FAEDS 2003-04 Candidate Information

President-Elect:
John H. Opper, Jr, PhD

Biography of Candidates (In Ballot Order):
Dick Hamann
William R. Strait, Ph.D
Timothy C. Nesler
Marsha Cole
Keith Parsons
William "Bill" Piotrowski, PhD
George J. Vensel, PhD

Dr. John H. Opper, Jr. Executive Director/Interim Executive Director Florida Community College Distance Learning Consortium/Florida Virtual Campus 1753 W. Paul Dirac Drive Tallahassee, Florida 32310

As Executive Director of the Florida Community College Distance Learning Consortium and Interim Director of the Florida Virtual Campus, Dr. Opper oversees the operation of the Consortium, the Virtual Campus and their combined activities in support of Florida's K-20 education system. He holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University in Higher Education, a M.Ed. from the University of Georgia and a B.S. from Armstrong Atlantic State University. Dr Opper has considerable experience working with Legislative staff, and making presentations on complex issues concerning education policy and technology issues. Areas of particular interest include technology costing, advanced learning environments and the impact of new technologies on education policy.

Dick Hamann
Assistant Vice President Technology Services
Seminole Community College

Dick Hamann is a 1987 graduate from Long Island University with a Bachelors in Computer Science. In 1994 he graduated for the University of Central Florida with a Masters of Business Administration degree.

Mr. Hamann worked with the University in various positions for eight and a half years. He stared as a Programmer Analyst and ended his tenure as a Systems Coordinator with emphasis in Client Server Technologies, managing a team of Sr. Programmer Analyst, Network Analysts, and Client Server Specialists.

In 1997 Mr. Hamann moved to Seminole Community College as a Director of Computing and Telecommunications Services. During his three years as SCC, Technology has become the number one priority; supporting business and student related activities, including WEB based registration through their mainframe.

In 2000 Mr. Hamann was promoted to Assistant Vice President for Technology Services. For his work with emerging Internet technologies at SCC, Siemens and SCC were selected to receive the prestigious Smithsonian Computer World Honors award, presented in San Francisco in April 2001.

Mr. Hamann continues to be sought after to serve as technical advisor in multiple private and State agencies. Some examples of those are National Science Foundation, State Horizon Grant, Seminole County, and Florida Internet Resource Network (FIRN).


William R. Strait, Ph.D
Information Systems Officer
Central Florida Community College

Bill Strait has a Ph.D in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Started his career at IBM as a system programmer. Spent about 12 years as a teacher of Mathematics and Computer Science at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Has been an MIS director in both the private and public sector. During the past 9 years has been working with colleges primarily in charge of software development, in charge of implementation of both Banner and Jenzabar (CARS), and most recently, ISO (CIO) for Central Florida Community College.

As a part of Dr. Strait's responsibilities as ISO at CFCC, I am the new chair of the Technology Planning Committee. My priorities for this next year include enhanced support for the burgeoning non-traditional area, improving academic computing, continued enhancement of our infrastructure and the development of "refresh" and continuity plans, and business process re-engineering to take optimum advantage of our new ERP system (Jenzabar).


Timothy C. Nesler
Associate VP for Information Technology Services
Santa Fe Community college

Professional experiences encompass 30 years in higher education administration and information technology at Santa Fe Community College and on State of Florida committees for technology, funding, and distance learning. Currently, the Associate Vice President for Information Technology Services responsible for the information technology and communications infrastructure supporting academic and administrative areas of the college.

Elected to the board of Directors for the Florida Association of Education Data Systems in 2000, served as the chairperson for the Florida Community College CIO's in 2002-03 and has been an active member in EDUCAUSE and the league of Innovation. Educational degrees include a Bachelor's in Business Management and a Master's in Business Administration from Nova University.


Marsha Cole
Marsha Cole has served the Duval County Public School system since 1972 in a variety of capacities. After obtaining her BS in Communication from Southern Illinois University and her MA in Speech and Drama from the University of Tennessee, she began her career in the classroom at the high school level. In 1984 she accepted the position of Assistant Principal of Curriculum at Edward H. White High School, one of the largest high schools in Duval County. As such she performed all the requisite duties of the position, such as development of the master schedule, student scheduling, budget preparation and oversight, purchasing, and compiling data for accreditation and state reports. It was in this capacity that Marsha first became involved with technology, participating in pilot programs for an automated student information system and an extensive standardized testing system. Her insight and input were invaluable to the ultimate success of these projects.

Since 1997, Marsha has served as the Director of Student Information Management Services for the district. Her department bears the primary responsibility for numerous activities, among them compliance with FDOE reporting requirements, coordination of work requests for student-related systems, training and support of district and school-based staff in the use of automated systems, data review for accuracy and timeliness, liaison with technical staff, developers, district and school-based data managers, and scheduling of all production activities pertaining to automated student-related systems.

At present, DCPS is involved in a multi-year, major effort to migrate their Student Information Management System from the City of Jacksonville mainframe to a Windows 2000/SQL Server 2000 environment. Marsha is the project director for this ambitious endeavor and serves on the Education Information Network (EdIN) Steering Committee.

During her career, Marsha has distinguished herself by her service in ancillary activities. She was a presenter on behalf of the College Board at a conference for College and University admissions officers, a member of the Visiting Committee for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Ten Year Studies, chairman of the Assistant Principal's Association for four years, on the Future Educators of America Board from 1996 to 1997, and a member of the Pupil Progression Plan Committee from 1987 until present.

