Karen S. Agee coordinated the Reading and Learning Center at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), 1984-2009. She served the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) as secretary, president, and executive assistant to the Board and represented CRLA on the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) and the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA) and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Developmental Education (JDE), The Learning Assistance Review (TLAR), and the Journal of College Reading and Learning (JCRL). Karen received scholarship, leadership, and service awards from CRLA, UNI, and the Iowa Board of Regents. She coauthored chapters for the Handbook of College Reading and Study Strategy Research (2nd and 3rd eds.), co-edited (with Russ Hodges, 2012) the Handbook for Training Peer Tutors and Mentors and co-authored (with Jan Norton, 2014) a CRLA white paper, Assessment of Learning Assistance Programs.

Karen earned a B.A. and M.A. in Classical Languages and Literatures (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction/Literacy Education (Phi Kappa Phi) from New Mexico State University. She deeply appreciates four decades of continuing education provided by students, colleagues, and professional organizations.

Victoria Appatova is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. She has more than thirty years of experience in post-secondary literacy instruction and research. She has served as President of the College Reading and Learning Association, Co-Director for the Teaching Academic Survival and Success national conference, and Chair of the College Literacy and Learning Special Interest Group of the International Literacy Association. She is also a Fellow of the Academy for Teaching and Learning at the University of Cincinnati and a Fellow of the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations, the highest honor in the USA conferred upon professionals in learning assistance, tutoring, and developmental education. Her scholarship is focused on post-secondary literacy as well as effective learning environments for different student populations and widening access and participation in global higher education.

David R. Arendale, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN) and Co-convener of Colleagues of Color for Social Justice. At UMN, he led a team that developed the Peer Assisted Learning program for courses throughout the curriculum.

Arendale investigates the history and best practices of equity programs, learning assistance, and academic interventions supporting improved student achievement and persistence. For more than two decades, Arendale taught an introductory global history course which he embedded with best practices of learning assistance to increase student engagement, practice with acquiring learning strategies, and increasing their academic achievement in the course. The course served as a laboratory for development of course-specific application of Universal Design for Learning.

At the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Arendale was National Project Director of Supplemental Instruction. He served as President of the National Association for Developmental Education. The Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations inducted him as a Founding Fellow of the profession. Among his publications is Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher education (Jossey-Bass). Current research and publications are available at www.arendale.org and his podcasts and social media are at www.davidmedia.org

Dr. Sonya L. Armstrong earned her doctorate in literacy education from the University of Cincinnati as well as two M.A. degrees in English (literature and editing/publishing). She served in first-year and developmental education contexts at both community colleges and universities, teaching developmental reading, basic writing, and learning strategies as well as directing a college reading and learning program. At Texas State University, Dr. Armstrong was an Associate Professor in Developmental Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, within which she directed the doctoral program.

Her research has focused on college literacy-learning and practice. She has published with colleagues in such professional journals as Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Research in the Teaching of English, Journal of Developmental Education, and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. She co-edited Teaching Developmental Reading: Historical, Theoretical, and Practical Background Readings (2nd ed,).

Sonya’s leadership in professional organizations includes serving as an editor, director of publications, and president of the College Reading and Learning Association. Through her collaborative work related to faculty professional development and advanced study, Sonya was key in developing the Certificate of Graduate Study in Postsecondary Developmental Literacy and Language Instruction at Northern Illinois University.

Barbara Bonham, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies at Appalachian State University (ASU), Boone, NC where she taught graduate courses. She served as Senior Researcher for the National Center for Developmental Education and a faculty member for the Kellogg Institute for 30 years.

She has a total of 50 years teaching experience: 30 years at ASU and 20 years in PA. Barbara was a consultant to over 110 two-year and four-year colleges in over 25 states. She served as program reviewer, consultant, and evaluator for Title III, Title V, FIPSE, Achieving the Dream projects, State Boards of Higher Education and business.

Dr. Bonham has 39 publications, 24 technical reports, and 159 scholarly presentations at regional, state, national, and international conferences. Her publications, presentations, and areas of research interest include college teaching/learning, designing culturally responsive learning environments, universal and instructional design, mathematics, and comparative education.

Her intense interest and research in students’ success took her on an academic leave to New Zealand in 2013. She worked with colleagues at UNITEC in Auckland conducting research and co-authoring a five-year grant focused on promoting the academic success of the Maori and Pacific Island students in tertiary education.

