Education Faculty & Staff

C.A.G.S., Educational Leadership
University of New England
2002

M.S.Ed., Education
University of New England
1999

B.S., Elementary Education
University of Maine at Farmington
1995

Darren Akerman has been an Adjunct Instructor with the University of New England’s Online M.S. Ed Program for eleven years. He has taught Grades One, Five, and Nine (English/Language Arts), and is currently a Middle School Principal (grade six-eight).  He is a proud member of the first graduating class in the University of New England’s M.S.Ed and C.A.G.S. programs, and completed his internship for Superintendent’s certification as well. He has experience as an Elementary Principal, Supervisor of Instruction, and Gifted and Talented Coordinator.

As an N.E.A.S.C. Chairperson, he oversaw the successful accreditation of two schools in Maine. A strong proponent of Learning Styles and Universal Design for Learning, Darren collaborates with a wide range of educators to enhance student motivation and improve academic growth. He created the website http://www.mainegateways.org/ and continues work with student-developed electronic portfolios, and a videographer. As an author of fiction, he has published short stories in North Atlantic Review, Rosebud, and others.

Ed.D., Educational Leadership
University of Virginia
2003

M.S.Ed., Special Education
Old Dominion University
1997

B.A., Psychology
Nofolk State University
1996

Ella Benson has taught graduate level courses online and in person for several colleges and universities since 2003. Dr. Benson is a 2003 graduate of the of the University of Virginia’s Educational Leadership program where her dissertation work focused on the relationship between school climate and student achievement in low income elementary schools. Prior to her work in higher education Ella was a middle and high school special education teacher.

Classroom management of pre-school students with special needs, educational history and change in local schools.

M.S.
University of New England

B.S.
Eastern Nazarene College

Ph.D
Capella University
2015

CAGS
University of New England
2010

M.S.Ed
Simmons College
1997

Hillary Goldthwait-Fowles, Ph.D. ATP is an educator with over 20 years of teaching students with disabilities. She is currently the Assistive Technology Specialist for RSU 21 in Kennebunk, Maine while joyfully serving as an Adjunct Faculty Member for the Online Graduate Programs in Education. She is a huge advocate of leveraging technology to improve student learning outcomes, curricular access, and equity in education for all students. Hillary presents locally and nationally on a variety of curricular and technology topics, including AT, AEM, UDL, Apple and Google solutions, and RTI. Hillary is also a published author. Her book One Size Does Not Fit All: Equity, Access, PD, and UDL highlights research on UDL and teacher training. 

C.A.G.S.
University of New England

M.S.Ed.
University of New England

Ed.D
Boston College

CAGS
University of New England

Master’s of Business Administration
Babson College

B.S. Business Management
Babson College

Brad Jackson has served as Superintendent of Schools of the Holliston (MA) Public Schools since 2004.  He is currently the fifth longest serving Superintendent, serving a single school district, in Massachusetts.  Dr. Jackson is an active member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (M.A.S.S.) and also serves on the Associations Professional Development Committee.  Prior to his tenure in Holliston, Brad served as Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the Northborough-Southborough (MA) Regional School District (2000-2004); Director of Administration and Finance for the Wilmington (MA) Public Schools (1996-2000); and Business Administrator for School Administrative Unit #27 (SAU #27) (1993-1996) which, at the time, served the communities of Hudson and Litchfield, NH.  Brad’s has also served as an elected member of the Wilmington (MA) School Committee and an appointed member of the Wilmington (MA) Finance Committee.

Prior to joining education, Brad worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (then a Fortune 50 company and the largest employer in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire) from 1976-1993 as a Unit Manager and Consultant providing training services to customers in the New England area.

Brad received his B.S. in Business Management from Babson College; an Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from Babson College; a 30-credit Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS) from the University of New England; and his Doctorate in Education from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.

Brad and his wife, Patricia, have four adult children, three of whom are educators and the other works for the United States House of Representatives.  In his spare time, Brad enjoys hiking the hills and mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and, in the summer, can likely be found, book in hand, enjoying a quiet summer day on the beach in York Beach, Maine. 

