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, Florida International University
As Assistant Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, Dr. Cram provides leadership in aligning division goals to the university strategic plan while cultivating partnerships across various units, programs, and external partners to enhance curricular and co-curricular alignment for Academic and Student Affairs. She develops programs and partnerships, leads synergistic strategies to coalesce programming with academic and student affairs, leads 21st Century Workforce Initiatives, including the development of an academic and assessment-based framework and design strategy for alternative credentials.
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Sean Gallagher, Executive Director, Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, and Executive Professor of Educational Policy, Northeastern University
Dr. Sean Gallagher is Executive Director of Northeastern University’s Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, and Executive Professor of Educational Policy. Sean joined Northeastern in 2009 and is a nationally recognized expert with 20 years of experience in higher education, including former roles as Chief Strategy Officer for Northeastern’s Lifelong Learning Network, and as a director and business leader at research and consulting firm Eduventures. Sean’s writing and commentary are frequently featured in leading media outlets, and his research has been cited in numerous academic papers and books. His book, The Future of University Credentials: New Developments at the Intersection of Higher Education and Hiring, was published in 2016 by Harvard Education Press. Sean holds a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) from Northeastern University; an M.B.A. from the New York Institute of Technology; and a B.S. in Marketing from Northeastern.
Megan Hendricks, Executive Director of the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance
Megan Hendricks is the Executive Director of the MBA Career Services & Employer Alliance, an 800+ member global network of MBA/Masters career services professionals and employers. In this capacity, she leads the organization's global activities, programs and operations, which includes overseeing over 150 volunteers and staff and 15 committees and advisory groups. Her role involves aligning strategic objectives with day-to-day activities and creating and managing external partnerships. Megan's knowledge and expertise includes a solid understanding of the needs and best practices of member schools and companies across the globe. In her previous role, she served as Director of Employer Relations for the University of South Florida College of Business, where she provided student career coaching and assisted employers with developing campus branding and hiring strategies. In this role, she increased student employment outcomes, developed new corporate relationships to benefit the school, and implemented new and innovative events to enhance student knowledge and networking. Megan holds an MBA from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Florida.
Pat Leonard, Vice President, Business Development, Credly
Dedicated to 'building a better workforce', Pat has a unique perspective built from the variety of her leadership positions on all sides of the talent development ecosystem. In corporate education, Pat led the US Division of the American Management Association and was President of McGraw-Hill's Lifelong Learning Division. In talent development, she led the largest region of Manpower Group's Right Management division, providing career management and talent development solutions. In higher education, Pat led the Business & Education partnership alliances for Laureate Education's global online universities; at Pearson, she was a M&A executive, college text and professional reference publisher and initiated the workforce education division. And now at Credly, the leading digital credential technology platform, Pat is leveraging that insight with all stakeholders on both the supply and demand side of talent to provide a meaningful tool useful to the issuers of credentials, the earners of those credentials and those who consume or utilize those credentials.
Stacey Dorang Peeler, Managing Director, Online MBA, Penn State Smeal College of Business
Stacey Dorang Peeler joined the Smeal College of Business in 2008 as the Assistant MBA Director of Admissions and moved into the MBA Admissions Director role in 2011. In 2016, Stacey took on the role of Managing Director of the Penn State Online MBA program. Before coming to Smeal, Stacey worked for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions in various management roles in the Philadelphia area, and then as the Center Director of the State College office. Prior to her tenure with Kaplan, she worked as a copy editor for AccuWeather and as a Promotions Coordinator for a radio station. Stacey graduated from PSU with a B.A. in English and with an M.S. in Human Resources and Employment Relations.
Anne Reed, Director of Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges, University at Buffalo
Anne Reed is Director of Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges at the University at Buffalo (UB). She developed a process to propose, review, develop, and implement new micro-credential programs at the university. Her background is in instructional design, and prior to her current position she has served as an instructional designer for the Center for Educational Innovation at UB, and as Program Manager for Open SUNY. She led a SUNY-wide team to develop the award-winning course, Quality by Design, which has trained over 600 faculty and staff in New York state in curriculum design strategies, and awards digital badges to recognize professional competencies. She is also co-founder of the Meaningful Gamification Academy (MeGa). Her research interests include gamification in higher education, and the use of digital badges as alternative credentials. Anne is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum, Instruction and the Science of Learning.
Cara Richards, Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs, George Washington School of Business
Cara Richards is the assistant dean for graduate programs at the GW School of Business (GWSB). She is responsible for the management and advancement of both the Master of Science and MBA programs at GWSB, and her position also incorporates strategic responsibilities related to all graduate programs. Cara came to GW from Georgetown University, where she was the director of academic affairs and administration for the Office of Biomedical Graduate Education, and served as the associate director for academic affairs for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Previously, she worked at George Mason University, Union College and the University of Iowa. Cara received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa, her Master's in Public Policy from the State University of New York at Albany, and her Master's of Arts in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies from Georgetown University.
