Meet Our Team

I am a professor in the Mathematics department at Framingham State University, where I have worked since 2011. I served as an Assessment Coordinator for the original ROTEL grant (2021-2025). I am a long-time OER adopter and an advocate for the development and adoption of free and affordable resources at Framingham and across higher education. I have adapted existing OER and created an open textbook and other resources for my own teaching.

As a member of the Mathematical Association of America, I previously served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Technologies in Mathematics Education (2019-2022), and helped organize and facilitate special sessions on the advancement of OER and on remote instruction and assessment. I enjoy discovering new and innovative apps, platforms, and other technologies that can improve my own teaching, and especially sharing these discoveries with my colleagues.

Donna Mellen is the Director of Academic Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Donna provides technical and pedagogical consulting, workshops, and project leadership to help faculty enhance their teaching by envisioning, understanding, and using technology effectively.

She serves on the Academic Technology Committee for the 2020 Strategic Planning Commission. Donna serves as the UMass Lowell representative to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Open Educational Resources (OER) Advisory Council.

Prior to working in the Office of Information Technology, Donna worked for the Faculty Development Center since joining the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2008.

Donna continues to collaborate with the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Julie Nash, and the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT) on projects impacting teaching and learning at the university.

My name is Barbara Ambos. I am based at Framingham State University as the CA-ROTEL OER Project Coordinator, working closely with Co-PIs and helping the Publishing Support Team as needed. I first learned of OERs while working as a Librarian at Massasoit Community College, helping its Student Council put expensive textbooks on Reserve in the Library. Feeling that OER goals dovetail with the mission of libraries – providing free access to quality information – I joined the ROTEL (Remixing Open Textbooks Through an Equity) OER Project in early 2022. My primary responsibilities are with the management of CA-ROTEL’s administrative moving parts, grant-wide technology and licensing, and reporting. If you have any questions during your CA-ROTEL work, I can probably answer them or direct you to the right person.

I’m Lance Eaton, Ph.D., a writer, educator, faculty developer, instructional designer, and educational consultant in Providence, Rhode Island.  This website serves as my professional online presence and highlights my past, current, and future writings, activities, and projects. I have earned degrees in History (BA), Criminal Justice (AS), American Studies (MA), Public Administration (MPA), Instructional Design (MEd) and Higher Education (Ph.D.).  My writing has been published in local newspapers, trade publications, academic journals, books, and encyclopedias.  I have been an active producer of content on the internet for over 15 years including my blog (now a second blog on AI in Education), a YouTube channel and various other contributions as far back as Geocities (for those that remember that site!).  I have substantial experience working with youth, nonprofit organizations, higher education, and online organizations.

I am a multi-faceted professional in project and document management. I have a genuine passion for guiding big ideas into functioning realities.

I started out creating a small publication for an online MMORPG that functioned like a volunteer newspaper. I was Editor-in-Chief of The Crystal Chronicle, and I spent a majority of my time managing the volunteers who contributed to the paper. My general love of systems and efficiency led me to explore what eventually became my education: a bachelor’s in Technical and Professional Writing.

During my degree, I was offered a job as a technical editor for Indiana University Online’s collaborative programs team. I worked primarily with Dr. Allison Chatterjee as a two-person team building up the assessment portion of the office, eventually shifting from a part-time student to a full-time employee. While there, I designed presentations, created templates, and established workflows for complex data.

While working with IU Online, I began contracting for the ROTEL Project. I was originally brought on to create a style guide, but my position gradually expanded to technical editing, coordinating with and guiding authors through the publication process, providing quality assurance, giving presentations, and eventually producing a publication on behalf of the Publishing Support Team.

My experience has combined the aspects of technical writing, documentation management, process management, and project management. I pursued Project Management certification to better reflect the skills I have learned, and I look forward to what I can learn next.

I’m an instructional media specialist with two decades of experience in higher education, focused on making learning more accessible, engaging, and tech-friendly. I have supported faculty with online course design, accessibility, and technology integration. I earned my Master’s in Higher Education from Merrimack College and my B.S. in Art from Northeastern University. I am a lifelong learner and love blending creativity with technology to build inclusive learning environments that support both faculty and students.

My name is Patricia Lynne, and I'm a professor of English and recently became the Chair of General Education at Framingham State University. My areas of specialty include composition and rhetoric, writing assessment, and first-year writing. I teach courses in technical writing, writing about science, persuasion, and first-year writing, as well as composition theory and pedagogy. I coordinate the writing placement exam and the writing studio program to support incoming first-years. I've been at Framingham State University since 2006, and I love it here!

That's me as an academic, but I do other things, too. I garden and knit and read (what English professor doesn't read?). I also foster dogs, though I don't have any at the moment because my own pup is getting older and less patient. I collect wooden jigsaw puzzles. And I play World of Warcraft when I have time (right now, I'm playing a rogue on the Alliance side).

Open Massachusetts Hub Coordinator

Northern Essex Community College