C.A.S.
University of Maine

M.S.Ed.
Walden University

B.S.
University of Maine

I am a literacy interventionist at a K-5 school with a student population of about 600 in addition to being an adjunct professor for the University of New England.

Ph.D.
Berne University International Graduate School

C.A.S
University of Southern Maine

M.S.
University of Southern Maine

B.S.
University of Southern Maine

Dr. Carol Marcotte completed her doctorate in School Administration & Supervision at Berne University International Graduate School in St. Kitts, West Indies. Her primary specialty areas include educational leadership and literacy instruction.

Carol’s education career started as a regular classroom and special education teacher. Multi-age and looping schedules were part of her classroom expertise as well as being a resource room teacher.  Being passionate about school improvement and cultivating teacher leaders, she was a principal for 8 years. Her first role at University of New England was an adjunct faculty, starting in 2001. During that time she transferrred her knowledge about school reform and school improvement into the online program. As a Senior Lecturer in the Educational Department at UNE, Carol’s primary responsibility mostly Lead Instructor for the Certificates in Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS) courses. She also teaches courses in the MSEd:  Educational Leadership program. Carol enjoys being a University Supervisor to undergraduate student teachers in the Education department. In this role, she is able to visit K-12 schools and engage in current best practices with staff and administrators.

Dr. Marcotte is a past president of Maine Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and has served on several critical committees for the international curriculum development organization ASCD.  One of her accomplishment was as a delegate for the Ambassador-to-Ambassador Education program working with Vietnam and Cambodia educational agencies.

As principal, Carol was an instructional leader starting Professional Learning Communities before they became part of today’s school reform. Supporting students through supporting teachers was her focus. Many teacher leaders were developed under Carol’s expertise and guidance in both the schools where she was principal. She was nominated for Principal of the Year by her RiverView Community staff in South Gardiner, Maine.

Carol’s next role was Director of Curriculum and Instruction in U#7 (Saco/Dayton, ME) where she led her staff and administrators through school reform. One of the accomplishments in school reform was working with the ME Department of Education staff with Continuous Improvement Priority Schools in the district. This work led to increased student achievement. Some of the aspects to this growth were building capacity by coaching teacher leaders, designing data teams to support student assessment and achievement, leading professional development initatives, and implementing the CCSS, managing Title I, II, III, IV, and V grants. Carol worked with Dr Susan Hillman of the University of New England to receive a funded grant of $80,000 to implement math reform in her schools. She guided the Math Curriculum Design Team through the research of best practices in math and five year implementation process as she worked side by side with teacher leaders and building principals and Unversity of New England staff.

Carol is a voracious learner and has been a member of the Maine Curriculum Leaders’ Association since it began. In 2010 the Maine Curriculum Leaders Association acknowledged Carol as Curriculum Leader of the Year in Maine. In addition, Carol was presented with the Friends of UNE award twice. Among her numerous honors, First Lady Barbara Bush presented Carol the Maine Family Literacy Grant in 2006 and 2008.

Among her many passions is literacy. She was able to travel to Australia and New Zealand when a Principal at Margaret Chase Smith School in Sanford, ME and bring back some rich literacy instruction to her staff. Part of her educational trip was observing teachers in Australian schools conducting Reading Recovery® lessons and Running Records with their students. Carol brought these Marie Clay practices back to her staff as they were implementing the same practices in their school.

Carol became a founding Board Member of the Learning Forward New England (formerly New England Staff Development Council), in 2009. Carol has been President and Past President of Learning Forward New England. She is currently a Consultant for this organization. 

In 2013, Carol was selected as a Teacher Scholar at the University of New England. Her project was designing orientation modules for administrative mentors. The on line modules were designed to deliver high quality training to mentors as they support administrative principal and superintendent intern candidates with ongoing supervision, guidance, and evaluation.  In 2014, Carol presented her project, “Research Based Course Design for Supervisors of Aspiring School Administrators:  Effective Mentor Characteristics.  at a NERA poster session in Connecticut and at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM.