Jessica Rogers, Associate Dean, Southern New Hampshire University
Dr Rogers has taught both in the undergraduate and graduate space, teaching a varies of courses in Management and Marketing. Jessica has over 16 years of field experience in operations, management, sales; marketing prior to transitioning into Higher Education in 2009. Dr Rogers joined Southern New Hampshire University in 2010. Jessica carries a wealth of experience as a practitioner as well as experience in teaching, online course design, program development, faculty management, and course development. Jessica’s experiences working as a full time faculty member, working remotely in online courses, has made her keenly aware of the needs and interests of a diverse student body. As a result, she considers the interconnection between a student’s own knowledge, learning abilities, subject matter, current events, and real application on the job in all that she does. Dr J has been recognized by Hubspot as an innovative professor of digital marketing, she is ranked 28 worldwide on Social Media Marketing Magazines ‘Top Marketing Professors on Twitter’, serves on several editorial boards, and is the Author of The Digital Marketing Landscape: Creating a Synergistic Consumer Experience.
Arshad Saiyed Associate Vice President, Northeastern University Digital Learning and Corporate Partnerships, Northeastern UniversityArshad Saiyed is the Associate Vice President of Digital Learning and Corporate Partnerships at Northeastern University. He is charged with assisting in the strategy and leading the execution of scaled digital learning initiatives at the university, and manages the team for the newly formed Innovation unit, Experiential Digital Global Education (EDGE) at Northeastern.Before joining Northeastern, he led the online programs at Gies College of Business at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Arshad was a key member of the team that conceptualized, created, and implemented the first-of-its-kind MOOC-based online MBA (iMBA) and led the successful growth of the fastest growing MBA on the planet, the iMBA with over 3000 students worldwide. Arshad is an entrepreneur in higher education with 19 years of experience in higher education, engaging, in several strategic initiatives in online business and professional education, in identifying new markets and business models, creating innovative learning communities for online students, and building the digital infrastructure for delivery of scaled programs. Arshad Saiyed holds an engineering degree from Gujarat University in India, and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Enno Siemsen, Associate Dean of MBA and Masters Programs, Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor, Executive Director, Erdman Center for Operations & Technology Management, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Enno Siemsen joined the Wisconsin School of Business in 2015, after spending 8 years on the faculty at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and 3 years on the faculty at the College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his PhD in Operations Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has taught courses in Operations Management, Sales & Operations Planning, Project Management and Global Operations Strategy. He also teaches in customized Executive Education Programs. His expertise is in the fields of predictive analytics, demand forecasting, sales & operations planning, operations and supply chain strategy, and project management. Siemsen is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences as well as the Production and Operations Management Society. His research currently focuses on quality inspections & improvement and on human judgment in sales & operations planning processes. He was the principal investigator on a grant for the Food and Drug Administration to develop quality risk scorecards. Siemsen has been published in leading outlets such as Management Science, Organization Science, Journal of Operations Management, Production & Operations Management, Strategic Management Journal and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management. His work has also been featured in the Harvard Business Review and the California Management Review. He is the author of ‘Demand Forecasting for Managers’, a recent book on forecasting and organizational decision making. He currently serves as a department editor for the Production and Operations Management Journal and the Decision Sciences Journal, and as an associate editor for the Journal of Operations Management and the Journal of Supply Chain Management. He has won numerous prizes for his research, such as the M&SOM Young Scholar Award, and the Gaumnitz Distinguished Research Award.
Courtney Walsh, Assistant Dean for the Center for Executive Development, University at Buffalo School of Management
Courtney Walsh is assistant dean for the Center for Executive Development. She oversees an operation that includes the Executive and Professional MBA programs and non-credit training for the UB School of Management. As assistant dean, Walsh co-created and teaches intensive training modules on emotional intelligence (EI), and has taught and coached more than 500 business professionals. Walsh has also organized international business trips to China, Chile, Ireland, England, Italy, Germany, France and Brazil. These ventures offer a wide array of educational, business and networking opportunities for current and future professionals. Prior to UB, Walsh held multiple positions with Delaware North in Buffalo and in Boston. In addition, she has served in multiple strategic marketing positions for entertainment and nonprofit organizations. Walsh earned an MBA from the UB School of Management and a Bachelor of Science from Ithaca College, with dual majors in management and marketing. She is certified in Developing Leaders Through Emotional Intelligence from EI co-founder Richard Boyatzis at Case Western University and holds a certificate in negotiation and decision-making strategies from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. In addition, Walsh is certified in Hogan Group Assessments, Emotional Intelligence from Hay Group, WorkPlace Big Five and CernySmith Assessments.
Kevin Witt, Director of Business Development, Business Education and Careers, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Kevin has been in the Higher Education/EdTech industry for 25 years (15 years at Wiley). He has held numerous positions in the industry including Editorial Director-Sciences, Director of Marketing and currently, Director of Business Development in Business, Education and Careers. Kevin is an advocate of affordability, accessibility and achievement and has sat on several panels to discuss inclusive access, new business models, digital strategies, and innovation around skills development between the classroom and careers. He holds a degree in Biology from the University of Colorado with a second degree in Literature. He recently obtained a certificate in Digital Strategies for Business from Columbia Business School (Executive Education).
