Our Team

Cathie Norris

Co-Director Cathie Norris

Regents Professor
Department of Learning Technologies
College of Information

Cathleen Norris is a Regents Professor in the Department of Learning Technologies, College of Information, at the University of North Texas, Denton, TX. From 1995-2001, Norris was President of the National Educational Computing Association, and led its merger with ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education, creating the largest, international organization for technology-minded educators in the world. Norris was Co-President of ISTE from 2001-2004. Norris’ 14 years in K-12 classrooms – receiving a Golden Apple Award from Dallas ISD along the way – has shaped her university R&D agenda: developing resources to support K-12 teachers as they move into 21st century classrooms. (Click here for more information.)

Elliot Soloway

Co-Director Elliot Soloway

Arthur F Thurnau Professor
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering
Professor of Education, School of Education
Professor of Information, School of Information

Elliot Soloway is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. In 2001, the UMich undergraduates selected him to receive the “Golden Apple Award” as the Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the University of Michigan. In 2004 and in 2011, students in the College of Engineering HKN Honor Society selected Dr. Soloway to receive the “Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.” (Click here for more information.)

Anne Tapp

Director of Professional Development – Anne Tapp

Professor
Department of Teacher Education, College of Education
Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, MI

Anne Tapp serves on the Board of Directors for the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) and was elected to Chair the AACTE Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSR) Executive Committee. She is the past president of the Michigan Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She received the Teacher of the Year award when teaching P-12 and SVSU’s Landee Award for Teaching Excellence at the university level. She is the author of numerous publications including Technology in the Early Classroom, an interactive textbook for pre- and in-service teachers.
Ted Kahn

Senior Visiting Scholar and Director for Special Projects – Ted Kahn

CEO, Chief Learning & Future Careers Strategist
DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc. & DesignWorlds for College & Careers

Ted Kahn has been a pioneer in R&D and application of interactive computational multimedia for lifelong learning for over 50 years. His special areas of emphasis have been on museums and other informal learning resources. He has been an early developer and advocate for collaborative, project-based learning using Open Educational Resources (OER) in STEAM fields in K-16 education.
(Click here for more information.)

Advisory Team

Don Manfredi

Associate Director of Ventures

Don is focused on leveraging his over 25 years of experience in building companies to help innovators commercialize their research. In addition to business and commercialization support, Don is active in the venture community both as a fundraiser and an investor. Don has been an advisor to the Center for Digital Curricula and Collabrify since 2018.

Team Roadmappers

Nicole Andreas

Nicole Andreas is an elementary educator with 16 years of experience. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University and completed her Master’s degree in Technology Integration at Grand Valley State University. Currently, Nicole teaches computer science and STEM exploratory classes, K-5 at Kent City Elementary. She is also the technology integration coach for Kent City Elementary. Nicole is passionate about sharing STEM fields and future career opportunities with her students. Nicole also works to share her knowledge with other educators and has been a presenter at MACUL, miGoogle, AssisTechKnow, and the Michigan CEC Conference.

Monique Coulman

Monique Coulman

Monique Coulman is an educational leader and distinguished educator with 19 years experience in K-12 classrooms in Michigan. Monique earned both her bachelor and master degrees from the University of Michigan.  She is certified in Science and Literacy K-12.  Monique has been a pioneer, bringing project-based learning and educational technology to her school and district.   It is Monique’s mission to blend technology use with best practice teaching to increase student engagement, ownership and achievement.

Billie Freeland

Billie Freeland has received her teaching degree from Aquinas College and Masters from Western Michigan University where she specialized in Mathematics and Reading K-12. She has been teaching for more than 25 years in mainly 5th grade, but also 2nd, 3rd and 6th grade science. She is currently working at Kent City Elementary. Her training has also included Teacher Leadership and Cognitive Coaching. She is also the co-chair of the district Science Committee and the district’s K-5 STEM teacher. This position connected her with MSU’s Create for STEM project and the CDC at University of Michigan Roadmaps. In her words, “I have witnessed first hand the power of interactive technology embedded in research based, engaging curriculum as a way to grow learners. In just a short time, the unique platform of Roadmaps has grown my student skills in modeling, problem solving and collaboration. As an educator, I have grown more this past year than any other year in my career. I am inspired by the flexibility that the tool allows me to create lessons, share content, allow for students to express their learning and collaborate with each other and myself.”

Denise Gallemore

Denise Gallemore is a 30+ year veteran K-6 classroom, Distinguished Evaluated Educator, & Co-Author of the 5th Grade State of Michigan Social Studies Open Education Textbook. She has been an integral part of the OER “Movement” at the District, State, and National levels. Denise serves on the MDE GoOpen Strategy Team (since 2016) as part of the Content Curation/Vetting Committee. She has traveled across Michigan and the US to train & consult other educators on how to use & implement OER’s in the classroom. She has presented at MACUL, ISTE, and many other state & national venues. Data over the past four years from her own and other district classrooms support the use of OER’s and digital curricula across the curriculum to provide personalized learning & individualized instruction. Furthermore, Denise feels strongly that the Collabrify Roadmap Platform is a powerful “key” for the use & implementation of OERs. She is looking forward to continuing her work in this area and bringing this important Roadmapping tool for Creating, Collaborating, & Customizing to assist other educators and students in the use of quality OERs as the “movement” continues!

Sarah Goldner

Sarah Goldner joins the Roadmaps team with over 20 years teaching experience. Sarah earned her bachelor degree from Aquinas College and her masters in Library Science and Technology from Grand Valley State University. She started her career in Grand Rapids Public Schools where she spent 17 years teaching middle school Social Studies and as a high school librarian. Sarah now teaches 5th grade in Kent City Community Schools. She believes in the power of technology to engage students, facilitate differentiation and enhance the curriculum.

