Emily joined COLRS in September 2006. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with Phi Beta Kappa honors from Illinois College and is completing her Master of Arts degree in English at UIS. She completed the highly selective Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning from Penn State/Online Learning Consortium in 2011 and holds the Master Online Teacher certification from the Illinois Online Network. Before coming to COLRS, Emily led faculty development courses in online learning and instructional design at Illinois Central College, taught technology training workshops at the Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS, and worked as a technical writer and web developer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ms. Tammy Craig joined COLRS in May 2016 after serving as the Director of the UIS Career Development Center for 12 years leading the effort as the first department in Student Affairs to adapt all services, programs and resources to online delivery in 2006. Tammy provides expert consultation and direction to online students seeking career services through professional interaction with faculty members teaching upper division and graduate courses, conducts research and publishes career services areas for online students, and facilitates online university service to the broader community
She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and M.A. in Human Development Counseling from UIS. She is credentialed as an Illinois Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), National Certified Counselor (NCC) and Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC). As an adjunct lecturer, she has taught for undergraduate and graduate academic programs since 2004. Her diverse background includes over 16 years devoted to higher education, 17 years of mental health and career counseling, and an additional seven years of experience in advertising and management. She has presented at a number of state and national conferences, served as the member of the Illinois Career Development Task Force and received the honor of employee of the year in 2008.
Email: tcrai1@uis.edu
John has held several different positions at UIS since late 2012, and joined the COLRS team in 2014. In addition to his position at COLRS, John is an adjunct faculty member in the Arts and Humanities department at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, where he has taught courses in both German and Women’s and Gender Studies. He attended graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned his M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; has contributed to a popular technology blog; and previously spent one year studying and researching in Tübingen, Germany.
Email: jfrem2@uis.edu
Michele Gribbins joined the Center for Online Learning, Research & Service (COLRS) in 2012 as an Online Learning & Faculty Development Specialist, after seven years of teaching in the Management Information Systems Department at UIS. She designs and delivers faculty development in theory, pedagogy, and best practices of effective online teaching and learning. She also supports and guides faculty members in their development and delivery of online courses. She continues to teach as an adjunct for the MIS department.
Michele is a Certified Online Learning Administrator and has been on the project team for two Massive-Open Online Courses (MOOCs). She is the Treasurer of the Illinois Council on Continuing Higher Education and Vice Chair for Professional Development for the Online Leadership & Administration Network of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. She is pursuing an Ed.D. in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University-Bloomington.
Michele’s research agenda focuses on (a) student integrity in the online classroom and (b) the fit and effectiveness of technologies, particularly technologies that are used in the online classroom. Her research has been published in the Journal of Information Technology, the Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Electronic Markets, and the International Journal of Management Theory and Practices. She has co-authored two book chapters and has over forty presentations at international, national, and regional conferences.
Follow her on Twitter @michelegribbins.
Vance joined COLRS in 2017. For over fifteen years he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in history, humanities, education and technology. He has taught using in-person, online, and hybrid formats. He has over ten years of experience in curriculum and instructional design.
Vance’s research looks at technology use in education, social justice, and the intersection of the two. His dissertation project used wikis in community college history classes, which he found encouraged students to question standard historical narratives and created an environment in which minority students felt represented and engaged. As a post-doc at the University of Illinois, he worked on the redesign of teacher education programs in the College of Education, and helped to develop a leadership training program in partnership with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He also worked on a collaborative international project to deliver educational content to secondary students in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, via cell phones.
Email: vmart02s@uis.edu