WGU Academic Engagement Webinars "How to" for Online Teaching and Learning

Ginger Bidell is the manager of a development team in the Business College at Western Governors University. Previous roles at WGU include Curriculum Program Manager and Instructional Designer. Ginger has also worked as an Instructional Designer at the State University of New York College at Buffalo and a for profit online college. She has experience designing and developing competency-based and traditional online courses and supporting faculty in the development and design of online, blended, and face-to-face courses using the principles of Universal Design for Learning, accessibility best practices, and Open Educational Resources. Ginger holds a B.S in Elementary Education and Social Studies Education, a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction, a M.S. in Management and Leadership and an MBA. 

Erin Hugus is a curriculum and assessment development team lead for the College of Business at Western Governors University. She began her career in course development as an instructional designer for the College of Business at University of Phoenix. She has over 26 years' experience working in education, both at the elementary school and higher education levels. She is a doctoral student at Northern Arizona University focusing on improving graduate employment outcomes in higher education. She has published articles about education with Competency Works and the Journal of Competency‐Based Education. She co-authored “Reconciling assessment quality standards and ‘double assessment’ in competency-based higher education” in a recent issue of Journal of Competency-Based Education. She is a member of AALHE 

Dr. Mark David Milliron is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant who works with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, foundations, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. He serves as Senior Vice President and Executive Dean of the Teachers College at Western Governors University (WGU), a nonprofit online university founded by 19 U.S. governors more than 20 years ago. WGU has since become a beacon of innovation, access, affordability, competency-based education, and workforce connection, serving over 120,000 full-time students nationwide. The WGU Teachers College is the largest college of education in the U.S., serving close to 30,000 teachers, leaders, and other education innovators in all 50 states. 

Richard Barnes is senior manager for Academic Engagement at WGU and an Associate Editor at the Journal of Competency-Based Education. Richard held several previous roles at WGU including course faculty manager and course instructor. Prior to joining WGU, Richard was a faculty member at North Carolina State University and several other UNC system schools. At UNC Richard served as Assurance of Learning Director supervising continuous improvement of educational outcomes through the School of Business’s regional accreditation assessment and AACSB assurance of learning processes. Before entering academia Richard had a distinguished professional career in accounting. 

Joanna Dillman has worked at WGU since 2018 and currently serves as the Academic Manager for the Business Core evaluation team. The focus of her role is to contribute to students achieving completion by leading evaluator training, calibration, as well as cross-departmental collaborating activities to ensure accurate evaluations with helpful feedback to students. With nearly 20 years of experience in human resources with a focus on training and employee relations, Joanna has a knack for making meaningful connections with others and an insatiable appetite for helping others maximize their potential.

Prior to joining WGU, Joanna held human resource leadership roles at the professional, departmental, and college level both in the private industry as well as academia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Master of Arts in Communication from Queens University of Charlotte. She lives in Mississippi with her family and enjoys cooking and hanging out on the beach.

Heidi Larsen joined WGU in 2009 and currently serves as senior manager of evaluation in the College of Business. During her tenure at WGU, Heidi has held roles in student mentoring, faculty leadership, and evaluation services. Regardless of her role, Heidi’s goal has always been to serve students and help them move toward graduation.

She has significant experience in coaching and providing feedback to learners, as well as current and future leaders. Prior to her work in academia, Heidi served in nonprofit organizations devoted to supporting victims of domestic violence. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University, an MBA and MSML from Western Governors University, and was an International Coaching Federation ACC certified coach. She lives in Idaho with her family, and loves enjoying the outdoors and traveling.

Jason R. Thompson is a thought leader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, having spent the past 25 years building DE&I programs in sports, healthcare, technology, and education organizations. 

His programs have won several awards at the local and international level. Most recently, the D&I Scorecard Jason developed received the top honor in the 2016 International Innovations in Diversity Awards program from Profiles in Diversity Journal, which also recognized him as a Diversity Leader in 2017 and 2018. His work has been highlighted and quoted in USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian. 

Natalie Murray joined WGU in December 2017 as vice president of student experience. Her early professional career began in physics and included lightning research at NASA. She later turned her focus to higher education, where she invested more than 17 years teaching in various modalities, designing courses and programs to meet pedagogical and institutional goals, and building and executing technology solutions. Natalie also developed and implemented large-scale enterprise systems to track student engagement and deliver personalized content and insights to a 360-degree student community of care. 

Prior to joining WGU, Natalie worked for the University of Texas Institute of Transformational Learning where she led technology program strategy and cross-functional teams across student lifecycle management, marketing, course development, and learning technologies. She also ensured the launch of UTSAs first online program, increasing campus capacity for online learning. Natalie holds two M.S. degrees in atmospheric science and instructional design and technology.