Today we’re welcoming Rana Banerjee to the OCWC team. Rana will be consulting with us regarding the development of better membership support processes. Back in the old days (as long as a year or two ago) membership support was something we could handle informally, with a call or email in the course of handling other OCWC business. As the consortium has grown however, and new members come on board at an increasingly rapid pace, we have to be more deliberate in our proceedings. Rana will be helping us out with that over the next three months, in preparation for our hiring a more permanent staff person in September.
Rana comes to us from MIT OCW, where he’s worked since March, 2006 on the Highights for High School project, a resource for high school math and science which includes both MIT OCW materials modified for the high school audience as well as presenting content created by MIT
students and outreach programs. In addition to having primary responsibility for the acquisition and publication of Highlights site content, Rana has worked extensively in the area of usability, conducting interviews and focus groups of over 200 teachers, students, administrators and policy makers in order to help the site meet the needs of secondary STEM education.
We are very excited to have Meena Hwang join the OCWC staff as our Interim Director of Community Outreach. Having formerly initiated and orchestrated not only the Korea University Open Course Ware project, but also the Korea OCW Consortium, Meena brings considerable experience and enthusiasm to the OCWC staff. She will be directing the outreach efforts of the OCWC over the next six months, taking over from the much-missed Mike Caulfield. We are grateful to Meena for stepping in at this juncture so that our new Executive Director may settle in before running a formal search for the DCO position.
Many of you are already familiar with Meena from her work with KU OCW and KOCW. In addition to those responsibilities, Meena served on the OCWC Board of Directors from its inception in 2008 until her resignation from Korea University this past month. From her position on the OCWC staff, Meena will be able to extend many of the valuable projects she started in Korea, particularly the OCW Student Movement. I know that you will want to join me in saying how delighted we are with this opportunity to continue our collaboration with Meena.
It is with mixed emotion that I share that the OCW Consortium’s executive director of the past three years, John Dehlin, is taking the next step in his personal development and beginning prerequisite work for a PhD program. In order to concentrate on this study, John is stepping down as executive director. John has spoken to me often about his desire to further his own education, even while dedicating his time and skills to furthering the educational opportunities of countless others.
While I am immensely pleased for John to be able to take this next personal step, it comes at a loss to the Consortium. He has guided the organization though an important transition to independence, expanded the membership tremendously and provided a solid infrastructure to support the ongoing operation of the OCWC. Throughout his time as executive director he has also been a great collaborator and friend for me personally. John will continue to serve the Consortium in some capacity as he pursues his study.
The Consortium is fortunate to have Terri Bays of Notre Dame University available and willing to serve as interim executive director for the upcoming year, providing the Consortium the opportunity to conduct a thorough and orderly search for a new permanent executive director. As special projects manager, Terri has led the drafting of the Consortium’s bylaws and many other key steps in creating the new non-profit organization.
Please join me in thanking John for his contributions to the OCW movement to date and wishing him well in his new endeavors, and also in thanking Terri for taking on her new role in guiding the Consortium.
It’s been my pleasure to help Mike Caulfield get ramped up as the new Consortium Director of Community Outreach. Mike will be the primary point of contact for media, new members and OCWC Conference logistics–among many other things. Mike comes to us from Keene State College in New Hampshire, where he served as Director of Online Communications. Mike will be working out of his base in New Hampshire, and out of the MIT OpenCourseWare office as needed. Please help me welcome him to the community and look forward to meeting with him in Logan next month. He can be reached at caulfield dot mike at gmail dot com.
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