Carol is a previous School Board Chair of Regional School Unit 23 – Old Orchard Beach, ME. Her passion for supporting students is based on educational, physical and mental supports. Through collabortive efforts incoming Pre-K and K students were able to obtain free dental screening. https://www.une.edu/news/2019/students-and-faculty-provide-free-dental-screenings-children-old-orchard-beach

As a member of the Maine’s School for Excellent Incentive Grant Educator Preparation and Employment P-K Leadership Council she leads the effort to strenghthen and enhance the parternships between educator preparation programs and K-12 educators for the purpose of creating a seamless continuum of high quality educators from preparation to veteran status. Part of this work include refining the Professional Evaluation and Professional Growth (PEPG) system.

Recently, Carol had a manuscript published.

Marcotte, C., Ph.D. (2017). Effective Mentoring Characteristics and Online Training. International Journal of Instructional Techology and Distance Learning. 14(5). 73-86. Retreived May, 2017. from https://www.itdl.org/Journal/May_17/May17.pdf

Carol has been very involved in humanitarian efforts with St. Maarten to support the students and schools on the island after the Hurrican Irma devastation which resulted in donating over 1400 pounds of school supplies.

http://wgme.com/news/local/st-martin

https://online.une.edu/blog/dr-carol-marcotte-school-supply-donations/

Carol has recently donated literature to the Santo Domingo Schools in New Mexico. In April 2019, she provided students with 20 new literature books for their classrooms. During July 2019, Carol traveled to Buffalo, Wyoming and donated children’s literature to the Johnson County Family Crisis Center as well as bringing children’s books to the Player Development program in St. Maarten. Most recently she has visited New Mexico again and provided more children’s literature and educational activities to the Kewa Peublo and Santo Domingo Schools. Las Vegas, New Mexico is one of her favorite towns. 

Carol has been a member of the Saco Bay Sunset Rotary Club (SBSR) since May 2019. Some of the “service above self”  humanitarian efforts that Carol has been involved in is: Crutches for Africa, Epilespy Foundation Clothing Drive and World Map painting at Loranger Memorial School playground. She is the commmittee leaders for the Rising Stars group. The are focusing on ridding human trafficking. As of August 2019, Carol is a board member of SBSR.

Carol believes in innovative teaching both on line and face-to-face classes. Her on line graduate courses include an additional element of adding weekly informational vidoes about the course content which extends and enhances learning for her students. An example of one of her face-to-face undergraduate courses is to to bring speakers into the classroom. EDU 105-Exploring Teaching was visited via SKYPE by US Senator King. His message was the importance of education.

Ed.D.
Nova Southeastern University

M.S.Ed. Educational Leadership
Bridgewater State University

Dr. Dave Murphy is currently beginning his 14th year as the Superintendent of Schools in MSAD #44. Prior to that, Dr. Murphy had been an elementary, middle and high school principal in the same district for 18 years. He recently received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Maine School Superintendents Association was selected by the Maine Principals Association as Maine’s National Distinguished Principal earlier in his career. Dr. Murphy is a Past President of both the New England Association of School Superintendents (NEASS) and the Maine School Superintendents Association (MSSA). He has served  on the Executive Committees of  both organizations for many years.

Dr. Murphy joined UNE in 1998 and has worked with students in the IVC, MSED and CAGS programs. As an adjunct faculty member, he has designed and taught several CAGS courses as well as this course for the MSED program.

Dr. Murphy is an active Rotarian and is a member of many community and professional organizations throughout the state. A volunteer auctioneer, he has helped to raise well over $1.5 million for various charities throughout Western Maine.

He and his wife recently celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. The Murphy’s have two grown children and live in a 19th century dairy farm near the base of the Sunday River Ski Resort.

