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Presenter Bios

Holly Rae Bemis-Schurtz

Holly is a Project Coordinator for the RETA Program and currently works with teachers exploring online teaching and learning. Prior to this, she was a middle school technology and media teacher who lead an action research study on using Moodle in a blended course environment. Holly completed her M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Educational Development of Learning Technologies through an online Master's cohort. Her B.S. is in Elementary Education with an emphasis on Science and Language Arts. During her undergraduate work, Holly worked as a project secretary and curriculum developer for the RETA project.

Bethany Bovard

Bethany Bovard works as an instructional designer in the College of Extended Learning at New Mexico State University and has designed and developed a number of face-to-face and online courses and programs for the university. As adjunct faculty for the College of Education and the College of Extended Learning, she teaches a number of graduate level courses in the area of distance education administration and online course design, development, and teaching. When not developing courses or teaching,Bethany works with teachers who want to redesign their courses for online delivery and specializes in helping them find just the right tool to support their instructional needs in ways that engage their learners.At this year’s New Mexico Technology in Education 2007 Conference, Bethany was awarded the Best Presentation Plaque for her presentation on Technology-Enhanced Strategies to Increase Learner Engagement. She is currently working on a PhD in Instructional Design for Online Learning and has an MA in Curriculum & Instruction and a BA in Languages & Linguistics.

Jill Brown

Jill Brown is a life-long educator with a BA in Elementary Education, MA in Curriculum and Instruction, and PhD in Educational Technology. She has taught in different states, at different grade levels (1st grade - graduate level) and in different formats (face-to-face, workshops, real-time, online). She conducted her dissertation research focusing on the necessary skills for teachers to be successful technology integrators in the classroom. Jill is currently an administrative and instructional leader as the Director of Educational Technology at Albuquerque Academy. She serves on the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) board, the New Mexico Society for Technology in Education (NM STE) board and the New Mexico Association of Nonpublic Schools (NMANS) board. She also volunteers and serves on the New Mexico Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) board. She lives in Albuquerque with her husband Craig, son Josh (Senior) and daughter, Taylor (8th grade).

Susan Bussmann— RETA Coordinator

Coming Soon.

Celia Einhorn

I have two nicknames: Celia Bedelia, named in honor of Amelia, as I have been an early childhood teacher and the Computer Fairy, what a student named me when I was a computer resource teacher in APS.

Currently, I work as a program manager for the Supercomputing Challenge, State Coordinator for Project GUTS (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically), a curriculum coach for the pre-school program Tools of the Mind, an international professional development facilitator for iEARN (International Education and Resource Network), and a NMSU RETA instructor.

In my spare time, I love visiting my three year old grandson and his parents in Mexico!

Miley Grandjean

End of the semester chaos....arrr! :-) Currently my academic path resides in my graduate studies of Rhetoric & Professional Communications (RPC) and some supplemental classes that I take at Dona Ana Community College in the area of Digital Graphics Technology. Though my ultimate "plan" hasn't surfaced yet (do "plans" ever completely surface? lol) of what I plan to do after I graduate, for now I am enjoying this new eLearning environment that I am at, and hope to find my own ways of enriching the K12+ world. Along with my involvement in the College of Extended Learning, I am an instructor for Upward Bound where I have managed to create a curriculum around reading, writing (both creative and compositional), and needed technology and general college skills for my 9-12th graders. Lastly, I have just opted to be a volunteer design consultant for the RPC program, where I have already begun the design plans for a couple of websites for various groups both on-campus and off (most of which are still in their zygote stage--hoping/planing on seeing them rapidly evolve). To keep my sanity, I enjoy live music, micro-brews, reading, and going for a swim...

Cissy Lujan-Pincomb — RETA Webinars Coordinator

Cecilia Lujan Pincomb is the RETA Webinar Coordinator and has been an educator for the last 28 years. Cecilia brings a wealth of experience in education having taught elementary, elementary multi-age, special education, secondary education, community college, and at the university level. She has also been in administration as an elementary principal and most recently as the Program Director for the Creative Media Institute at NMSU. At the secondary level, Cecilia founded and taught at Sierra Middle School Media Magnet Program, KSTAR Productions-TV and Radio, in the Las Cruces Public Schools. She also founded the Organ Mountain Film Festival and the Rio Grande Filmmakers Association. Cecilia has worked with the RETA program since its inception and has been involved in professional development-training the trainers how to integrate technology into the curriculum and has always been an innovator in technology in education. Cecilia has a B.S. Elementary Education/Special Education, M.A. Special Education, M.A. Educational Administration, with licenses in: Spec. Ed K-12, Elementary K-8, Early Childhood K-3, Instructional Leader K-12, Administration K-12, and Technology K-12.

Julia Parra

Aloha! My name is Julia Parra and I LOVE distance learning technology! Which is why I involved in this webinar project for RETA and the College of Extended Learning.

Professional Info

Prior to working at New Mexico State University, I taught middle school for four years (1996-2000). I have worked at NMSU since summer 2000. For the last five years I have been part of the College of Extended Learning in a variety of roles including web-based curriculum developer and project coordinator in the areas of K12 teacher professional development and distance learning. I have helped develop and/or taught many online courses and/or workshops as well as a few online programs. I have been a webconferencing facilitator for RETA and CEL since Centra was initiated sometime around 2002. I am currently a doctoral student in Pepperdine University's educational technology program and an assistant professor here at NMSU.

Personal Info

I have a GREAT kid who is growing up way too fast. At 16 almost 17, Jon is a high school student focusing on media development with aspirations of being a director. His company Funky Munky Produkshunz has been producing since about 2003.

I don't have a life right now because I work full time and am working on my doc program. I am starting my dissertation which is fortunately on - yes, you guessed it - professional development for online teaching and learning, so I can be found at one of my computers 10-14 hours a day. When I do have a life, I like to go to yoga, go to the movies, read books, go to Starbucks and the mall, meet my friends for breakfast, lunch or dinner, you know, all the fun stuff that someday I hope to do again on a regular basis.

For more about me, visit my site and/or blog:

http://juliaparra.blogspot.com
http://juliaparra.com/