Instructor Information

Ginny Anderson, Ed.D., is a professor of biological sciences at Towson University in Baltimore. As chair of the biology department's assessment committee, she has taken an active role in campus and systemwide assessment, and has consulted with the National Science Foundation as well as other national groups. Her book, Effective Grading, which she co-authored with Barbara Walvoord, has recently been released.

John Baker is the president of JRB Advanced Knowledge Group Inc. He has served on the faculty of the School for Professional Studies in Business and Education in the past, but presently manages his own consulting firm and consults widely in the Baltimore area.

Carol Bloomberg, MBA, has served as director of marketing for Johns Hopkins Medicine for the last four years. Prior to that she served for 10 years at Georgetown University Medical Center in a similar position. She holds an MBA from Harvard University and teaches in the Business of Medicine Program for the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education. In the past, she has taught marketing seminars for Georgetown University and George Washington University.

Linda Brody, Ed.D., is the director of the Study of Exceptional Talent and co-director of the Diagnostic and Counseling Center at The Johns Hopkins Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth. She also teaches graduate courses in gifted education for the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education. Brody has over 20 years of experience conducting research on talented students and counseling students and their families. She is the author of numerous articles and books, serves on the editorial boards of several professional journals in the field, and has been a consultant to schools about meeting the needs of gifted students.

Robby Champion, Ed.D., is an independent consultant who works as a trainer, facilitator for strategic planning, project consultant, and program evaluator in the areas of change, team development, school improvement, staff development, and facilitator training. She formerly served as chief of the staff development branch of the Maryland State Department of Education. Earlier she worked in public schools in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. She served on the faculty of Frostburg University in Maryland and has also been an adjunct faculty member at Western Maryland College, the University of Maryland at College Park, and Loyola College of Maryland. A native of West Virginia, Champion received her doctorate from West Virginia University in 1982.

Eliot Cohen, Ph.D., is a professor and director of Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He has written extensively on a variety of subjects in the fields of national security studies and military history, and directed the U.S. Air Force's study of the 1991 Gulf War. A winner of the SAIS teaching prize, he is the founder of the Center for Strategic Education at SAIS, which promotes the development of innovative teaching techniques in the security field, and has made extensive use of case studies, staff rides, and film in graduate and professional education.

Neil Davidson, Ed.D., is associate dean for undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland and a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, where he directs a doctoral program in professional development. He offers many seminars and workshops for the University Center for Teaching Excellence, and directs their Faculty Consultation Program. Davidson is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences and a consultant on cooperative learning for many school districts, colleges, and universities. He is the author of numerous articles on the use of cooperative learning. His most recent edited books include Cooperative Learning in Mathematics: A Handbook for Teachers, Enhancing Thinking through Cooperative Learning (with Toni Worsham), and Professional Development for Cooperative Learning: Issues and Approaches (with Celeste Brody, 1998). He is the immediate past president of the International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education.

Linda Dillon Jones, Ph.D., directs the Center for Training and Education at Johns Hopkins. She has 20 years of teaching experience at North Carolina State University, Ohio State University, and Meiji University in Tokyo, and left NCSU as an associate professor to come to Hopkins in 1992. She has taught in the Management and Leadership Development programs of over 30 Fortune 500 organizations and government agencies. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Japan in 1981.

David Melvin is the founder of Development Matters, a training and consulting firm based in the Washington DC area, serving clients nationally and internationally. Development Matters specializes in coaching individuals and teams by identifying the challenges they face in changing times, from mission through deliverables, and providing creative and effective solutions to those challenges. Melvin's work in the past 15 years has been as a consultant, coach, mentor, and trainer; designing and implementing programs in time, task, and meeting management.

Donald Shandler, Ph.D., is founder and president of Organizational Development and Research Associates located in Columbia, MD. He has over 25 years of progressive achievement in administration, management, marketing, and the sale of education/training programs and services. He has served as the assistant vice chancellor, University of Maryland University College, and director of Continuing Education for Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. His third book, Competency-Based Learning: Designing and Implementing Successful Programs, was published in 1999.

Richard Solomon, Ph.D., has been the Teacher Center coordinator of the Prince George's County-University of Maryland Secondary Professional Development Center, since 1986. He is also president and executive director, National Institute for Relationship Training Inc. Presently, he teaches for the Graduate School of Loyola College on organizational development, human relations in school management, managing conflict, relationship training, and cooperative and collegial learning.

Rick Sullivan, Ph.D., is director of learning and performance support for JHPIEGO, the Johns Hopkins Program for International Education and Training in Reproductive Health. He consults around the world with ministries of health to train local practitioners in teh skills they need to further the reproductive health of women throughout the world.

Toni Ungaretti, Ph.D., is the assistant dean and director of undergraduate studies in the School of Professional Studies for Business and Education. Previously she served as the chair of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program and the Department of Teacher Development and Leadership in the Division of Education. She has worked extensively with teachers, university faculty, and physicians on effective teaching and evaluation in clinical settings. Her interests include learning theory, human development, and systemic change in education.

Barbara Walvoord, Ph.D., is director of the John Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning, concurrent professor of English, and fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. She was named Maryland English Teacher of the Year for Higher Education in 1987, and has taught undergraduate and graduate students for more than 20 years. She was elected a national Danforth Fellow in 1979 for excellence in teaching and commitment to values. Walvoord's most recent books are a long-term qualitative study of the outcomes for faculty of their participation in the Writing Across the Curriculum movement, and Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment.