Who is Responsible for Gathering Us?

Acknowledging the Labor of Our Collaborators

While the people listed on this page have been the main team working on the second annual virtual gathering so far, we know we would not be here without the tremendous labor put in by our collaborators and colleagues on the first virtual gathering. We also acknowledge that countless hours of effort will be put in by volunteers, presenters, and more to make this year's virtual gathering a success as well. Community building is a labor of love that takes each and every one of us. At the same time, we believe it is key to have accountability and transparency about who has been laying the groundwork for this year's virtual gathering. We can't wait to see what we build together.

Thank you for being part of our community.

The folks involved in creating, designing, and carrying out this virtual gathering include

(in alphabetical order, click or scroll down to learn more):

Cait Kirby

A black and white image of a white woman with shoulder-length dark, wavy hair wears big, round wire-frame glasses, and a striped top. She looks directly into the camera, smirking. Behind her, an art print says, “what, like it’s hard?”

When Cait heard that there would be no virtual component at the big annual conference for the professional organization she was heavily involved with, her heart sank. She knew she’d be excluded from one more thing, due to her inability to travel to the on-site conference. She thought, “Why not host our own?” Over the months leading up to the first annual gathering in 2024, everything kept falling together in energizing and empowering ways. Over Cait’s shoulder during planning meetings on Zoom peeked out a print of the iconic quote from Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: “What, like it’s hard?” Together, we found that it actually isn’t that hard to make a fully virtual, accessibility-first gathering. Cait is a biologist by training and the Associate Director of the Williams College Rice Center for Teaching. When Cait isn’t gathering to resist, she knits, builds LEGO, reads, and creates things on her website: www.caitkirby.com. She loves to collaborate and connect, so find her on Twitter/X (twitter.com/caitskirby), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cait-kirby/), or BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/caitskirby.bsky.social).

Carly Lesoski

A white person with shoulder length brown hair and a nose ring and is wearing a jean jacket and a black shirt smiles at the camera

Carly gravitated toward the work of co-creating the first virtual gathering because of their strong commitment to building community and access opportunities. As a neurodivergent, disabled human themselves, this work is personal. In their work, they coordinate the Accessible Dartmouth Initiative and the Gen AI Teaching Grant as the Learning Innovation Program Manager at the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning. In their life, they chase their kids around, cross stitch, read, listen to music (lots of resistance folk and punk these days), spend time with their partners, and engage in mutual aid work in their current home of Detroit. Oh, and they would be remiss not to mention their two cats, Boba and Lydia Deetz. You can find them on Bluesky (@carlymlesoski.bsky.social) or LinkedIn.

Michael McCreary

In general, Michael prefers letting rocks roll down hills rather than trying to push them up. When getting major organizations to provide robust virtual conferences started to feel like an uphill battle, he realized that he had all the necessary ingredients to plan one without them: a group of dedicated co-organizers who shared a vision, boasted a diverse skill set, and cared for each other; a Zoom account; and a relentless commitment to access and inclusion got us off the ground. From there, it’s been no turning back, and he’s been humbled to see the support of the educational development community for free, virtual conferences over the past year. Michael has a background in the humanities and works as an Educational Developer at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. You can find him on LinkedIn.

Liz Norell

a white woman with medium length brown hair, wearing a purple sweater and top and a necklace with a round pendant

If there’s one thing that soothes Liz’s overactive nervous system, it’s planning: scheduling, making checklists, reducing great big projects into tiny little steps. So when this group decided to put together virtual professional development for the first annual gathering, Liz was thrilled to start creating spreadsheets and checklists and plans. Oh, so many plans! Liz is the Associate Director of Instructional Support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. When Liz isn’t making lists or futzing with her schedule, she reads, takes graduate classes for fun (and for credit, though she doesn’t want another degree), gushes over her adorable canines, goes on a road trip, and buys way more books than she’ll ever read. Find her on Bluesky (@liznorell) or at liznorell.com. Oh, and consider buying her book, The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching.

Brooke Shafar

A white woman with short black hair and glasses wearing a blue button up with a repeating Spiderman pattern. She holds a croissant and smiles

Brooke accidentally stumbled into educational development in 2020 after a brief stint as a German instructor. Since then, she's been introduced to an amazing community of folks in the field who share similar values and are committed to supporting one another. When she heard that some of them would be excluded from professional development and community building due to a lack of virtual opportunities to engage, she was excited to dive in and support the grassroots efforts of her colleagues to make those opportunities happen anyway. Brooke is an Educational Development Specialist at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. When she isn't working, she can often be found crocheting cute critters, playing video games, reading fantasy and sci-fi, snuggling her two cats, or spending time with her found family. You can find her on Bluesky (@brookeshafar) and LinkedIn.

Google Sites

Report abuse