Dr. Dennis Ausel
Ed.D. - Indiana University – Instructional Systems Technology. Dr. Ausel has expertise and interests in the areas of instructional design and digital imaging. As the founding director of IUP’s Instructional Design Center, he played a major role in architecting IUP’s technology-based learning environment. He has done productions, grants and presentations on information literacy, on-line writing center, multimedia in the classroom, and distance education. He was also the Co-Principal Investigator on the $600,000 ‘Advancing the Development of Educators in Pennsylvania to Teach with Technology’ grant.
Dr. Kurt Dudt
Ph.D. - University of Pittsburgh - Educational Communications and Technology. Dr. Dudt has produced four documentaries that are in national distribution and has done dozens of publications and presentations that focus on production technologies particularly as they relate to education. This includes the use of videoconferencing for student teaching that received a $225,000 FIPSE grant. Dr. Dudt served as the Co-Principal Investigator on the $1.7 million ‘Preparing Teachers to Teach Using Technology’ grant from USDOE and was a co-recipient of the IUP ‘Sponsored Programs Award for Outstanding Achievement in Curriculum and Instruction’ for his work on the project. He has served as a grant reviewer for FIPSE and as judge for the Johnstown Film and Wine Festival for the past two years. Individually and in collaboration with Dr. Jay Start, he has produced over a dozen corporate videos including promotional videos for customers, training and installation videos for corporate products, and general sales training videos. Among his publications and presentations are those that address issues such as religious programming on university radio stations (with Wilson), public access programming and religious/political messages (with Start), ethics and evaluation in distance education, and diversity. Dr. Dudt is currently Chair of the Communications Media Department.
Dr. Richard Lamberski
Ph.D. - Pennsylvania State University - Instructional Systems. Dr. Lamberski has been active in the American Society for Training and Development for 35 years providing training workshops and consultation in corporate communications and received their prestigious Whitney McMillan and Company Award for Prominent Training and Development Professionals. Lamberski provided organizational and project expertise for Pennsylvania’s nine-year statewide initiative to introduce technology into K-12 education (the $186 million Link-to-Learn project). He received IUP’s 2002 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award for his L2L work and continues to serve as a consultant to the Pennsylvania Office of Technology. In 2008, he received IUP’s Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching. His graduate and undergraduate consulting practices course has launched many successful alumni companies and he remains actively involved in supporting many of them. He is currently a consultant to some 30 external organizations and corporations including the National Guard CST initiative (CIMS), PNC Bank, S&T Bank, Jimmy Stewart Museum, and other national and regional profit and non-profit organizations.
Dr. Erick Lauber
Ph.D. - University of Michigan - Psychology. Dr. Lauber has developed over three dozen videos, animations, games and websites including several in collaboration with Partridge at IUP and the University of Georgia. While his major production focus has been on educational tools, he has also done projects on social justice, environmental and media bias issues. He also serves as Director of IUP’s Digital Media Institute and was President and owner of Wolf Lane, Inc. – a communications and creative media company in Athens, GA. He has some three dozen publications, presentations, and technical reports produced for professional associations and federal and state agencies.
Dr. Mary Beth Leidman
Ed.D. - Vanderbilt University - Organizational and Media Communication. Dr. Leidman has been an active radio producer and on-air interviewer throughout her career including programming for WGAY (Maryland – where she hosted a radio interview show for over five years), WRID-AM (Homer City – commercial production), WRQM-FM (Washington, DC – producer director for a year). She has hosted a regular WIUP-TV show. In addition she has done numerous special radio projects and shows and has won over 20 national, state and regional awards. She has over two dozen publications and presentations on media production.
Dr. Jim Lenze
Ph.D. - Pennsylvania State University - Instructional Systems. Dr. Lenze has over two dozen publications or presentations focusing on instructional technology and its use. Among the areas addressed are electronic portfolios for teacher education, the use of technology for student teacher supervision, design and display of instructional materials, content standards, on-line learning, and gaming and simulation tools. He is currently researching the use of virtual worlds like Second Life for technology mediated learning. Dr. Lenze currently serves as co-coordinator for the ComMIT PhD program.
Dr. Allen Partridge
Ph.D. - Texas Tech University - Interdisciplinary Fine Arts. In addition to three books and some half dozen articles on gaming and simulation, Dr. Partridge has developed nine computer games. Podz and Word Whacky are distributed nationally and are primarily entertainment oriented. Others are educational including Rock and Roll High School and Math Crazy or entertainment such as The Troi Oxy Affair, 17 Keys and the Bubble Pop Raceway. He also developed Battle Ball – an interactive 3-D intelligence simulation. He currently serves as director of IUP’s Applied Media and Simulation Games Center.
Dr. Mark Piwinsky
Ph.D. - Ohio State University - Political Science. From his background as IUP’s Chief Information Technology Officer, Dr. Piwinsky brings extensive experience in technology planning, implementation, training and financing. Success of this approach is evidenced by IUP’s recognition as one of the 25 ‘Most Wired’ campuses in the nation and its cost effective implementation of academic and administrative support systems. He participated in the development and coordination of the ‘Advancing the Development of Educators in Pennsylvania to Teach with Technology’ grant, the NEDIC/CIMS emergency management systems grants, and the ‘Preparing Teachers to Teach Using Technology’ grant for which he was a co-recipient of the IUP ‘Sponsored Programs Award for Outstanding Achievement in Curriculum and Instruction’. As an academic administrator, he served as Vice Provost for Administration and Technology at IUP and Director of Analysis and Planning at Ohio State University. As a political scientist and academic administrator, his work also addresses the impact of communications on the political process, public policy and public opinion and on research methods. Dr. Piwinsky currently serves as co-coordinator for the ComMIT PhD program.
Dr. Jay Start
Ph.D. - University of Pittsburgh - Educational Communications and Technology. Dr. Start has done over two dozen video publications including biographies, organizational profiles, product training videos, community action and social issues. He has over a dozen publications or presentations focusing on media production and media operations management. He served as station manager for WIUP-TV for 20 years providing him first hand experience in media operations and productions.
Dr. Gail Wilson
D.Ed. - University of Pittsburgh - Administrative and Policy Studies in Higher Education. Dr. Wilson has been involved in radio programming and production for over 20 years and served as General Manager of WIUP-FM from 1986 to 2004. She has over a dozen publications and presentations that focus on radio and TV production. She was recognized as District Director of the Year (2001) and Regional Adviser of the Year (1990. 2000) by the National Broadcasting Society. Among her areas of expertise are operations, scriptwriting and preproduction.
