Office of Academic Affairs

Cara Reasner (Class of 2021) was awarded the 2021 Pennsylvania Society for Respiratory Care Outstanding Student Award for HACC’s Respiratory Therapist Program. Professor Curtis Aumiller, Program Director for the program presented the award. This award is given each year and the student is selected by the faculty for the best overall student performance and the person most likely to give back to the profession of respiratory therapy.

Valerie A. Gray, professor of English joined HACC in 1998 as a full-time faculty member. She received her master’s in Technical and Scientific Communication from Drexel University. She has completed post graduate studies in Composition and Rhetoric, Literature, and History from the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to English, she teaches African-American History at HACC. Before teaching at HACC, Valerie taught at Rosemont College and worked as a technical and professional writer for a federal defense company and an insurance company.

Valerie has demonstrated effective leadership and service by participating in numerous committees. She served as English Department Chair for five years (2008-2013); served as CITE co-coordinator for Harrisburg and college-wide for four years; and co-leader of the College’s anti-racism reading group. In addition, she was the coordinator of the Black Minds Matter work group. She is an iTunes podcaster and iTunes U instructor. She has presented her iTunes pedagogy to academic audiences in Brazil and Colombia.

Valerie is currently the Faculty Diversity Fellow. Her project, “Cultivating an Ubiquitous Community of Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation at Harrisburg Area Community College” is a toolkit. Valerie describes the toolkit as:

An interactive faculty toolkit that presents andragogical and course design approaches that promote presence, togetherness, creativity, engagement, scholarship, and representation in the classroom. The toolkit follows the theory and application approach by presenting ways faculty may incorporate inclusion, diversity, and belonging in course documents and course goals to emphasize justness in the use of course content to promote an engaging and academically challenging online and remote course. The toolkit will include best practices and additional content from faculty representing each academic school.

Valerie serves as a mentor to a cohort of faculty beginning OER (Open Education Resources) projects. She received the Creative Commons (CC) certification in August 2020. Her role includes investigating and answering questions concerning training, assessment, development, LibreTexts platform, copyright, Creative Commons licensing, and any other OER-related needs.

She has written nonfiction children’s books and college textbooks. Jason Kidd Star Guard, was published in May 2000; The Court Martial of Johnson C. Whittaker, was published in September 2001. She wrote two biographies for the African-American National Biography anthology published by Harvard University in February 2008. Her textbooks include Avoiding Plagiarism: Communicating Your Message with Academic and Professional Integrity, published in 2012. Business Writing for Today and Tomorrow, published in 2017. A collaborative OER with English faculty colleagues, Business Writing for Everyday Use, is now available through LibreTexts.

Valerie’s community service commitments include a volunteer for the Highmark Caring Place; and vice president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Partners of the Americas. She is a board member for Sankofa African American Theatre Company; and a judge for the NAACP’s Harrisburg region Afro Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) awards. She is a volunteer and curriculum developer for Harrisburg Promise.

In addition to reading, teaching, and writing, Valerie is passionate about traveling. She has traveled to five continents. Although she has enjoyed every travel experience, travels to Egypt, Brazil, Ghana, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico hold great cultural connections and scholarship.

Valerie lives in the Harrisburg area and enjoys being creative. Her back garden is a wildlife habitat. She is an avid gardener and believes there is no such thing as planting too many flowers.