2023 Speakers
Dr. John Edward Martin
Director of Scholarly Communication, UNT Libraries
John Edward Martin is Director of Scholarly Communication at the UNT Libraries in Denton, TX. He oversees the Libraries' scholarly communication and publishing services, outreach & educational programming, open publishing platforms, OER and open textbook support, scholarly impact consulting, and data management planning services. He is a member of the Libraries Research Support Services unit and the Digital Scholarship Committee. He also serves as a member of the THECB OER Founding Fellows program and the ACRL Scholarly Communication Roadshow presenters team. He is currently working on an open scholarly monograph on Edgar Allan Poe and comics to be published by the UNT Libraries.
Katie Steen-James
Manager of Public Policy & Advocacy
Katie Steen-James is the Manager of Public Policy & Advocacy at SPARC where she is responsible for promoting policy and coalition activities to advance SPARC’s commitment to making Open the default in research and education. In this role, she works with the entire SPARC team to develop SPARC’s policy goals and priorities, and leads the organization's implementation of federal and state advocacy strategies. Previously, Katie served as a federal relations officer at the Association of American Universities (AAU) where she led advocacy on policy issues ranging from humanities and foreign language education to agricultural research. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and her master’s degree in public affairs with an emphasis in public policy. Katie is based in Chicago, IL.
DeeAnn Ivie
OER Coordinator and Political Science Librarian
DeeAnn Ivie (UTSA) is the OER Coordinator and Political Science Librarian at the UTSA Libraries at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She facilitates outreach to campus partners to support open educational resource (OER) adoption.
Jessica McClean
Director of OER & Digital Scholarship, University of Texas at Arlington
Jessica McClean is the Director of Open Educational Resources (OER) & Digital Scholarship at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries where she advances university initiatives related to open education and open access. Jessica runs the UTA CARES Grant program, which provides financial support for faculty pursuing OER projects, manages open publishing of OER and open journals through Mavs Open Press, and administers MavMatrix, the UTA institutional repository and archival hub. She currently serves on the Open Education Network’s Pub101 Committee, the DOERS3 Innovation Workgroup, and the UTA Faculty Senate
Sarah Ryan
Director of the Law Librarianship Program and Associate Professor of Information Science
Sarah Ryan is Director of the Law Librarianship program and Associate Professor of Information Science at UNT. She is an attorney admitted to practice in Connecticut, specializing in veterans' law. She holds a PhD in Rhetorical Criticism and master's degrees in Library Science and Interpersonal Communication from Texas Woman's University and Ohio University.
Jae Webb
Clinical Assistant Professor of Management
Dr. Jae Webb is an interdisciplinary scholar who came to UNT in 2017. He teaches in the Management Department of the Ryan College of Business with a focus on organizational behavior and business ethics.
Priscilla Connors
Associate Professor, College of Merchandising, Hospitality, and Tourism
Dr. Priscilla Connors, Associate Professor in the College of Merchandising, Hospitality, and Tourism, is designing a module for her online nutrition class that incorporates ChatGPT as a learning tool where students evaluate the accuracy of essays written by the chatbot. Students gain skills in fact checking as they explore how to ask questions and check the accuracy of essays provided by ChatGPT.
Suliman Hawamdeh
Regents Professor of Information Sciences
Suliman Hawamdeh is a Regents Professor in the Department of Information Science, College of Information, University of North Texas. He is a leading authority in the field of knowledge management and the editor in chief of the Journal of Information and Knowledge Management (JIKM). He founded and directed several academic programs including the first Master of Science in Knowledge Management in Asia in the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the Master of Science in Data Science at University of North Texas. He served as a department chair and director of the interdisciplinary PhD program in Information Science from 2010-218. Dr. Hawamdeh authored and edited several books in the areas of knowledge management, information science, data analytics, cybersecurity, and knowledge governance.
Junhua Ding
Reinberg Endowed Professor of Information Science
Junhua Ding is the Reinburg Endowed Professor in Data Science and the Director of the graduate data science program at the department of information science. He is a productive researcher in software engineering, machine learning, data analytics, software security and information privacy. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers on the topics and received more than $5 million research grants from federal agencies including NSF and DoD.
Tricia Boucher
Open Pedagogy Librarian
Tricia Boucher (TXST) is an advocate for student success through concept application, Tricia has been able to bring her interest and expertise to a variety of positions on behalf of University Libraries at Texas State. She has taken her experience as a User Experience Librarian to actively inform the process and application of Open Pedagogy on the Texas State campuses. From assignment transformations to student centered learning principles to shifting the focus from students as knowledge consumers to students as knowledge creators, Tricia is an energetic and active advocate for students at Texas State.
Isabelle Antes
Open Educational Resources Librarian
Isabelle Antes (TXST) is a recent graduate and has leveraged her experience as a student to develop a patron centered service model that meets individuals and groups where they are with the materials and services they need. She is also currently developing an infrastructural framework for open education at Texas State with the collaboration of many individuals and campus parties. To learn more about open education at Texas State University Libraries, check out our website today!