FIN Commons

Tom deWit:

• Co-Director
• 510-723-6821
• tdewit@chabotcollege.edu

Tom deWit has been teaching developmental and college-level English at Chabot College for 20 years, and he is lead instructor in the Daraja learning community for African American students. As Co-Chair of Chabot’s SPECC project, Tom co-facilitated a faculty inquiry group on integrating attention to basic skills across the disciplines and served as the producer for several video inquiries into student learning, including Reading Between the Lives. He has served as chair of Program Review and Enrollment Management committees, Interim Dean of Language Arts, and chief negotiator for the Chabot –Las Positas Faculty Association. He has given conference presentations on culturally responsive classroom practices, deep reading, program design, equity, community building, enrollment management, and data analysis. He is currently co-chairing a statewide effort to expand the Umoja Community, which promotes student success through culturally responsive curricula and pedagogy. Tom holds a MA in English from the University of Virginia.

Katie Hern:

• Co-Director, Inquiry Coach
• 510-723-7424
• khern@chabotcollege.edu

Katie Hern began teaching English in 1991 and has conducted several inquiries into student learning. These included a study of what she calls “the sustainability gap,” or why capable students earn passing grades on individual tests/papers and then withdraw or fail a class. Katie has served as coordinator of a learning community, co-coordinator of the Carnegie SPECC project, and co-chair of the college-wide basic skills committee. In her previous work at John F. Kennedy University, she was founding director of the Academic Support Center, project manager for a WASC Self-Study, and Dean of Academic Affairs. Katie has given presentations and workshops across California on faculty inquiry, learning communities, and integrated reading-writing instruction, and her work has been featured in Inside Higher Education and the National Teaching and Learning Forum. She is also co-author of the memoir Reunion: A Year in Letters Between a Birthmother and the Daughter She Couldn’t Keep. Katie holds an EdD and MA in Educational Leadership from Mills College and a MA in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green.

Jan Connal:

• Inquiry Coach
• 562-860-2451 x 2143
• jconnal@cerritos.edu

Jan Connal looks forward to contributing her training and experience as an educational psychologist to promoting, facilitating and engaging in educational inquiry. At Cerritos College, Jan co-coordinates the campus SLO assessment activities, serves as the internal evaluator for the campus Title V grant, and chairs the Developmental Education Committee. Previously, she co-facilitated the Carnegie SPECC Project and participated in the Visible Knowledge Project, two Scholarship of Teaching and Learning initiatives at Cerritos. Jan also served for three years on the Steering Committee for the state-wide Basic Skills Initiative (BSI), with responsibility for faculty development in effective practices. She has served in a variety of administrative posts, including Dean for Institutional Advancement and Planning, Dean of Educational Support Services, Director of Research, Development and Planning. Jan holds a PhD in Educational Psychology (Research Methods and Evaluation) from UCLA.

Myra Snell:

• Inquiry Coach
• 925-439-2181 x 3135
• msnell@losmedanos.edu

Myra Snell has taught at Los Medanos College for 17 years, in courses ranging from arithmetic to calculus and statistics. As Co-Coordinator of Developmental Education and Co-Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Project, she worked with faculty to assess student learning outcomes and design classroom activities responding to assessment results. She played a lead role in LMC’s Carnegie SPECC project and has led faculty inquiry groups in Nursing, Biology, Creative Arts and the Humanities, developmental English, and developmental math. She is one of the authors of the new math standards published by the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges, and recently published an article about assessment in the AMATYC Review. Myra is currently working with the Carnegie Foundation on a new community college initiative bringing together educational researchers, practitioners, and technology experts to create a new accelerated developmental math path into statistics. Myra holds a MA in Pure Mathematics from UC Berkeley.

Lin Marelick:

• CTE Liaison
• linz1@cruzio.com

Lin Marelick began teaching Graphic Arts in 1981. She started her teaching career in a private post secondary vocational program in the Silicon Valley in 1981 and was hired by Mission College in 1989. She was elected the Academic Senate President in 1995 and became a member of the Executive Committee for the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges in 1996. Beyond the classroom, Lin has served a Dean for Workforce and Economic Development at Mission College. She is a former President of California Community College Association of Occupational Education. She retired in June 2008 and has since been consulting throughout the State of California. Lin was a community college transfer student from Laney College and holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Arizona.

Sean McFarland:

• Making Visible Coordinator
• 510-723-7427
• smcfarland@chabotcollege.edu

Sean McFarland has been teaching English at Chabot College since 1991 and has twice been chosen “Instructor of the Year” by students. He co-founded and served as Director of Chabot’s first cross-curricular Tutoring and Learning Center. He also developed the college’s first computer classrooms. Both the center and the computer classrooms became models around the state. For the last several years, under the SPECC grant, Sean supported the work of other colleagues by “Making Visible” their inquiries with video footage of classrooms and student interviews. At the same time he directed six full-length documentaries that focus on issues in education. Sean mentored five students to be co-inquirers and placed student voices at the center of the team’s projects. The videos—including Reading Between The Lives, Door Number One, and The Written Works—have had wide impact across the state and nationally. He holds a MA in Inter-Arts from SFSU.

Thomas Lothian:

• Technology Suppor
• tlothian@chabotcollege.edu

Thomas Lothian is a television production instructor in the Mass Communications department at Chabot College in Hayward. In addition to teaching, he also provides technical support for students and other instructors in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe Photoshop. He is part of a video production company that does event videography and provides the web support for facultyinquiry.net. He holds a MA in Multimedia from CSUEB.

Jamie Chandler:

• Program Assistant
• 510-723-7539
• jchandler@chabotcollege.edu

Jamie Chandler started her work with inquiry in 2006 as a student researcher in Chabot’s Carnegie SPECC grant, when she helped develop and produce the 65-minute documentary, Reading Between the Lives. She is also a poet and artist. She received Chabot’s Fallon Award in poetry, had her work featured on the flyer for an exhibit at Chabot’s art gallery, and collaborated with six fellow students and an instructor to create a poetry performance. Jamie earned a AA in Art with highest honors from Chabot and a BA in Art from UCSC, with a focus in lithography, painting, and figurative studies. After transferring, Jamie remained involved in the Making Visible Project at Chabot, working on five more video documentaries.

Monique Williams:

• Program Manager
• 510-723-6950
• mwilliams@chabotcollege.edu

Monique Williams begun working at Chabot College in 2006 as a student researcher in Carnegie’s Strengthening PreCollegiate Education in the Community Colleges (SPECC) grant, where she helped develop and produce the well-received 65-minute documentary, Reading Between the Lives. She is also a poet and received Chabot’s Knebel Award in poetry as a student. Monique earned an AA in English and Humanities from Chabot and a BA in English with an emphasis in Literature with Academic Honors from Mills College.  After transferring, Monique remained involved in the “Making Visible” project at Chabot, working on five more video documentaries. Upon graduation, Monique joined forces with the Faculty Inquiry Network, funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Walter S. Johnson Foundation, and the Bay Area Work Force Collaborative, helping to guide 16 selected community college teams statewide in inquiry, innovation, institutional navigation and research, student voice and making visible.