JWU Center for Teaching & Learning
At Johnson & Wales University, faculty and staff development is a key component of providing a quality education for our students. Learn more about how JWU invests in and supports our faculty and staff’s professional work and career development.
Beginning in June 2021, with funding from a Davis Educational Foundation Grant, JWU started planning a strategically re-designed Faculty Center with broad responsibility for promoting excellence in teaching and learning.
The re-envisioned Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) has a new organizational structure, including an Executive Steering Committee and expanded services and programming to improve efficiencies across interrelated functional areas and academics. Training and other resources for faculty and staff members will focus on enhancing students’ academic performance and retention.
The mission of the Johnson & Wales University Center for Teaching & Learning is to foster a community of lifelong learners and enhance the student experience by inspiring innovative research, scholarship, collaboration, and impactful facilitation of learning.
Executive Steering Committee
Katrina M. Herold, Ed.D. | College of Food Innovation & Technology
Katrina Herold is a professor at the College of Food Innovation & Technology (CFIT) and serves as director of the Center for Teaching & Learning. She is committed to providing opportunities for JWU faculty and staff professional development, collaboration, research, and scholarship.
Herold earned an Ed.D. from Northeastern University with a concentration in Higher Education Administration and her research interests include Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the impact of alternative instructional modalities on student learning.
Amy Ricci, Ed.D. | Executive Director of Academic Operations
Amy Ricci is the executive director of academic operations in the Provost’s office and she teaches part-time in the university’s undergraduate and graduate online programs. She has more than 30 years of experience in higher education, with 15 of those years at JWU. Previously at JWU she served as the director of online education in the College of Professional Studies.
Prior to joining JWU, she worked in the academic technology and online education fields at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Syracuse University, and Rochester Institute of Technology. She has also worked in corporate training for a software company in Boston. She has presented at numerous conferences and has served on the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) Annual Conference Committee. She holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University, an M.A. in Educational Technology Leadership from George Washington University, an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in Television, Radio, and Film Management from Syracuse University.
Jennifer Galipeau, Ed.D. | Associate Provost
Jennifer Adams Galipeau, Ed.D., currently serves as interim dean of the College of Hospitality Management and is also the university's Associate Provost of Academic Affairs.
Prior to joining the Office of the Provost in 2013, Galipeau served as a faculty member in the College of Hospitality Management from 1993-2013, teaching in the food & beverage management and sports, entertainment & event mgmt. departments. During her tenure as faculty she developed courses in Special Event Protocol, Weddings & Ceremonies, Tradeshow Management, Entertainment Management and Food & Beverage Operations. As Associate Provost of Academic Affairs, she oversees academic assessment, accreditation, academic program review and curriculum.
During her tenure in the office of the provost, Galipeau has provided leadership on a number of high-level institutional projects including development and launch of JWU’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Best Practices Cohort and the university’s strategic approach to outcomes assessment.
Julie Bilodeau, D.B.A. | College of Business
Julie Bilodeau’s education includes a B.S. in Business Management and an MBA in Global Business and Organizational Leadership from JWU. Her doctorate is in business administration (DBA) with a focus in human resources from Argosy University.
Bilodeau has been with the university since 2004. Areas of interest include human resource management, organizational development, and process improvement.
Bilodeau is a Senior Certified Professional from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM-SCP) and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
Karen Shea, Ph.D. | John Hazen White College of Arts & Sciences
Karen Shea is a professor of English at JWU, where she has been teaching writing and public speaking for 29 years.
After graduating from Connecticut College, Shea taught English in Japan for four years.
Upon returning to RI, Shea earned her M.Ed. and began teaching ESL at JWU, later receiving her Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition from URI.
In recent years, Shea has joined forces with her Collaborative Learning Program partner, Associate Professor Gail McCarthy, to enhance student learning through interdisciplinary pedagogy related to Rhetoric & Composition and Graphic Design.
Diane Santurri, M.Ed. | College of Engineering & Design
Diane Santurri is an associate professor in the College of Engineering & Design and College of Business. She is the lead faculty for the Digital Marketing and Social Media program. Santurri worked in Marketing and National Account Sales in various industries. She also served as a corporate trainer for both CompUSA and Gateway.
Santurri teaches various courses in the College of Professional Studies (CPS) and a course for the School of Education which allows teachers the digital tools to integrate technology into their teaching. She has presented in media outlets for JWU and at various conferences on social media and emerging technology.
Jonathan Noel, Ph.D., MPH | College of Health & Wellness
Jonathan Noel is an associate professor at Johnson & Wales University and a public health researcher with experience in addiction, legal, and social epidemiology. He has been involved in numerous international evaluations of alcohol policy and has advocated for stronger marketing restrictions on alcohol and tobacco products.
