Our Team
Dr. Nicole Johnson (Executive Director) has been involved in the field of educational technology for over a decade. Her primary research interests include tracking macro-level trends in digital learning at the post-secondary level, defining and operationalizing key terms associated with digital learning, and better understanding how adults learn informally in digital contexts. She is also involved in collaborative projects with Bay View Analytics and Royal Roads University that investigate faculty experiences with digital technologies and the future of higher education in both Canada and the USA.
Dr. Jeff Seaman (Director of Analytics) has worked in education information technology his entire career and currently serves as Director of Bay View Analytics. His experience includes creating and running the Computing Resource Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief Technology Officer at HighWired.com, Vice President of Engineering for Vista Associates, and Chief Information Officer for Lesley University. He has taught at multiple institutions and served on numerous academic technology advisory boards including Apple Computer, IBM, and Microsoft.
Dr. Stephanie McKeown (Board Chair) is the Chief Institutional Research Officer at the University of British Columbia. She is past president of the Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association, where she was a Board member for nine years. Stephanie earned her MA and PhD in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Education. Her research interests include understanding how patterns of student behaviour, student perceptions about their educational experiences and institutional structures are related to persistence, social and personal development, wellbeing and academic achievement. She joined the CDLRA Board in 2021.
Dr. Evan Cortens (Board Vice Chair) is the Dean of Continuing Education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. He has served previously as the Director of Institutional Research and Planning and the Manager of Academic Initiatives in the Office of the Provost at the same institution, and was formerly the Manager of Business Development, Associate Editor and Senior Researcher at the Academica Group in London, Ontario. He holds a PhD in Musicology from Cornell University, with a focus on eighteenth-century music. In addition to the CDLRA, he serves on the boards of several community and arts organizations.
Sam Charles (Board Secretary) is the Manager of Executive Communications at the University of Waterloo. Previously, he oversaw communications for the School of Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. Sam holds a Master of Educational Technology from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in Mass Communications and Political Science from York University and a diploma with honours in Radio and Television Broadcasting from Seneca College. Prior to working in the post-secondary sector, he spent over twenty years in industry, working in corporate and broadcast environments overseeing communications, programming, training, video and audio production. Sam has been active with CDLRA as a researcher since 2022.
Dr. Charlene Van Leeuwen (Board Treasurer) is Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Centre at the University of Prince Edward Island. She became interested in digital learning as a sessional instructor more than a decade ago and continues to integrate this into her work. Supporting faculty with projects that incorporate educational technologies is a particularly fulfilling aspect of her current role with the centre. She is also deeply involved in the development of a university-wide framework for online and digitally enhanced teaching and learning. Her other research interests are related to faculty development, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), community-based learning, and international development work in rural Kenya. Charlene also serves on boards that reflect her diverse areas of interest in evaluation, SoTL, and an NGO that works with Kenyan farm communities.
Éric Martel (Member at Large) Éric Martel is the Director of Distance Education at Université Laval in Quebec City. He is also a lecturer in the management department and has been teaching online courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels since 2002. He assists and advises faculty leaders in the development of their online course and distance education program offerings (over 2000 online courses; more than 155 distance education programs), MOOCs, and nanoprogrammes, managing a program that supports pedagogical innovation. He oversees the work of a team responsible for conducting off-campus proctored exams. With over fifteen years of experience, he brings expertise in the management of distance education programs, student recruitment for online programs, and the development of online courses.