Nancy O'Neill joined the Kirwan Center in February 2016 and currently serves as the Executive Director, shaping the Kirwan Center’s strategic direction and leading its work. At the Kirwan Center, she leads Systemwide projects related to student success as well as capacity-building initiatives with and for faculty development leaders across the System. She also supports Kirwan Center initiatives that directly engage faculty, including efforts to scale and sustain the use of open educational resources and to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).
Prior to being at USM, she served as the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, and Technology at the University of Baltimore from 2012 to 2016. While at UBalt, her work focused on supporting faculty innovation in teaching as well as curriculum development and alignment, student learning assessment, and institutional effectiveness. In her last year at UBalt, she helped guide the University’s general education reform and institutional assessment efforts ahead of re-accreditation. Before moving to Baltimore in 2012, Nancy spent a decade at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), contributing to national projects related to high-impact practices, undergraduate curriculum and quality, assessment, institutional renewal, and diversity and equity initiatives.
Nancy earned a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in American Studies and a master’s degree in College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and social criticism from the University of Buffalo. Her dissertation examined faculty use of open educational resources (OER) in relation to the content and teaching affordances made possible by open licensing. She can be reached at cai@usmd.edu.
Jennifer Potter (she/her) serves as the Associate Director at the Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, where she leads system-wide initiatives in digital accessibility, generative AI pedagogy, and alternative credentialing. Jennifer joined the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø (USM) after more than 16 years at Towson University, where she served as Inaugural Chair and Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. She earned her PhD in Communication and Culture from Howard University in 2008.
At the Kirwan Center, Jennifer convenes the USM Digital Accessibility Work Group, created and maintains the USM Digital Accessibility Hub, and publishes the monthly Accessibility in Action newsletter reaching 350+ subscribers across the system. She leads the USM Generative AI Pedagogy Fellowship Program and co-hosts AI, Unscripted, a limited series podcast that has reached over 3,000 downloads and been featured in Inside Higher Ed. Jennifer also leads the USM Alternative Credentialing Task Force, establishing frameworks and taxonomies for evaluating credential proposals and piloting faculty credentialing programs across the system. Jennifer is a sought-after speaker at campuses and conferences and publishes regularly on digital accessibility, AI pedagogy, and alternative credentialing in both academic journals and public-facing venues. She was selected as a 2026 Rebus Foundation Luminary Fellow, one of only 15 participants chosen internationally for this prestigious cohort focused on advancing open education leadership.
Throughout her career, Jennifer has championed high-impact educational practices, open educational resources (OER), and inclusive pedagogy. She co-led Towson's successful M.O.S.T. Institutional OER Grant Program in 2023, creating an entirely OER-based Public Speaking curriculum with accessible materials and faculty resources. As a trained Inside-Out Prison Exchange instructor and advocate for justice-impacted students, Jennifer has integrated prison education and social justice principles into her teaching and leadership.
Jennifer received the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Board of Regents Faculty Award for Mentorship in 2024, recognizing her sustained commitment to supporting students and faculty. She currently serves as Immediate Past President of the Maryland Communication Association, continuing her dedication to mentorship and faculty development across the state.
Dr. Casey M. Stratton is an Assistant Professor at Salisbury University (SU) in the Department of Communication. He previously co-represented SU in the USM Generative AI Pedagogy Program (2025–2026). Dr. Stratton has authored and facilitated over 15 presentations and workshops on Generative AI (GenAI) at international, national, regional, and local conferences, with three receiving top panel awards from the National Communication Association (NCA). At SU, he co-leads the AI task force and contributes to the faculty learning community on GenAI, which included designing and implementing a campus-wide survey assessing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding GenAI and learning. Professionally, Dr. Stratton has worked as an instructional designer and corporate training manager, creating and facilitating over 50 specialized training sessions and workshops. Additionally, as an organizational consultant, he has assisted with the implementation of GenAI in edtech platforms and curriculum design for online, synchronous learning. Since 2023, he has heavily integrated AI into his own curricula, including conducting a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) study on bot-building pedagogy. This includes a semester-long project where students become AI experts by creating and critiquing GenAI bots; together with his students, he develops AI fluency, touching on the benefits and drawbacks of GenAI for learning and professional development.
Dr. Luciana Zuest is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Towson University and serves as Senior Fellow for Assessment & Evaluation with the William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation for the 2026–27 academic year. At Towson, she coordinates the Health and Physical Education Teacher Education program, teaches courses in curriculum and instruction, and manages accreditation and assessment processes aligned with CAEP and Maryland State Department of Education standards. She currently serves as HLTH 101 Core Curriculum Assessment Coordinator and has previously served as FACET Advisory Board Co-Chair and FACET Summer Grant Workshop Mentor. She has also taught assessment courses at multiple institutions. She was one of three faculty selected for the USM Centers for Teaching and Learning FACET Self-Study, contributing to the system-level evaluation of faculty development programming across institutions.
Dr. Zuest’s primary line of research focuses on weight stigma in physical activity settings. She developed WIT FITS, a digital professional development intervention designed to address weight stigma among fitness professionals. WIT FITS has been developed and evaluated through a multi-study research program spanning needs assessment, intervention design, randomized controlled trials, follow-up evaluation, replication studies, and broad dissemination across professional settings. It is currently used by organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. More recently, her scholarship has expanded to include the adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education, including a published study on kinesiology students’ AI adoption and an ongoing mixed-methods study of faculty AI use across the discipline. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of Towson University AI Hub Research Fellows and is an EDSAFE AI Alliance Women in AI Fellow.
Dr. Karen Chen is an Associate Professor from the Department of Information Systems at UMBC. Trained in applied data science, AI and machine learning, she has applied these approaches extensively to interdisciplinary educational research, particularly in the areas of AI in Education, Educational Data Mining, and Learning Analytics. Over the past several years, she has led and participated in multiple educational research and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects, including initiatives that leverage generative AI to enhance undergraduate and graduate education in data science and data literacy. Her integrated research and educational work focuses on helping students develop complex problem-solving and data-driven communication skills, which are increasingly critical in the era of AI. Her work is supported by several National Science Foundation grants, including the CAREER Award. Her research and educational initiatives are inherently interdisciplinary, involving collaborations with research and practitioners in fields such as psychology, public health, and social work. As a SoTL Senior Fellow, she is passionate about sharing these experiences and insights with faculty across the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø.
Dr. Cyndi Wiley is an educator, digital accessibility and user experience practitioner, and designer with more than two decades of experience working at the intersection of design, technology, and inclusive learning. She currently serves as Collegiate Associate Professor of Web/Digital Design and Extended Reality at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC). Prior to joining UMGC, she served as the enterprise-wide Digital Accessibility Lead and an Assistant Teaching Professor in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Graphic Design at Iowa State University.
Cyndi’s extensive background in higher education includes teaching both face-to-face and asynchronous online courses spanning interactive media, immersive design (XR, VR, MR, and AR), game design, graphic design, and human-computer interaction. Her research and professional practice focus on UX/UI design in immersive environments, creative coding, digital accessibility, and the deployment of human-in-the-loop Generative AI models.
As an active scholar and speaker, she frequently writes and presents on digital accessibility, inclusive game design, and closing the technology skills gap. Her peer-reviewed publications and book chapters focus on utilizing mixed-methods user research to build campus-wide digital accessibility policies and leveraging generative technologies to transform inclusive design workflows.
Cyndi holds a PhD in Human Computer Interaction and an MFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Art from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Dr. Sarah Bass is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMBC. Her primary teaching responsibilities include general chemistry (CHEM 101 and 102) and advanced laboratory courses, where she emphasizes evidence-based pedagogy and the real-world applications of chemistry. Dr. Bass is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment that empowers students to take ownership of their education and develop critical thinking skills.
Beyond the classroom, Dr. Bass is a faculty champion for digital accessibility at UMBC. Since the pandemic, she has actively focused on making STEM course materials and assessments more accessible to ensure all students can fully engage and succeed. Her research interests lie at the intersection of chemistry education, digital accessibility, and instructional innovation, with a particular focus on assessing how technology can enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. As part of this work, she is currently exploring the integration of AI-driven chatbots to provide scalable, round-the-clock academic support in introductory courses.
Dr. Bass’s professional activities, which include committee work and collaborative research on chemistry education, closely align with UMBC’s mission of inclusive excellence. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from UMBC and holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
Jessica Grimmer, Ph.D., MLIS, serves as Co-Director of the Center for Archival Futures (CAFe) and Lecturer of Information at the University of Maryland. At the Kirwan Center, Grimmer is a Faculty Co-Lead of the Digital Accessibility in Music & Arts Community of Practice.
