Summer Institute
View Agenda & Program
Meet the 2019 Digital Fellows Summer Institute Faculty Participants
Aimee Finney: Aimee Finney has been teaching Introduction to Speech Communication (SPCH 1311) for three years at ACC. Aimee has been teaching high school for 21 years, including Professional Communications, Communication Applications, Debate, Logic, and a variety of other courses. Aimee is not even close to being proficient in the world of digital technologies. Aimee is looking forward to learning more about bringing technologies into her classes, as well as what other people are doing in terms of teaching digital citizenship.
Leona Gamerl: I have a bachelor’s in Psychology with a minor in education from UC Davis, an associate’s in nursing from Sacramento City College, and a bachelor’s in nursing and master’s in nursing education from Regis University in Denver. I’ve been a registered nurse for 28 years including over 13 years as a critical care nurse in the ER and over 7 years as a nurse manager for the Austin Diagnostic Clinic. There, I managed the staff and operations of five departments over several sites in and around Austin. In the last 7 1/2 years, I’ve been teaching at ACC in Round Rock in the Professional Nursing department. I teach Level Two students in the classroom, the skills lab, and at Seton Williamson for clinicals. In my free time, I enjoy being the “mother” of three kitties, working out with my personal trainer, and reading a good book. I’m excited for this opportunity to participate in the Digital Fellows Summer Institute this year.
Sharon Goh: For the past ten years, I have been a full time faculty counselor at the Rio Grande and Highland campuses. I have been an adjunct instructor in the Student Development department for twelve years, teaching over 40 sections of Transition to College and Effective Learning. My educational background began in Special Education and I have been fortunate to be able to combine my love of teaching with counseling to help guide students as they navigate the world of college and work. Most recently, I started teaching ESL in the Adult Education department. I am excited to be part of this summer institute and hope to learn how mobile technology can help provide my students more access and opportunities to interact, communicate, and increase social and cultural awareness and community. This sense of belonging to a classroom community will help connect and motivate students to increase success and retention.
Angela Hadlock: Angela Hadlock has been a professor at Austin Community College in the Diagnostic Medical Imaging Radiology department since 2017. She earned a Bachelors of Radiologic Science from Midwestern State and is a former graduate of the ACC Diagnostic Medical Imaging-Radiology program. She is interested in learning new ways to engage students and help them learn. Outside of the classroom, Angela enjoys watching sports and spending time with her husband and three dogs.
Hynek Joe Hejl: My name is Joe Hejl and I am excited about attending the Summer Institute. I grew up in Bryan, Texas and I have been living in Austin, Texas since 1996. For fun I enjoy spending time with my 4 year-old daughter and wife, playing drums in two bands, and exercising. I have been teaching as a full time, 12-month contract faculty in the radiology department since 2011 and my office is at EVC. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in radiologic sciences from Midwestern State University and a Masters degree in Educational Technology from Texas State University. I am acutely aware that students today are attached to their mobile phones and that we as teachers need to know how to reach students through their mobile devices and I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge so that I can better reach my students.
Liz Hundley, CMP – Interim Department Chair, Professor – Hospitality Management and Meeting & Event Planning: While receiving her bachelor’s degree from the Hilton School for Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, Liz began working in the culinary intern program with Starwood Hotels, giving her a strong background for later work in catering sales, food and beverage operations and conference and event management. Texan born, Liz enjoys activities in the sun – rowing Lady Bird Lake, boating at Lake Travis, biking around town and growing peppers and tomatoes in the garden. Liz has been with ACC since 2004.
Arif Karim: Arif Karim received his B.S in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 2000 and his Ph.D in organic chemistry from the University of Zurich in 2007. He joined the faculty at ACC in 2010 and is currently one of the Assistant Deans for planning and assessment.