Keith Parsons
The following is a brief summary of Keith Parson's professional development:

2000 - Present Assistant Director, Management Information Services
Volusia County Schools

1997 - 2000 Assistant Vice President, Information Technology
Brown & Brown Insurance

1997 - 1997 Manager, Applications Development
Volusia County Schools

1987 - 1996 IT positions (Sr. Systems Analyst, Systems Analyst, etc.)
Volusia County Schools

13 out of my 16 years of IT experience has been in the public education system. Mr. Parsons believes strongly in the need for quality public education and takes satisfaction in serving in any role to promote this.



William "Bill" Piotrowski, PhD
Executive Director, Technology & Information Services
Leon District Schools, Tallahassee, Florida

Education: 1970 B.S., Johns Hopkins University;

1976 1976 PhD, Florida State University (Major Areas of Study:
Educational Research, Statistics, School Psychology,
Educational Administration)

Professional Experience:

o Executive Director, Technology & Information Services; Leon District Schools, 1991- present
o Adjunct Professor, Florida State University (graduate courses in applied research; IT systems and records security), 1983-present
o President, Florida Educational Research Association, 1985-86;
o Chair, School Districts Council on Comprehensive Management Information Systems, 1997-98
o Statewide FIRN Coordinating Council, 1994- and Statewide E-mail Guidelines and Selection Committee, 2001-2002
o President, Florida Association of Education Data Systems, 2001-2002
o American Educational Research Association (AERA) Outstanding Publication Award recipient;
o Presentations at national and regional associations including AERA, FERA, FAEDS, SEEA; publications in applied research and IT areas;
o Center for Excellence Board member, 1999-
o International Who's Who of Information Technology, 1998-
o Board of Directors, United Datronics (a "full-services" banking IT services supplier)

Personal:

Married (Cindy); children - John (21) and Allison (12)
Hobbies: sports (used to play some…), fishing, building, furniture


FAEDS Interest:

FAEDS provides a strong collegial network and is one of most significant sources for continuing professional and technical education for IT/IS professionals in education. There remains more potential yet for further enhancing support for IT/IS professionals through FAEDS. I have been and am committed to continuing to be an active Board member, who will work diligently to maintain and expand FAEDS as an exemplary professional support association.


George J. Vensel, PhD
EDUCATION: 1972 B.S. in Education from Slippery Rock College, Pennsylvania.
1979 M.S. in Secondary Education, CIM Department,
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale
1988 PhD. in Education, Special Education Department (Gifted), Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

OCCUPATIONAL EXPERIENCE

1972-1978 Shawnee Jr. Sr. High School, Wolf Lake, Illinois.

1981-1982 Microcomputer Consultant to the Southern Illinois Educational Service Center

1983-1985 Field Coordinator, working with Dr. Shirley Menendez, Illinois State Facilitator for the National Diffusion Network (NDN), Metropolis, Illinois.

1985-1988 Grants Manager of the Florida Middle Grades Enhancement Program for Sarasota County, FL.

1989 Adjunct Professor, University of South Florida, teaching "Computers in Education", an introductory course for undergraduates in education.

1989-95 Instructional Technology Supervisor for Sarasota County Schools, Florida

August 1995 -2000, Instructional Technology Supervisor for Manatee County Schools, Florida

March 2000-Present, Technology and Information Services Supervisor for Manatee County Schools, Florida

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Florida Association for Educational Data Systems
Florida Council of Instructional Technology Leaders (President 1994-95)
School District Council on Comprehensive Management Information Systems

PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS, including:

"Ground Floor and Rising: The Microcomputer in Education", George Vensel, Robert Sedlak and Carl Schmidt. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 9:1. pp. 21-28, 1980-81.

"Microcomputers: An Available Technology for Special Education", Lee Joiner, Robert Sedlak, Burton Silverstein and George Vensel. Journal of Special Education Technology, 3:2, pp. 37-42, 1980.

"Microcomputer R&D in the Elementary School", George Vensel and Lee Joiner. The AEDS Monitor, Winter, 1981.

"Micros for Group Instruction", George Vensel and Lee Joiner. The AEDS Monitor, Winter, 1981.

"Getting Ready: Management Information Systems in Special Education", Lee Joiner and George Vensel. The AEDS Monitor, Spring, 1981.

"Changes in the Attitudes of Preservice Special Educators Towards Computers", George Vensel. Teacher Education and Special Education, 4:3, pp. 40-43, 1981.

"Self-Instruction for Introductory Programming", George Vensel. The AEDS Monitor, Winter, 1981.

"Characteristics of the Apple II and Its Application in the Vocational Classroom", George Vensel and Lawrence Schilling. The AEDS Monitor, September/October, 1982.

"Science Simulations for Elementary Students", George J. Vensel. Florida Technology in Education Quarterly, 2:3, Spring, 1990.

"Correlating Science Videodiscs to School District Objectives", George J. Vensel. Florida Technology in Education Quarterly, 3:3, Spring, 1991.

"Sarasota Public Schools Multimedia Contest 1994-95: The Experience of the American Veteran", George J. Vensel. Florida Technology in Education Quarterly, 7:4, Summer, 1995.

Books

Microcomputers in Education: A Nontechnical Guide to Instructional and School Management Applications, Lee Joiner, George Vensel, Jay Ross and Burton Silverstein, Learning Publications, Holmes Beach, Florida, 1982.

Educators, Parents and Micros: How to Develop Effective Computer Programs in Your School, Robert Howell, George Vensel and Lee Joiner, Learning Publications, Holmes Beach, Florida, 1983.