Hunter R. Boylan, Ph.D., is Professor and Director Emeritus of the National Center for Developmental Education at Appalachian State University. He has served the field for nearly 50 years. Beginning as a gang control worker and civil rights activist in Philadelphia, throughout his career he has advocated for greater equity in our programs and institutions and for the use of research to guide equitable decision making.

Dr. Boylan served as President of the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE), Chair of CLADEA, Director of the Doctoral Program in Developmental Education at Grambling State University, Editor of Research in Developmental Education, Director of the National Study of Developmental Education, and Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Developmental Education, the Journal of College Reading and Learning, and the Journal of Teaching and Learning. Hunter has authored eight books and 120 articles as well as over 320 presentations and keynote addresses at regional, national, and international conferences.

Dr. Boylan has also served on a variety of national organization advisory boards and is frequently quoted in the media for his views on higher education topics. His favorite saying is “Good judgment comes from experience … and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Nancy Carriuolo (Ph.D.) began tutoring in kindergarten when she was assigned to help her classmates who could not tie their shoes. She tutored in college and today as a volunteer. In 1980, she became director of the University of New Haven’s Learning Center and became involved in NADE, one of her best professional experiences. She became Secretary and then NADE President.

Her essay on teaching basic skills was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1985 and read into the Congressional Record by Senator Paul Simon. Nancy has authored over 30 publications with regional, national, or international audiences. She also served on the board of the Journal of Developmental Education among numerous other boards.

Dr. Carriuolo directed the School-College Partnership Office at NEASC, the regional accrediting agency, and later served on the NEASC board. She served as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Academic Officer for RI Higher Education and then as President of Rhode Island College (2008-2016), as VP for Advancement at the New England Institute of Technology (2016-2019), and then, after retiring, as a consultant at Johnson & Wales University (2019). She has now turned her attention to part-time editing and ghostwriting and serves on two RI-based board committees.

As an educator and author, Martha Casazza has practiced on a global stage from Chicago to universities in South Africa, Poland, Kazakhstan, Scotland and England and currently to preschoolers in Sayulita, Mexico.

She focuses on access and support for underserved populations. Her work began in the Chicago Public School system. Subsequently, teaching at National Louis University introduced her to adult learners from underserved communities where she learned the significance of access to educational opportunity. As a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa, following the end of Apartheid, Martha introduced strategies for teaching “new” students from the townships, underprepared for university study.

Consulting in Chicago, Martha collaborated with Instituto Progreso to create a college-level educational program to serve local Spanish-speaking residents. Based on this work, she was awarded the “Instituto Spirit Award” (2018).

Her writings have evolved from nonfiction to fiction, but the consistent theme is educational access. Two of her nonfiction writings were cited as classics in the field of developmental education. Dreaming Forward was the subject of an NPR interview. Please visit www.marthacasazza.com for a link to her interview.

Martha resides for much of the year in Mexico with her husband where they founded a tuition-free preschool for local children.

David C. Caverly is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus having received an Indiana University Ph.D. His scholarship focused on researching, teaching, and disseminating coursework for creating and using effective, developmental literacy instruction and the effects of integrating digital technologies.

Through 44 years at Texas State and 10 other institutions, he with 14 colleagues secured $2.7 million in grants. With 80 individual students, faculty, and/or colleagues, he authored/co-authored 97 journal articles in the Journal of Development Education’s TechTalk series and four other journals. With 68 of these same colleagues, he co-authored 588 conference presentations. He published 14 books and 13 chapters, served as co-editor while writing chapters for three editions of the Handbook of College Reading and Study Strategy Research, and delivered the Technology Institute for Developmental Educators for 15 years.

His service to developmental education was recognized through two Texas State’s College of Education nominations for a Presidential Award for Scholarly/Creative Activity and two state of Texas awards, a CASP Lifetime Achievement Award and a CASP President’s Award. Internationally, he was recognized by a CRLA Special Recognition Award and an IRA College Literacy and Learning Special Interest Group for Outstanding Writing in the Field of College Reading and Study Skills.

Susan Clark-Thayer was involved in Academic Support Programs for many years. She helped launch and then for many years directed the Gallotti Learning Center at Suffolk University in Boston. Promoted to Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, she also chaired the University’s accreditation efforts and supported program best practice throughout the University.