M.S.Ed.
University of New England
2009

C.A.G.S. Leadership, Ethics and Change
University of New England

Caroline has been teaching in the field of special education for twenty-two years. She has worked with both elementary and high school students, and has been employed at Poland Regional High School in Poland, Maine since 2000. While at Poland she worked with students in resource room, co-taught, and self-contained settings. She served as the Special Education Team Leader for the high school and middle school for three years. Currently Caroline is the RTI Coordinator and Instructional Strategist at PRHS. She is passionate about both supporting students as they transition to their futures, and empowering teachers through student-centered coaching. Caroline received her Master’s Degree in Education from UNE in 2009 and her CAGS in Leadership, Ethics, and Change from UNE in 2014. Caroline lives in Maine with her husband and three school-aged daughters. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, biking, kayaking, traveling, reading, and cooking.

Ph.D.
The University of Oxford

M.Sc.
The University of Oxford

MS
The University of Chicago

BS
Bard College

Andrew Ross is a higher education consultant working with universities, colleges, and large organizations to help them address problems with curriculum, assessment of learning, accreditation, open education resources (OER), and online education. He was the Founding Dean of the Open College and Dean of Graduate Education for Kaplan Higher Education (part of The Washington Post Company until 2014). He was also the Public Policy Coordinator for the Oxford Internet Institute, in Oxford, England. Before that, he taught college biology and genetics, created teacher-training programs for NASA and NOAA, and was a Teach For America corps member in inner-city Washington, D.C. Dr. Ross is also a food writer and avid tennis player.

C.A.G.S., Educational Leadership
University of New England

M.S.Ed.
University of New England

Justin Roy has been in education for over twenty-one years, mostly at the middle school level. He earned his MSEd through the University of New England fifteen years ago and also completed the CAGS program in Educational Leadership. Currently, he is the Assistant Principal of Spaulding High School in Rochester, NH.  It is one of the largest high schools in NH with 1600 students and 230 staff members.  Roy mostly oversees the science and english departments, and provides guidance on curriculum, assessment, and instruction.  Roy has been teaching with UNE since 2007, both in-person with undergrads and online with the MSEd and CAGS programs in the Education department.

Roy lives in North Berwick, Maine.

Ph.D., Instructional Leadership
University of Alabama
2004

M.S., Physical Organic Chemistry
Georgetown University
1992

B.S., Chemistry
Auburn University
1987

Grinnell Smith is an Associate Professor in the department of Elementary Education at San José State University. There, he teaches a range of courses on topics such as school curriculum theory, classroom management, research methods, educational psychology, technology integration, and science methods.  His scholarly activities seek to redefine the purpose of education away from current mainstream conceptions of schools primarily as economic resources governed by market mechanisms and that view children merely as consumers and future wage-earners, and toward a conception of schools as places that strive for the Jeffersonian ideal of producing an informed citizenry of critical thinkers and that help children become happy, healthy, well-adjusted, and fulfilled people who understand how to live balanced lives in the context of their families, communities, cultures, and ecosystems.  Grinell believes that paying attention to the fundamental purpose of schooling is foundational to this sort of education and subsumes this view in all the courses he teaches at SJSU. He elucidates these views further in some of his recent publications, including Modern education: a tragedy of the commons (Journal of Curriculum Studies), Teaching care ethics: conceptual understandings and stories for learning (Journal of Moral Education), The way we educate (Schools: Studies in Education), and Stories from five decades (Action in Teacher Education).

At the University of New England, Grinell teaches doctoral-level courses on research methods.

