DSI Staff

Michelle Singh, Ph.D.

Vice President for Strategic Educational Alliances

Michelle Singh

VP Administration

Dana Duke

Senior Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Digital Strategy and Innovation

(940) 565-2624

Dana.Duke@unt.edu

Katy Tunks, Administrative Coordinator

Krista Watts

Senior Director of Strategic Planning

krista.watts@unt.edu

Indra Bhagat, Sr. Program Project Manager

Sirisha Poolakunta Ramesh, Graduate Student Assistant (Part-Time)

Benjamin Brand, Ph.D.

Senior Director, New Ventures

Dr. Benjamin Brand fosters collaborations between the Division of Digital Strategy and Innovation and academic units across the university to develop new digital ventures. His current initiatives include creating high impact microcredentials and formulating institution-wide strategies around generative AI. Dr. Brand joined DSI after seventeen years of teaching music history at UNT’s College of Music. As the College’s Director of Graduate Studies (2013-18) and Chair of its Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology (2018-23), he built a record of curricular innovation that culminated in the launch of the BA in Critical Studies in Music and Society in 2022. Dr. Brand holds a BA in Music from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Musicology from Yale University.

(940) 565-4353

benjamin.brand@unt.edu

Savannah Haley, Graduate Student Assistant (Part-Time)

Shannon Rowland

Director, Budget and Operations

Shannon.Rowland@unt.edu

Rena Vincent, Sr. Administrative Coordinator

DSI Center for Learning Experimentation, Application and Research (CLEAR)

Dan Watson, Senior Administrative Coordinator

Course Design Unit

Lauri Morrow, Associate Director of Instructional Design

Dave Denny, Sr. Instructional Design Consultant

Austin Haynes, Sr. Instructional Design Consultant

Jordan Smith, Sr. Instructional Design Consultant

Kathleen Harris, Sr. Instructional Design Consultant

Benjamin Nye, Instructional Design Consultant

Lily Sloan, Instructional Design Consultant

Thomas Tubbs, Instructional Design Consultant

Creative Production Unit

Joesph Hoffmann, Senior Director of Production

Jon Holland, Assistant Director of Production

Eric Koch, Lead Multimedia Designer

[vacant], Assistant Graphic Designer (Part-time)

[vacant], Sr. Programmer Analyst

Olivia Haynes, Programmer Analyst

Eric Michener, Lead Videographer

Vanessa Najera, Student Assistant (Part-time)

Stingray Schuller, Sr. Videographer

Cricket Childers, Videographer

Jeff Merrill, Studio Manager / Lead Videographer

Matthew Farmer, Videographer

Asha Chowdhury, AV Assistant (Part-time)

Keilynn Rogers, Student Assistant (Part-time)

Digital Compliance Unit

Tania Heap, Senior Director of Learning Research & Accessibility

Charlesa Olmstead, J.D., Digital Compliance Officer

Daniel Bernardo, Digital Accessibility Specialist

Danae Harris, Sr. Digital Accessibility Specialist

Stephanie Hinojosa, Digital Accessibility Specialist

Caroline Kairu, Digital Accessibility Specialist

Ethan Ligon, Digital Accessibility Assistant (Part-time)

Katrina Ramos, Digital Accessibility Assistant (Part-time)

Jarrod Trovada, Digital Accessibility Assistant (Part-time)

Faculty Development Unit

Aubree Stearns, Director of Faculty Development

Allison Boye Sr. Faculty Development Specialist

Babafunso Adegbola, Assistant Faculty Development Specialist

Tama Hebert, Educational Technology Trainer

[vacant], Graduate Assistant

[vacant], Graduate Assistant

Makayla Perkins, Graduate Assistant

Learning Applications Research Unit

Monique Scales, Application Support Analyst

DSI Digital Growth

Karen Bollinger

Assistant Vice President for Digital Growth

Karen has spent the last 25+ years building innovative marketing ecosystems in corporate, government, creative agency and higher education settings. Most recently, Karen worked at the University of Illinois, where she served on the Chancellor’s Marketing Advisory Council and as chief marketing and communications officer for the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning and Illinois Online. Some of Karen’s accomplishments include bringing together a highly decentralized campus to create an aggregate institutional brand for more than 90 online programs and hundreds of courses. This included a new website, program microsites, market research, identity standards, content strategy, digital marketing plan and the building, integration and deployment of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system used for both online and campus-based programs. Karen and her husband, Eric, have two daughters, Drew and Claire.

Karen.Bollinger@unt.edu

Jannet Ponder - Administrative Coordinator

Patrick Pluscht, Executive Director, DSI Digital Growth

Caleb Walter, Digital Marketing Program Mngr

[vacant], Sr Programmer Analyst

Taylor Abramson, Marketing Coordinator

Kiera Gerner, Graphic Designer, Non-Student Help - Hourly

Suyosha Acharya, Office Assistant (Part-time)

Akhila Akula, Office Assistant (Part-time)

Solina Galo, Office Assistant (Part-time)

DSI Enterprise

Stephanie Myers,

Interim Director, DSI Enterprise

(940) 565-2219

Stephanie.Myers@unt.edu

Kevin Huang, Online Student Success Coordinator

Rhiannon White, Associate Director of Professional Learning

Tami Russell, Program Project Coordinator

Jim Hoffman, Program Director, Energy Industry Finance & Accounting Continuing Education Programs

Denise Belmonte, Digital Strategist Intern (Part-time)>

Divya Thailam, Student Assistant (Part-time)

DSI Learning Analysis and Digital Research (LADR)

Tania Heap, Ed.D.

Senior Director of Learning Research & Accessibility

Dr. Tania Heap is the Director of Learning Research and Accessibility based in the Center for Learning Experimentation, Application, and Research (CLEAR) at the University of North Texas (UNT). She has been involved in online and technology-enhanced learning initiatives in different capacities for over 15 years. Her background is in practice-based research in learning technology, design and methods in social-behavioral-educational research with human participants, digital accessibility and ADA compliance testing, faculty development, and instructional design for high-enrollment online classes and MOOCs.

Tania.Heap@unt.edu