Noel’s current research interests include industry-based and environmental risk factors of addictive behaviors, the role of policy in creating or eliminating health disparities, and surveillance of digital marketing exposures. He received his master’s (2009) and doctorate (2017) in public health from the University of Connecticut.
Julie Viscardi-Smalley, DMA | College of Hospitality Managment
Julie Viscardi-Smalley, Associate Professor in the Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management department at Johnson & Wales University, specializes in teaching about the music industry, entertainment management, event management, concert production, music theory and music history. Her doctoral research is centered around the application of threshold concept theory to music industry education.
Additional research interests include music education; the analysis of popular music; the music industry, concert, festival and event production; online teaching and learning and curriculum/program design in higher education.
Viscardi-Smalley has 15+ years experience teaching online and engaging in instructional design for excellence in online learning.
Keri Green, MAT, MBA | Director of Instruction Design & Technology
Keri Green has spent her entire career in education. After receiving a B.S.B.A. in Management Information Systems, she decided to go back to school to be a business and special education teacher. Although starting as a teacher, she eventually transitioned to higher ed working with faculty to support educational technologies.
Green joined Johnson & Wales University in 2014 as an Instructional Technology & Design Specialist and was later promoted to Director of Instructional Design & Technology. She has an M.A. in Teaching and an MBA and also teaches online management courses.
Green lives in Rhode Island with her husband, twin infant boys, and pets: 2 kitties and a puppy.
Dawn Lopez, MBA | College of Business, Charlotte
Dawn Lopez earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Winthrop University, as well as an MBA in accounting and finance. After graduating, Lopez worked for a regional public accounting firm specializing in tax preparation for medical and law LLCs. Subsequently, Lopez served as an accounting manager for a multi-state environmental company and worked closely with several state government audit agencies.
In 2004, Lopez joined JWU where she became the campus’ first campus controller and an integral member of the campus startup team. She provided guidance to the campus leadership team, coordinated accounting and audit functions with the university finance team, and was instrumental in developing many of the financial policies and procedures that still exist today.
Lopez joined the College of Business as a full-time faculty member in the spring of 2009 and is an active member of the North Carolina Association of CPAs (NCACPA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), and the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP).
Sara Vollmer | Academic Administrative Coordinator
Sara Vollmer is the academic administrative coordinator based out of the JWU Center for Teaching & Learning at the Providence Campus.
Vollmer was a student at Johnson & Wales from 2013-15 with a major in Criminal Justice and graduated from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a bachelor’s degree in Police Studies in 2017.
A former resident of Long Island, New York, Vollmer has spent the last few years working in the Security Industry as a Front Desk Administrator.
As the Academic Administrative Coordinator, Vollmer supports the Center for Teaching & Learning, the office of Academic Research, Center for Student Research & Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and the Institutional Review Board.
The JWU Teaching and Research Consultation program offers faculty and staff the opportunity to work with CTL staff on improving their pedagogy or conducting research.
Are there improvements that you want to make to your teaching delivery? Do you wish you had more time to collaborate with JWU colleagues to talk about how to adapt your teaching in a rapidly changing classroom? Do you want to conduct some research but don’t know where to start? Are you in the middle of a research study and feel stuck?
The JWU Center for Teaching and Research Consultation program offers a casual and low-pressure opportunity to connect with other faculty members on best teaching practices and access to support with research and scholarship. Beginner level and experienced educators/scholars/staff are all welcome.
Drop-in hours are held once monthly and can be found on our JWULink site or in the monthly newsletter. We are also available by appointment. Please email CTL@jwu.edu to schedule.
We are excited to welcome faculty and staff to take advantage of our programming and opportunities for professional development. Please enjoy our inaugural monthly newsletter linked below, which includes CTL news, the CTL spotlight, funding information, CTL-sponsored event updates, the librarian’s recommended Book of the Month, upcoming workshops and training, and general information about the Center’s services. You will also be able to find these newsletters archives under the Resources tab in our CTL JWULink group, where we will continue to regularly post updates. We encourage you to stop in to say hello or to email us to discuss how the center can plan for and support your professional development needs.
Center Newsletter (February 2023)
Center Newsletter (March 2023)
Supporting Johnson & Wales University’s Powered by Purpose 2024 strategic plan, the University Scholarship and Best Practices (US&BP) Expo fosters an inclusive and interdisciplinary community of professionals.
Created from the merging of the former Faculty Scholarship Showcase and the Transformative Approaches Expo, the redesigned Expo provides an opportunity for faculty and staff to disseminate research and/or to share their unique and innovative practices with the university community.
Have questions about the Center and its programming? Contact us below:
Email: CTL@jwu.edu
Phone: 401-598-2915