Nationally, Dr. Clark-Thayer chaired and co-chaired NADE’s Standards and Evaluation Committee (precursor of CALCRA). She edited the first editions of Standards for Developmental Education and Academic Support Programs: National Guide to Best Practice and supervised implementation of the National Certification Program sponsored by NADE. She traveled the country giving workshops teaching certification and best practice in quality learning support programs. Dr. Clark-Thayer was a delegate director to the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education and was active in the early days of the Learning Assistance Association of New England. For the Kellogg Institute at Appalachian State, she taught program best practice and certification.

Early days of publishing the Program Standards and initiating Program Certification were a heady time for professionals in the field. Colleagues were enthusiastic about new guidelines, and it was a joy for team members to share them.

Alan Craig retired as Director of the Learning and Tutoring Centers across all five campuses of Georgia Perimeter College in 2015. He continued in academia teaching collegiate, pre-collegiate, and corequisite mathematics courses part-time at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College through the spring of 2019. Prior to returning to the collegiate world, Alan worked in corporate IT for 23 years, rising from FORTRAN programmer to Chief Information Officer.

Alan is a Past President of the National College Learning Center Association and recipient of NCLCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He presented an invited preconference workshop for new learning center directors at NCLCA for 13 years and mentored at four NCLCA Institutes. Alan was NCLCA’s representative to CLADEA for seven years (final two as vice chair) and an officer of the Georgia Tutoring Association. Alan is a content editor for LSCHE (since 2006) and LSCHE and CLADEA webmaster.

Alan earned an A.A. in Liberal Arts from Hillsborough Community College, a B.A. (summa cum laude, Phi Kappa Phi) and M.A. (Graduate Council Fellowship) in Mathematics from the University of South Florida, and an Ed.D. in Developmental Education from Grambling State University (Dissertation: Institutional Responses to Underprepared Students at the University of Georgia: 1801 – 2001).

With over 34 years in developmental education, Dr. Deborah Daiek began her career at Kellogg Community College, teaching reading, both on campus and through KCC at Coldwater Women’s Prison. Deborah earned her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University, where she served as the University’s Associate Director of learning support programs for ten years. Her dissertation topic focused on the correlation of critical thinking skills and academic success. She is now Dean Emerita of Education Programs and Learning Support at Schoolcraft College where she served for nineteen years.

She is the Immediate Past President of NOSS and current editor for its Practitioner to Practitioner. She twice served as President for NOSS’s Michigan Chapter, NOSS-MI. She co-authored two college reading textbooks, Critical Reading for College and Beyond as well as the Science and Strategies of Expert Readers. She worked on four statewide developmental education studies in Michigan, coordinating two. It included all 28 community colleges, for the purpose of improving state policies and practices. Currently, she is the co-founder of Mindtation, a company rooted in principles of yoga and neuroscience. Natural sound and breathing techniques are illuminated to help people live their best lives, with full hearts and clear minds.

Johanna Dvorak, Ph.D, has devoted her professional career to college learning assistance and is Director Emerita, Educational Support Services, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Her areas of expertise are learning center management, peer tutoring program initiatives, online academic support services, professional development, and leadership in higher education. Her dissertation, The College Tutoring Experience (2000), studied the effect of tutoring on tutors.

Dr. Dvorak was Director of Panther Academic Support Services (PASS) at UWM (1995-2016). Under her guidance, the center expanded its services and locations for group tutoring, academic resources, Supplemental Instruction, online and blended tutoring, and academic coaching to 125 peer leaders. PASS earned the Frank L. Christ/NCLCA Outstanding Learning Center Award (2014).

Dr. Dvorak has researched, published, conducted webinars, and frequently presented at CLADEA association conferences on managing college learning centers, developing online tutoring services, and other academic support initiatives. She mentored at several NCLCA Institutes (2004, 2009, 2012, 2017).

She was President of MCLCA (1994) and of NCLCA (2004) and received NCLCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2011). She served on CLADEA’s Blue Ribbon Commission, Certification Committee and Political Advocacy Committee. She helped develop Wisconsin’s NCLCA Affiliate WCLCA (2016-18) and ACTLA’s Online Tutoring Program Standards and Certification Program (2018-2020).

