Expert Presenters

Doug Adams

Doug Adams is Associate Director of ALTEC, the Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortium (ALTEC). In this position he has served as the Co-Director of the High Plains R*TEC, an organization serving the needs over 2.7 million students in seven states.

A nationally recognized speaker and author, Mr. Adams regularly travels to national and regional venues to lend his expertise in professional development, technology planning, grant writing, and student leadership. He is an Intel Master Teacher and has been certified by the US Department of Education to approve technology plans as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Adams also works as a conference planner, helping to organize the Improving America's Schools conferences as well as a variety of state-wide and regional meetings.

Mr. Adams has degrees in Educational Psychology and Gifted Education from the University of Kansas, where he has taught since 1993.

Amber Rowland

Amber Rowland is currently the Senior Project Manager for the ALTEC Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) Team as well as a Professional Development Specialist for two other federal initiatives. These include the Technology Rich Classrooms intitative (TRC) and the Private and Independent Technology in Education Consortium (PI*TEC).

As Senior Project Manager, she is responsible for the management of all activities utilizing IDL technologies and the training and support of various professionals integrating this technology into instruction. She has facilitated classroom supervision and professional development activities utilizing IDL technologies, and is the contact person for the University of Kansas School of Education in multipoint video casting for preservice activities.

She holds a Master's Degree from the University of Kansas.

Jana Craig Hare

Jana Craig Hare, MSEd, is a Senior Project Manager for Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia (ALTEC) at the University of Kansas. Jana is a former secondary teacher, technology integration facilitator, PreK-12 Educational Technology Coordinator and State Educational Technology Director.With 16 years experience in education, she brings the classroom perspective to implementing technology with school improvement, including best practices in research-based instructional strategies and technology integration.

Jana is currently pursuing a PhD program in Curriculum & Teaching, with a minor in Program Evaluation. She has been an adjunct professor in the Masters of Educational Technology program at MidAmerica Nazarene University, a degree program which she helped to create and is currently teaching a technology integration class for preservice teachers at the University of Kansas.

Gail Tiemann

Gail Tiemann is a Senior Project Leader with ALTEC, at the University of Kansas. In her current role as coordinator of the federally-funded Private and Independent Technology in Education Consortium, Ms. Tiemann coordinates all aspects of program implementation as well as develops and disseminates high quality professional development through face-to-face sessions, online courses, web-based resources and online communities of practice to partners nation-wide.

Ms. Tiemann has presented at numerous national and regional conferences including: The National Educational Computing Conference, The Arc National Conference, Division on Career Development and Transition International Conference, and the USDE Joint Personnel Preparation/SIG/CSPD Conference.

Linda Merillat

Ms. Merillat is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas (KU), Lawrence, KS and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Educational Technology and Interaction Design. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Ms. Merillat has worked with dozens of organizations on the design and development of computer applications. She is currently employed with Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortium (ALTEC) at KU where she provides project management and leads the development on several web-based initiatives for teachers and educators.