Andrew Keese: Andrew Keese is an adjunct assistant professor of English at Austin Community College and also a part- time instructor of English at Texas Tech University. He has written two book chapters on D. H. Lawrence, including “Hybridity and the Postcolonial Solution in D. H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent,” which appeared in D. H. Lawrence: New Theoretical Perspectives and Cultural Translation in 2016, and “Engineering Away Humanity: Lawrence on Technology and Mental Consciousness in Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Pansies,” which will appear in D. H. Lawrence and Technology in 2019. He also wrote “Pansies: Lawrence’s Search for the Animal Other in Humans” that was published in D. H. Lawrence Studies in 2012 and “The Myth of the Monster in Mary’s Shelley’s Murder Mystery, Frankenstein” that appeared in the Journal of South Texas English Studies in 2011. For the past three years, Keese has written annual reviews on new Lawrence scholarship for Year’s Work in English Studies and has also written reviews for the Journal of D. H. Lawrence Studies and D. H. Lawrence Review. He has also contributed a short piece on Leslie Stephen for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism and served as an academic advisor for an entry on Mabel Dodge Luhan that appeared in a volume of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism in 2016.
Talía Loaiza: My name is Talía Loaiza. I am originally from Ecuador. I completed my college degree in my home country and moved to the US when I won a scholarship granted by my school, La Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja. Later, I obtained my Masters in Spanish Linguistics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later on, I moved to The University of Texas at Austin where I completed all the PhD courses. My specific training was in Second Language Acquisition. I have taught at a variety of colleges and universities throughout the US from Maine to Texas.I finally settled down in Austin when I was hired as a full-time Professor at ACC. I consider myself very fortunate to have been allowed to join this fine institution and live in this beautiful city.
Veronica Reyna: Since 2002 I have been teaching higher education. I started as adjunct faculty at St. Mary’s University & Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, as well as nearly all the community colleges of San Antonio. In 2005, I began my full-time teaching career with ACC. I have done many exciting things at ACC: I have been an Assistant Dean for the Social Sciences Department, as well as served as a faculty advisor to Southern Poverty Law Center @ACC. I am a co-author for the textbook, Practicing Texas Politics, 16th & 17th edition. I’m currently working on an updated election edition of my textbook which will publish August 2019.
Yam Tolan: William (Yam) Tolan has taught at ACC for 15 years, in both the Department of Professional Photography and now the Art Department. He has been active in the Full-Time Faculty Senate, serving as President FY19. A certified Adobe educator, Yam is looking to use the iPad and Adobe’s mobile apps in his ARTS 1301 Art Appreciation and ARTS 2356 Photography I classes. Yam’s artwork has been widely exhibited and is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and among other private and public collections. Active in the photo/art community, Yam formally served on the Boards of Directors of both the Society for Photographic Education and the Texas Photographic Society. More information about his art can be found on his website williamtolan.com and about his sourdough bread on Instagram @yamtolan.
Lauren (Lola) Watson: Lola Watson is an adjunct professor in English. Her pedagogical work focuses on service learning and creating a learner-centered classroom. Research interests include gender studies, pop culture, and children’s literature. She is a member of the Publicity Committee for the Children’s Literature Association.
Lynne Wiesman: Lynne, a Professor in Austin Community College’s ASL & Interpreter Training Program (ITP), has been educating interpreters for 30+ years both online and in more traditional face-to-face settings. She is the founder of a first-to-market professional development organization specializing in distance education at a time when distance technologies were in their infancy. Signs of Development provides distance mentoring, streaming WWWorkshops for continuing education credits for interpreters, certification preparation, & self- analysis tools and processes. In addition to educating, she also has been a freelance court/legal interpreter for 25+ years. Lynne has previously served as the Director & developer of the Troy ITP (online, on-campus, and hybrid). She is a Master Mentor and has taught in the Master Mentor Program and has extensive experience in developing Mentor Trainers, mentors, and sustainable mentoring projects & relationships. Lynne has been a long-time advocate for animal rights, supporting rescue groups, and enjoys fostering and dog sitting for rescue animals.