Michael Frizell is the Director of Student Learning Services at Missouri State University. In this position, he helped lead a team that developed the Bear CLAW (Center and Learning and Writing), growing it from a standalone Writing Center to a dynamic modern learning center. He grew Peer-Assisted Study Session Program (a supplemental instruction model) from ten core classes to 60 with an overall retention rate of 94% for those who use the service and has enacted the delivery of learning center services in multiple modalities to reach students where they are. He is an ICLCA Certified Learning Center Professional, Level 4 (Lifetime).

Since 2012, he serves the profession as the editor of The Learning Assistance Review, the peer-reviewed journal of the National College Learning Center Association, and their book, Learning Centers in the 21st Century. At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Frizell collected the stories of learning center leaders across the country into the book, Rising to the Challenge: Navigating COVID-19 as Higher Education Learning Center Leaders. He has been ICLCA’s corresponding secretary and was president twice. He is also on the editorial team for RiLADE and serves as Vice Chair of CLADEA.

He holds M.A.s in theatre and creative writing from Missouri State University and an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. His work has been published in the National Gallery of Writing, Red Ink Journal, The Moon City Review, Saddlebag Dispatches, The Good Men Project, and more.

As a writer for TidalWave Comics, he has written over 100 comic books based on famous people. Recent publications include biographies of Dolly Parton, Selena, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and supplements to Netflix’s Tiger King. His fiction comics include Stormy Daniels: Space Force and The Fantasy World of Bettie Page and feature the authorized likenesses of the actresses. Frizell’s graphic novel, Bender, explored the backstory of America’s first serial killer family from the Midwest and was serialized in Saddlebag Dispatches magazine, collected in 2018, and featured on many true crime podcasts.

Dr. Gardner is the CEO and Co-Founder with his wife, Dr. Betsy O. Barefoot, of the non-profit higher education organization, the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education. The Institute was initially begun in 1999 as the Policy Center on the First Year of College, but John’s interests and expertise grew to include sophomore and senior years, transfer student success, and retention with degree completion. Gardner’s name is synonymous in American higher education with leadership in student success and retention.

Gardner has been the leader of an international movement to improve what he coined in 1982 as “the first-year experience.” A prolific writer of seven books on undergraduate student transitions, his Your College Experience became a standard textbook for first-year courses. His many writings have focused on supporting students throughout their higher-education careers.

Dr. Gardner’s National Resource Center has organized the popular and influential conferences on The First-Year Experience, Students in Transition, and also disseminated information through an extensive series of publications and presentations. The recipient of a dozen honorary degrees recognizing his contributions and other awards for teaching excellence and service, Gardner is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, University of South Carolina.

Dr. Alvin Granowsky was a junior and senior high school English teacher for eight years and served as Director of Reading and Language Arts for the public schools of Greensboro, NC. His establishment of the Title I Reading Center for severely disabled readers in the Greensboro Public Schools served as a foundation of his thinking about the impact of early reading failure on the self-concept and future educational performance of youngsters – and most importantly, the understanding that learning deficits can be overcome and educational success achieved. He later served as Director of Reading and Language Arts for the Dallas, TX, public schools where he developed the district-wide Parents as Partners Program that joined parents and teachers to promote reading and learning success for all students.

Dr. Granowsky earned a B.A. in English/Psychology (Colgate University), M.A. in Teaching (Harvard Graduate School of Education), and Ed.D. (University of Pennsylvania). He was honored to serve as a board member on the Texas Learning Disability Association and as a consultant in Reading to the National PTA, as well as Vice-president of Education for World Book Encyclopedia.

His children’s books and reading and learning texts were used in schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Harris served the students of Ball State University for 25 years in many capacities. In addition to coordinating learning center services there, she contributed to the field of learning assistance by providing over 50 presentations and writing more than 20 articles and book chapters, including co-authoring The Language Arts Objective Sequence (2001). Her ongoing focus on collaboration, mentoring, and raising awareness about learning assistance was always evident, especially so in her work on the Faculty Mentorship Program at Ball State.

Jackie was instrumental in transitioning the Midwest College Learning Centers Association into the national organization, later serving as President from 1999-2000. She also served as the president of the Indiana Association for Developmental Education. She organized and served as a mentor for three NCLCA Summer Institutes and was the keynote speaker for the 2015 annual conference. Jackie earned the NCLCA Learning Center Leadership Certification, Level 4, and in 2017 was honored with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jacqueline Harris’s additional experience has included her work for the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University, building and supporting programs to serve veterans transitioning into higher education. She helped create the Focus Forward Fellowship program for female student veterans.