ASU GAAD 2020 Schedule

Meet our speakers

Julie Allen began her career as a journalist before transitioning to a role as a senior editor with the centralized instructional design team at a large online university. She quickly fell in love with the world of instructional design and hasn’t looked back since. She has held instructional design positions at a variety of institutions and organizations, and she is passionate about creating digital learning experiences that are rigorous, engaging, and meaningful to students. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in adult education and training.

Adero Allison, PhD, is the DRC Assistant Director leading the Alternative Media Team. She is also the Principal Consultant of TAplus (Transitioning Adults plus) and focuses on providing high-level coaching to non-neurotypical and neurotypical graduate students struggling with the transition from consumer of knowledge to producer of new knowledge. Dr. Allison has helped students navigate graduate school and organizations adopt and apply Universal Design in Learning principles.

David Davis is a quality assurance analyst at the University Technology Office. He tests and evaluates numerous ASU websites and mobile apps for optimal functionality, user experience, and accessibility compliance.

Karen Grondin is the Licensing and Copyright Librarian at Arizona State University Library. She has held a variety of positions in academic libraries with a focus on electronic resource management, licensing, copyright, and accessibility.

Terri Hedgpeth is the Director for Accessibility in the Student Services Technology Team. She guides policy development for accessibility standards at ASU. She also trains ASU web-dev and QA staff on how to conduct manual accessibility testing of student facing apps and equipment. As well as performing manual testing for accessibility herself, working with various departments in ASU’s Student Services, University Technology Office, ASU libraries, ASU Purchasing and app vendors to determine the level of accessibility of various student facing apps and fitness equipment that are being considered for purchase.

Sophia Johannesson - to come

Sara Lee is a German language Senior Lecturer at Arizona State University. She is a German native, holding an MA in teaching from the University of Dortmund, Germany, and an MA in German Studies from Michigan State University. Her master’s thesis focused on dyslexia in German and English. She worked previously as a dyslexia therapist in Germany and developed at the same time a program for German dyslexic children learning English.

Mary Loder is an instructional design specialist with ASU Online. She is also the co-founder of the Intelligibility Group, an accessibility consulting company for corporate training and educational technology companies. Mary has helped many instructors learn how to identify issues in their course design using Ally and hosts webinars through ASU Online on the topics of accessibility and universal design for learning.

Carla Mahnke has over 15 years of experience in Higher Education. She is currently the Interim Director at Arizona State University (ASU) in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion where she provides support and assistance with ADA accommodation requests and equal opportunity and diversity initiatives. Carla received her Doctor of Education and Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies from Arizona State University, and her Master’s of Education from Northern Arizona University. Prior to joining the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Carla worked as a student advocate and student conduct administrator responding to Title VII and Title IX incidents.

Kathy Marks is the IT Accessibility Coordinator with the UTO at ASU. She helps develop ASU's web accessibility guidelines and standards, testing strategies, and educational and training efforts. She's worked in web development for over 20 years, 12 of them with ASU.

Shilo Patchin is a Shift Supervisor for the Downtown location of the Arizona State University Library. She is currently seeking a Master's of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona.

Victoria Polchinski began her career as a UI Engineer before transitioning into the UX Design field. She is currently a UX Designer at the University Technology Office where she works on ASU’s eAdvisor applications.

Joshua Sipahigil is the Digital Platform Coordinator for MediaAMP in the University Technology Office at ASU. His professional background spans both the production of media as well as the design and support of technology resources for the effective management and distribution of media to end-users. Born and raised in Indiana, Josh moved to Phoenix in 2012 to join the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts' online learning team as a Multimedia Specialist, later moving into the role of Web Application Developer with that same team. He joined UTO at the end of March in his current role. Despite his best efforts - and being away from Indiana for upwards of eight years now - he still can't get enough of that Hoosier home cooking whenever he visits.