Kristin Kreiner

Kristin Kreiner is a teacher for the Marysville Public Schools. She has 18 years of experience teaching fourth and fifth grade. She earned a Bachelors in the Art of Teaching from Saginaw Valley State University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction for Marygrove College. Kristin is currently a member of the Marysville School District’s Professional Study Council and representative for the Go Open Strategy team for MDE. She was a recipient of the St. Clair County’s Distinguished Teacher Award for the 2019/20 school year.  

Kristin has always integrated technology into the classroom, yet with the crisis that schools now face with distance learning, Kristin’s mindset had to shift towards this new type of teaching and learning.  She adapted her teaching to fit the needs of her students and found the Collabrify Roadmap platform was ideal for her classroom. The Roadmaps allow for an easy transition from school to home and allow her students to access the district’s curriculum in one spot.

Andréa M. Large

Andréa M. Large is a 1st grade teacher for the Capital Area K12 Online School. Andréa has nearly 20 years of full-time teaching experience in a wide variety of school settings. In addition to her highly effective teaching, she holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership/K12 Principalship. Through her teaching and administrative roles, she has developed a practice of teaching and learning that embodies “educating the whole child.” Andréa is respected for her work in regard to multi-modal, digital and in-person learning communities as well as well-planned meetings focused on careful facilitation, engagement of group members, and the accomplishment of well-stated goals and outcomes. Andréa has a strong caring ethic and believes in the power and influence of coaching and collaboration. She is intuitive and simply “gets it” and has good sense for empathic listening, identifying and analyzing issues and needs, generating possible solutions, and planning action steps to address those issues and needs. Andréa is a woman whose life experiences have provided her with plenty of opportunities to build resilience and a strong core of values and beliefs as a teacher and leader.

Dawn Michalak

UMCDC Chief Administrator

Dawn Michalak is a veteran teacher and is currently working for the UMCDC as chief administrator. Her 27-year teaching career includes many years working in a third grade Gifted & Talented Cluster classroom. She believes technology is an important tool for differentiating the core curriculum to meet the needs of all students, including support for struggling students and enrichment for gifted and talented students. She joined the Collabrify team to create free, deeply-digital, OER lessons. Providing digital resources should make technology integration easier for busy classroom teachers as well as positively impacting our tech savvy students.

Brandon Mullins

Brandon Mullins is Founder and Creative Director of PeRshGo Industries, a digital media marketing firm specializing in online branding, where he has worked with a variety of clients including National Amusements, Niantic Labs, Emagine Theaters, WeatherGard, and Salem Media Group. He holds a B.A. in Electronic Media from Eastern Michigan University where he delivered, “The End of Anonymity: How the Internet is Getting to Know the Real You” as part of EMU’s 2012 Undergraduate Symposium. Brandon’s focus is on supporting projects which leverage internet technology to build social capital, foster civic engagement, and support the common good.

Puja Mullins

Puja Mullins

Puja Mullins is the English Learner Coordinator at Lincoln Consolidated Schools. She is the recipient of the 2018 University of Michigan Press Award and Eastern Michigan University Dean’s Travel Award for her commitment to the field of TESOL. Through Change the Equation STEM and INTEL Math grants, she collaborated to design NGSS-aligned curricula and a repository of digital math resources. Mrs. Mullins has been an active presenter in the past, having shared her strategies with other educators at DCTM, MSTA and TESOL International. She’s deeply interested in integrating digital curricula to strengthen academic language and learning for ELs. She is passionate about the value of Collabrify, and particularly of the Roadmapping tool in engaging students in digital literacy and supporting data-driven instruction.

Wendy Skinner

Wendy Skinner began her education career in the United Kingdom and received a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Early Years Education from Northampton University and taught reception (kindergarten) at Stony Stratford, England. Since arriving in the United States, she has been certified in High Scope and earned a specialty certificate in virtual teaching from the University of California, Irvine. She has worked as a Head Start teacher, obtained a Master’s degree in Education and Literacy from Bethel College (Mishawaka, Indiana), worked as a reading specialist, taught first grade, second grade, and is currently teaching STEM at Brandywine Community Schools in Niles, Michigan. Wendy has recently joined University of Michigan’s Center for Digital Curricula Roadmaps team and is most excited by the instructional possibilities of using Roadmaps as a platform to make seamless transitions between the brick-and-mortar classroom and virtual learning.

Alex St.Clair

Alex St.Clair earned his Bachelors in Elementary Education as well as a Masters in Technology Learning Systems and Design from Saginaw Valley State University. He is a teacher at Caro Community Schools where he also works in leadership positions to represent teachers and guide others in the meaningful use of technology in instruction. He also works at the College of Education, at Saginaw Valley State University as an adjunct faculty member. Alex consistently looks for ways to integrate technology into his instruction to benefit both students and educators. He believes that technology creates opportunities to engage students while allowing the teacher to dedicate more time and focus on the targeted needs of students. 

Software Developer Team

Josh Meyer

Josh Meyer

Software Developer Extraordinaire

Josh Meyer, a software developer in the Center for Digital Curricula in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan, is the designer and developer of the Collabrify Roadmap Platform, a learning environment that supports teachers creating and students using “deeply-digital curricula.” Collabrify currently supports 4000+ K-12 students on a daily basis, with the bulk of the users being K-5 students in Michigan elementary schools. Collabrify, browser-based and device independent, supports synchronous collaboration and supports visual representation of curricula. Josh was featured in an article from the UMich Department of Computer Science.

Hailey our Honorary Roadmapper
      

 

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