Misson | Staff | Advisory Board
Professional Development Center Mission
The SUNY Fredonia Professional Development Center strives to meet the professional development needs of all SUNY Fredonia employees by coordinating and providing educational opportunities for faculty and staff at various stages in their careers, and providing consultation and training opportunities for technology-related issues. The Center's goal is to provide a centralized location for collecting and disseminating information about professional development opportunities taking place on campus and beyond. The Center is committed to fostering a culture in which knowledge and expertise are shared among diverse constituencies and will provide a gathering place in which this dialog can occur.
Establishing the Professional Development Center
In 2006, the Fredonia Plan introduced 21 action items designed to further improve campus performance. Action item #3 of the Fredonia Plan called for the creation of a center that would assist faculty, professional staff, and teacher candidates to further improve and add new dimensions to what they already do in the classroom and in designing courses, programs, and curricula.
In the fall of 2007, the Vice President of Academic Affairs formed the Professional Development Center Committee to research, identify campus needs, and make recommendations for a Professional Development Center. Through a series of surveys and open forums the Professional Development Center Report was written making recommen-dations for the hiring of a full-time Director and designing a physical space for the Center.
Staff
Lisa Melohusky
Instructional Design Specialist
Online Learning Coordinator
Lisa earned a B.A. in Secondary Education, Mathematics from Canisius College and an M.S. in Instructional Design/Educational Technologies from Central Connecticut State University. She has been an adjunct in the Mathematics Department at Buffalo State College and is currently an adjunct in the Mathematics Department at SUNY Fredonia. Before coming to Fredonia, Lisa was at Nardin Academy in Buffalo, NY where she taught basic and advance computer courses, coached cross country and track and field, and was webmaster. Since coming to Fredonia she has been working with ANGEL and Turnitin.com, as well as a wide range of specialty projects.
Dawn Eckenrode
Coordinator of Education Programs and Outreach
Associate Librarian, Reference and Instruction, Daniel A. Reed Library
Dawn earned a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University and a M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She served as a lead author on the PDC Summary of Campus Feedback and Needs Assessment Report, co-chaired the PDC Organizing Committee, and served as the founding Chair of the Professional Development Advisory Board. She has developed and offered numerous PDC programs over the past two-years, including the Annual Teaching Retreat, New Faculty Orientation, and Zotero workshops. Her current research and pedagogical interests include constructivist approaches to teaching information literacy concepts, examination of the roles libraries play in promoting civic discourse, and the ways in which libraries can support the academic and research goals of service-based initiatives in higher education. In addition to numerous review articles, she has published chapters in Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors and The Library Instruction Cookbook, a bestselling American Library Association title for 2009.
Cheryl Dearth
Instructional Support Assistant
Cheryl began her work with the Professional Development Center in the Fall of 2009, assisting with event planning and scheduling, website maintenance, communication and outreach efforts. She previously served the campus as the secretary for the campus’ Middles States Accreditation 2010.
Professional Development Center Advisory Board
The Professional Development Center Advisory Board will serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of the Professional Development Center. The Board will assist the Director in communicating the campus' vision for the Center, collecting feedback from the campus community regarding potential services and programming, and in the planning and decision-making process as the campus proceeds with the development of the Center. The Board will consist of one faculty member from each of the five teaching areas: Arts, Education, Humanities, Natural Science, and Social Sciences, one member of the library faculty, one educational technologist, one professional staff member from each of the following areas: Administration, Student Affairs, and University Advancement and, one classified staff member.
- Arts faculty representative: Jessica Hillman-McCord, Co-chair
- Education faculty representative: Bob Dahlgren
- Humanities faculty representative: Susan Spangler, Chair
- Library faculty representative: Dawn Eckenrode, coordinator
- Natural Sciences faculty representative: Tedi Cox
- Social Sciences faculty representative: Ivani Vassoler
- Professional representative from Academic Affairs: John McCune
- Professional representative from Administration: Jodi Rzepka
- Professional representative from Student Affairs: Tracy Collingwood
- Professional representative from University Advancement: Mike Barone
- Classified Staff representative: Lori Johnson
- FSA representative: Katie Thies
- At-large representative: Paul Mockovak
- Ex-officio member: Lisa Melohusky, coordinator