CAE Welcomes Senior Instructional Technologist Debbie Whalley to Our New Location!

We at the Center for Academic Excellence are pleased to announce some important changes that we know will enhance our ability to support the ongoing community of practice that is our faculty and professional staff.  First, we are pleased to welcome Debbie Whalley to the Center as Senior Instructional Technologist and Assessment Manager. Many of you will already know Debbie from the many workshops she has designed, facilitated, or co-led, not only throughout the COVID period but for many years prior as she shepherded many new initiatives through her roles in Academic Computing (ITS).  We’ve greatly valued our longtime collaboration with Debbie and are thrilled to have her as a full-time member of the CAE to support and enhance the innovative teaching and learning spaces you create in both in-person and virtual settings.  We know that you will benefit from her expanded role. Below we give you the highlights of her contributions to Fairfield thus far with the knowledge that the best is yet to come with Debbie on our team!

Debbie Whalley graduated from Fairfield University with a BS in Phyisics in 1994 and has worked at Fairfield University since January 2002 in a variety of roles in ITS - from Faculty Support Coordinator to Support Services Manager to Manager of Academic Computing. In her time working in Academic Computing, she led the team that supports the adoption and integration of innovative technologies by faculty for use in their teaching (both face-to-face and online) and research. Some of the initiatives that Debbie has played a major role in include adopting Zoom for conferencing, office hours, and online course content; supporting iPads for all full-time faculty; simplifying classroom AV with AppleTVs in all general use classrooms for easy projection; and employing Quip for collaborative writing and group work. She has also been a frequent presenter at regional conferences on the many innovative projects she’s worked on at Fairfield.

Second, you will find Debbie, as well as we Directors, in our new space on the second floor of the Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies. As befits our goal to offer faculty and professional staff many pedagogical offerings, our classroom space in NHS 210 is a flexible learning environment where we can convene to imagine the possibilities of teaching and learning in this moment.  The CAE offices are just next door in NHS 218, with room for small meetings and consultations.   

We hope you will join us in NHS 210 next week for our Back-to-School Workshops (find out more about those at https://spark.adobe.com/page/dWkRmMWLQIHfv/), and watch for a Fall Open House announcement once classes begin.  As ever, reach us at cae@fairfield.edu.  Well wishes to Debbie can be sent to dwhalley@fairfield.edu.

Warmly,

Carol Ann Davis

Jay Rozgonyi

Emily Smith