• Rabin, C. & Smith G. (2014). “Without Hermeneutics I’m Stuck in my Own Thinking”: Pre-service Teachers Adopt a Hermeneutical Stance toward Action Research. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 4 – 8, Philadephia, PA.
• Smith, G. & Rabin, C. (2013). Elementary science teaching: a path toward content mastery, confidence, and competence. National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Conference, October 24-26, Portland, OR.
• Rabin, C. & Smith G. (2013). Social studies and care ethics: one novice teacher learns to teach social studies with an end-in-view towards care. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 27-
  May 1, San Francisco, CA.
• Smith, G., Metzger, E., Schmidt, C. & Cordero, E. (2012). Improving 6th grade climate literacy using new media (CLINM) and teacher professional development. American Geophysical Union (AGU) National Conference,
  December 3-7, San Francisco, CA.
• Metzger, E., Smith, G., Cordero, E, & Santone, S. (2012). The California Alliance for Sustainability: A Collaborative Pilot Project to Build Regional Advocacy and Leadership for Sustainability Education. American Geophysical Union
  (AGU) National Conference, December 3-7, San Francisco, CA.
• Rabin, C. & Smith, G. (2012). Beyond sitting and listening: when theory shapes classroom management. California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE), October 11-13, San Diego, CA.
• Smith, G. & Rabin, C. (2012). Understanding resistance to standardization in education: the tragedy of the commons as a theoretical framework. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 13-17, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Rabin, C. & Smith, G. (2012). Theory into practice in classroom management. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 13-17, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Smith, G. (2011). Infusing sustainability into teacher preparation programs at a large state university. National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Conference, December 7-10, Seattle, WA.
• Smith, G. & Rabin, C. (2011). Sustainability as a core concept in elementary science education. National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Conference, December 7-10, Seattle, WA.
• Smith, G. & Rabin, C. (2011). Making connections between science and equity: a motivation to teach science in elementary grades. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 8-12, New
  Orleans, LA.
• Rabin, C. & Smith, G. (2011). What one teacher’s stories illuminate about what makes a ‘good’ teacher: Theatricality, courage, and creativity. American Educational Research Association (AERA) National Conference, April 8-12, New Orleans, LA.
• Smith, G. (2011). Overcoming content knowledge barriers to teaching K-8 science through informal learning using new media technologies. National Science Teacher’s Association (NSTA) National Conference, March 10-13,
  San Francisco, CA.
• Smith, G. & Rabin, C. (2011). Science instruction in elementary school as an ethical responsibility. National Science Teacher’s Association (NSTA) National Conference, March 10-13, San Francisco, CA.
• Smith, G. (2010). Using video and hypertext media to improve K8 science teacher content knowledge. Society for the Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference (SITTE), March 29 – April 2, San Diego, CA.

Masters of Science in Special Education
University of Southern Maine

Bachelors of Science in Organizational Leadership
University of New England

Catherine Stieg (Jordan) has been a special educator in Maine for 17 years. She previously was employed at the Cairo American College (K-12) in Egypt. She currently manages a self-contained functional life skills classroom at the Scarborough High School. Catherine has been an adjunct in the MSEd/CAGS program since 2008.

Teaching young people with disabilities is her passion, but she also enjoys ballroom dancing, walks on the beach, motorcycling, and the color orange.

She is a member of Alpha Chi Honor Society, Autism Society, ACTE, Down Syndrome Society, and The Cast of Characters (dancing group, just friends not professionals). Catherine practices TM medication, Jyotish Astrology, and is a Reiki master. She is also a member of the Edgar Cayce Association.

Catherine lives in Scarborough with her husband, mother-in-law, and at all times some number of the combined six young adults. She is inspired by, “winners when they cry and losers when they try” (Tom T. Hall).

J.D.
Temple University School of Law
1988

M.A.T.
Duke University
1976

David Keller Trevaskis, Esquire, is an attorney and former third grade teacher with a Master’s Degree in Education.   Trevaskis is the Pro Bono Coordinator for Legal Services for the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), responsible for assisting local bar associations, legal services programs and other groups who offer pro bono legal services across the Commonwealth to help improve the access to justice for the neediest among us.  His work in poverty law informs his teaching.  Trevaskis staffs the PBA’s Immigration Law Committee and he presents on immigration issues to a variety of audiences.  He supports the Wills for Heroes Program of the PBA’s Young Lawyer Division which has provided at no cost first responders and veterans with wills and other estate planning documents.  Trevaskis is proud of his work supporting veterans and active duty personnel with civil legal aid through the PBA’s Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. He is also proud that his namesake, nephew David Trevaskis, serves in the United States Army.  Trevaskis presents regionally on liability prevention and is Of Counsel to Donna Adelsberger & Associates, P.C., an insurance defense law firm.

