Dennis Faber is the principal investigator for the TIME Center, a regional ATE center focused on manufacturing and engineering education and workforce development. He has been extensively involved in regional and national workforce development initiatives with business, industry, labor, government, and educational organizations and directed the DACUM Resource Center, a respected state, regional and national curriculum and instructional design resource. Dennis has a bachelor’s degree in secondary education, a master’s degree in counseling, and graduate coursework in organizational development, instructional design, and community college administration.
Barbara Pellegrini’s current research focuses on the formative evaluation of secondary science and technology programs, as well as the professional development of science and technology educators. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Educational Processes and has evaluated a wide variety of school and nonprofit programs. She has been employed in industry as a chemical analyst and also holds the experience of teaching at the K-12 and university levels. Barbara now works as a private consultant for STEP Consulting.
Peter Saflund’s career spans 35 years as technician, engineer, business owner, community college teacher, dean, CIO, researcher, speaker, instructional designer, and technology expert. Peter is former associate director of the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies. As special advisor to National Skill Standards Board on Information Technology Skill Standards construction and definition, he helped with the develop and validation of the Information and Communications Technology Skill Standards. He coauthored a major congressionally commissioned report by National Academies of Science on information technology workforce issues and national policy. Today Peter has his own practice, evaluating ATE projects and centers and researching technology workforce needs and trends for educators and industry.
Nick Smith is professor and chair in the Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation department of the School of Education at Syracuse University, where he teaches graduate-level research and evaluation methods courses. He has served on numerous editorial boards, including as past editor-in-chief of New Directions for Evaluation. In 2004, Nick served as president of the American Evaluation Association. His research interests include the theory and methods of applied social research and evaluation, having recently published, Smith, N. L. & Brandon, P. R., (Eds.). Fundamental Issues in Evaluation. New York, NY: Guilford, 2008.
Elizabeth Teles recently retired as lead ATE program director at NSF. In 1994 she received the NSF Program Director’s Award for Excellence for her work in initiating the ATE program and in 2002 the Director’s Award for broadening participation by two-year colleges in NSF activities. In 2008, she received the NSF Meritorious Service Award for her work on behalf of community colleges and her leadership in the ATE program. Liz served on a short-term assignment as the NSF Science Manager at the South Pole Station during the summer of 1999, for which she was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal. She was also selected as one of the Department of State-NSF Embassy Fellows and served her fellowship in 2001 at the US Embassy in Ukraine. She is currently a partner in Teles Consulting, LLC.
