Who+We+Are



chair of AHEAD’s standing committee on public policy and co-chairs AHEAD’s Online Learning and Distance Education Special Interest Group. In 2008, Ms. Hermann was named by then-Governor David Patterson to New York State’s Instructional Materials Advisory Council. The council is mandated by NY’s Chapter 219 e-text law, which requires publishers to provide electronically formatted textbooks to students with print based disabilities. Ms. Hermann has a master's degree in communication sciences and disorders and is a doctoral student in educational administration and policy studies at the State University of New York at Albany. Empire State College. Lisa has a Masters of Science degree in Education specializing in Educational Computing, and is actively pursuing her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. After many years of traditional teaching as a faculty member, Lisa began to focus on blended teaching and was a beta tester for TopClass, one of the early L.M.S. systems. She taught blended classes that she designed for adult students at a distance. Lisa currently works with online faculty to introduce new technologies in innovative ways to enhance best practice. She also focuses on methods to scale these technologies for the future. Lisa is the former Curriculum Instructional Designer for the RN to BS program at SUNY Empire State College. Working with faculty to design an entire curriculum, the program was accredited for professional standards and hallmarks for upper level nursing education in 2010. Lisa has a personal interest in the subject of ADA compliance as she has two college-bound teenagers with autism.
 * Kelly Hermann** has been the Director of the Office of College-wide Disability Services at SUNY Empire State College since 2005. Ms. Hermann is responsible for ensuring that all students with disabilities are granted equal access to the programs, activities and courses in all of the college’s 34 locations throughout the State of New York and online. She has significant experience providing accommodations for adult learners with disabilities, including veterans, in online courses. Ms. Hermann frequently presents her work in online accommodations and with wounded warriors transitioning to college at various state and national conferences, including the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), the Sloan-C Asynchronous Learning Networks, the National University Technology Network (NUTN), the Council for College and Military Educators (CCME) and the National Association for Developmental Educators (NADE). Ms. Hermann was recently named
 * Lisa Rapple** is currently the Curriculum Technology Specialist of the instructional design team at the Center for Distance Learning at SUNY