An Olweus certified bullying prevention trainer, Trevaskis views bullying through the prism of his legal training as a violation of basic human rights and sees bullying prevention education as an important element of both school safety and the civic mission of the schools. He also has seen the impact of this behavior in the workplace.  A Board Member of Physicians for Social Responsibility in Philadelphia, Trevaskis is well aware of the health consequences of both the good and bad things that happen in and out of schools to children and beyond school to adults.  Trevaskis has long been a champion of non-violence, having been the designer of and original trainer for Project PEACE (Peaceful Endings through Authorities, Children and Educators), a peer mediation, anti-bullying and youth court program jointly sponsored by the PBA and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.  Trevaskis is a frequent presenter across Pennsylvania on civic education, presenting on topics as diverse as current Supreme Court decisions and rules for the kindergarten classroom. 

A co-author of the 2013 text, School Law: Legal Framework, Guiding Principles, and Litigated Areas, Trevaskis is recognized as a national expert in public education about the law.  Trevaskis is a champion of social studies education, having served in a leadership role in the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies since 1989. He became that organization’s first two term president in October 2013 and will serve in that role until October 2015.  An expert on school crisis, Trevaskis helped prepare the draft school climate standards for the Pennsylvania Department of Education during the Rendell administration.  Trevaskis teaches more than twenty undergraduate, graduate and continuing education courses each year, some online and others face to face, for institutions such as Penn State Abington, Gratz College, Arcadia University and the University of New England.  He is a sought after lecturer at numerous other institutions.

Trevaskis is the recipient of the 1996 Philadelphia Bar Association’s Leon J. Obermayer Education Award, a 2000 President’s Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association for the Project PEACE anti-violence program he developed and still coordinates, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Division’s 2002 F. Sean Peretta Service Award, and a 2004 Chester County Bar Association President’s Award. In 2006, Trevaskis was the second recipient of the Compass Award for leading the way in citizenship education, an award first given to United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.  During that same year, Trevaskis received the President’s Citation from the Indiana Bar Association and the LEAP-Kids Lifetime Achievement and Mentor Award.  In 2007, Trevaskis received the President’s Award from the Delaware County Bar.  Trevaskis was one of ten inaugural Gavel Award winners from Community College of Philadelphia in 2009. He has earned Pro Bono Supervisor of the Year recognition from the University of Pennsylvania Law School every year since 2010 for his work with the Black Law Student Association’s Project PEACE outreach and he was honored by Community College of Philadelphia in 2011 and 2012 for his work with Wills for Heroes. Trevaskis was honored by the Glenside Rotary as a Paul Harris Fellow in 2011. He received a 2013 Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network Excellence Award and he was honored over the 2013 King Holiday with a parade of cadets at Valley Forge Military Academy and College in recognition of his anti-bullying work at the school.

Trevaskis is married with two children and two grandsons.

M.S. Literacy Education
University of Southern Maine
2001

B.A. Sociology/Social Welfare
University of Maine, Orono
1976

B.A. Elementary Education
University of Maine, Orono
1976

I have been teaching at the elementary level for 29 years. I have a passion for the development of reading skills and have spent my career pursuing this passion. I began my career as a Montessori teacher and feel that this training has formed my philosophy of teaching. I lived and worked in Hawaii for eight years before returning to Maine. I began my public school career in a K-2  multi-age classroom, and in 2001 I began my work in the same school as a literacy specialist and academic support teacher. I am beginning my 20th year in same school system.

I began teaching for UNE  in 2009, and love teaching at the college level.  I feel that my experience and education have helped me to become a professional with knowledge to share. 

Ed.D. Educational Leadership
University of New England

M.A. Sociology
Baylor University

B.A. Sociology
Aurora University

Mentoring in online doctoral programs
Mentoring success for sociology majors