Dr. Grimmer's research examines the intersection of archives and digital musicology, with particular attention paid to sustaining digital knowledge infrastructures, music encoding, and pedagogy. Her current projects focus on preserving the work of contemporary composers, digital humanities in music, and the cultural history of opera in Washington, D.C. She collaborates widely on digital curation initiatives bridging archives, technology, and the performing arts. She teaches courses in archives and digital curation as well as interdisciplinary offerings that connect music, digital humanities, and information studies.
Dr. Grimmer previously held roles across academia and government, including as a project archivist with Special Collections in Performing Arts at UMD Libraries, a lecturer in Musicology at the UMD School of Music, and an examiner at the U.S. Copyright Office, where she developed expertise in copyright practices for the performing arts and emerging AI-created works. She holds a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from the University of Michigan and a Master of Library and Information Science from UMD’s College of Information.
Luis Engelke is Professor of Trumpet at Towson University and holds the position of Principal Trumpet with the Lancaster, Kennett, and Mid Atlantic Symphony Orchestras, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the Shippensburg Music Festival. He performs approximately 150 engagements annually as a soloist and orchestral/chamber musician and serves as Music Reviews Editor for the International Trumpet Guild Journal. His past solo albums A Brazilian Collection; Songs, Remembrances, and Impressions, and Sounds of the Chesapeake have received critical acclaim, including Global Music Awards. His anthology of Brazilian trumpet solos, published by Balquhidder Music, contains first editions of significant works from his home nation. Engelke’s most recent solo album, Revelation, is a collection of his own original compositions for trumpet and fixed media (audio and video) inspired by recent world events. Each of the eclectic movements is published individually and as a book by Art of Sound Music. A past board member for the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) and past Vice President for the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore (Local 40-543 of the American Federation of Musicians), he is the recipient of the local’s Distinguished Service Award. Engelke is a Yamaha Performing Artist/Clinician, and his own music has been performed worldwide at international conferences and venues. He was recently the recipient of the 2025 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Faculty Award for Creativity.
A former member of Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira and Concert Artists of Baltimore, Engelke has performed with more than fifty professional orchestras internationally including the symphonies of Allentown, Baltimore, Delaware, Harrisburg, Maryland, Reading, Richmond, Phoenix, San Diego, York, Williamsburg, and Sydney (Australia), as well as the Thailand Philharmonic, Ocean City (NJ) Pops, Delaware Opera Orchestra, Opera Baltimore Orchestra, and Annapolis Opera Orchestra. He has been featured as soloist with the Endless Mountain Festival Orchestra, Rome Festival Orchestra, Orquestra Eintracht, Naval Academy Band, Gulf Coast Symphony, Frederick Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, and Lancaster British Brass Band, and performed with diverse musicians and ensembles such as Andrea Bocelli, Sierra Boggess, Celtic Woman, Irish Tenors, Il Divo, Manheim Steamroller, London’s The Rock Orchestra, and The Moody Blues, as well as Brazilian legends Paulo Moura, Ivan Lins, Sivuca, and Zé da Velha. Engelke recorded trumpet solos for soundtracks for the films Villa-Lobos: Sua Vida de ±Ê²¹¾±³æã´Ç, Stories of the Land, and Elefteria. He has performed as a soloist in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia, and has appeared on more than fifty commercially released recordings for Pro-Arte, Decca, Innova, Aurora, Canyon, several other labels, and Oxide Games.
Engelke’s more than three hundred publications include articles in the International Trumpet Guild Journal, Euro-ITG Newsletter, Jazz Educators Journal, College Music Symposium, NACWPI Journal, The Double Reed, The International Musician, and Triad. In addition to Balquhidder Music, Art of Sound, EC Schirmer, Hickman Music Editions, and Triplo Press in the USA and Topp Brass in Switzerland have published his compositions, arrangements, and editions. He has worked to enhance the repertoire for solo trumpet with both his personal commissions and as chair of the ITG’s Commissions Committee, bringing to light new international works by Clarice Assad, Gwyneth Walker, Michael Daugherty, Antônio Guerreiro, R. Carlos Nakai, Wang Ning, Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, Omar Thomas, Nestor de Hollanda Cavalcanti, and Julian Wachner. Many organizations have supported his research and performance through scholarships and grants, including CAPES-Fulbright, the Ford Foundation, the League of American Orchestras, the Music Teachers National Association, ITG, and Rádio Mec. He has taught at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Conservatório Brasileiro de Música, Arizona State University, Ohio State University, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and Florida State University Music Camps. A frequent lecturer and guest artist, he has presented master classes and recitals throughout the world.
